Articles

The seventeenth century hagiographic essay “Risala fi hikaya ajiba wakat fi-d-Dagistan fi karyat Irib”

Vostok/Oriens '2017, №6

DOI: 10.7868/S0869190817060127

 
During archival work, the authors found several versions of an original Arabic-language essay about events that occurred in 1666 in the village Irib of Charodinsky district of the Dagestan. The hagiographic essay “Risala fi hikaya ajiba wakat fi-d-Dagistan fi karyat Irib” reveals many aspects of the social life of that time. It describes the meeting of the famous scientist Talhat-kadi with jinns and their “king”. However, the manuscript reveals many details of medieval Dagestani ideas about the world of the jinn and their impact on the life of an ordinary man. This manuscript is also a major source of the biographies of Talhat-kadi, who was recognized an expert in Islamic law. He was born in the middle of the first half of the seventeenth century, and he died presumably in 1695. Talhat-kadi was the author of a collection of adats, and made significant contribution to the establishment of the Avar state in the South Caucasus – the so-called “Djar republic”.

Keywords: Dagestan, seventeenth century, Islam, Arabic sources, hagiography, alim, jinns

Pages: С. 143–151