Rutul people

The Rutulen (Russian Рутульцы, self-designation мыхIадбыр ) are an ethnically related to Lesgiern caucasian people in the mountainous south of the Russian republic of Dagestan.

Description

The Rutulen represent the indigenous people of the southwestern part of Dagestan and inhabit there, the counties ( Rajons ) Rutul and Babajurt. With the state of the all-Russian census 2010, the total population of the Rutulen was on the territory of the Russian state 35,240 people, of which 27 849 in the Republic of Dagestan (less than 1 % of the population of the republic ). Except in Russia live about 10,000 Rutulen in northern Azerbaijan ( Rayon Şəki ).

The Rutulen speak both Russian and belonging to the lesgischen language group Rutulische language, which in turn has five local dialects. Most Muslims are Sunni Rutulen faith. Even today live about two-thirds of Rutulen in rural villages ( so-called Auls ) and are employed in agriculture.

The people of the Rutulen lived in the first millennium AD the Caucasus state Albania, where it formed in the 16th century a town ( magal ). Archaeological finds in the mountains of Dagestan indicate an already later than the 1st millennium accomplished Islamization of Rutulen. 1812 their settlement area became part of the Russian Empire. Like many other mountain peoples of the Caucasus, the Rutulen involved in the following decades, the resistance against the Russian authorities.