The ancient village of Kubachi gained fame as the cradle of the most skillful armourers and jewelers. Kubachin daggers, sabers, scimitars, chain mail and a variety of jewelry adorn the collections of the most famous museums in the world: the Louvre in France, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the All-Russian Museum of Decorative and Applied Folk Art and the State Historical Museum in Moscow. According to numerous legends and traditions, the Kubachin weapons belonged to Prince Mstislav, the son of Vladimir Monomakh, and to Alexander Nevsky. There are also fantastic theories. According to one of them, the helmet of Alexander the Great himself has Kubachin roots.
Kubachi himself is notable for the battle tower, which is a unique creation of the fortification architecture of the Caucasus. It is completely different from the solid Ossetian residential and military towers, it is far from the sophisticated Vainakh towers. The unusual appearance of the Kubachi tower is associated with a different cultural influence that Kubachi experienced during its ancient history.
However, the people of Kubach also conceal no less mysteries. According to one of the versions, the Kubachins are not just one of the branches of the Dargins with their own dialect, but the most real European aliens from Genoa or France. This version is based on the fact that the Laks and Lezgins called the Kubachians Prang-Kapoor, that is, Franks. And mentions of some Franks or Genoese in the mountains near Kubachi are found in such authors as the ethnographer Colonel Johann Gustav Gerber, the traveler Jan Potocki and the academician Johann Anton Guldenstedt. However, modern researchers who have studied tombstones decorated with carved eagles and dragons tend to believe that Kubachi has Middle Eastern roots.
Zirihgeran: the forgotten state
In the distant VI century, on the territory of modern Kubachi, a state with the mystical name Zirikhgeran began to develop. The state was governed by a council of elected elders. According to other sources, early Zirikhgeran (translated from Persian as "kolchuzhniki" or "armored men") had its own king or ruler. At the same time, Kubachi was the capital at that time. A little later, the state separates itself as a free society, which creates a council.
The military organization (squad) of Batirte, consisting of unmarried young people, was directly subordinate to the council. They practiced wrestling, stone throwing, distance running, horse racing, archery, melee combat exercises, and militarized askaila dancing. The squad consisted of 7 detachments of 40 people each. It is noteworthy that the members of Batirte lived separately from the Kubachins in battle towers. The duties of the soldiers included a guard service, the protection of the village from external attacks, robbery and robbery. Often, Batirte fought with the inhabitants of neighboring villages in order to protect the forest and pasture lands, cattle and herds of horses belonging to the Kubachin people.
Given the many internecine wars, Batirte fought with neighboring villages and just for the sake of influence. At the same time, the very geographical location of Zirikhgeran, lost in the mountains at an altitude of more than 1600 meters, played a significant defensive role. Despite the fact that Zirikhgeran periodically fell under the dependence on neighboring feudal microstates like the Kaitag Utsmiystvo, the capital remained formally independent. Even during the Arab expansion to the lands of Dagestan, the military leader Mervan ibn Muhammad, the caliph from the Umayyad dynasty, seizing Tabaristan, Tuman, Shindan and other possessions, decided to sign a peace treaty with Zirikhgeran, and not risk an army in the mountains, fighting against a real source of arms.
The relative independence of the ancient state can be traced in the religions professed in Kubachi. In Zirikhgeran one could meet Muslims, Christians, Jews, and even followers of Zoroastrianism. And it was precisely the spread of the latter religion that determined the unique architecture of the Kubachi battle tower.
Akayla kala: Kubachi's watchman
Above the ancient village of Kubachi there is a battle tower with its own name - Akaila kala, which served as a home for one of the battalions of Batirte's warriors. From the height of the tower, a stunning view of all the surroundings of the village opens. The tower is located in such a way that Batirte's fighters could see in advance a possible enemy, from whatever side he tried to approach Kubachi. The Kubachinskaya tower is just a small echo of those powerful fortifications that once encircled the ancient village. Many centuries ago, the entire Kubachi was hidden by thick walls of masonry.
A distinctive feature of Akayla kala is its similarity with the Zoroastrian towers of silence - dakhme, which served as burial structures in the religious rites of Zoroastrianism, widespread in Iran. Since Zirikhgeran had deep and close trade relations with various countries and entire civilizations, it can be fully assumed that in the course of these relations the people of Zirikhgeran were culturally enriched.
The Kubachinskaya tower was built of large, specially hewn stones with shell masonry with an internal backing made of torn stone and earth. The building is about 16 meters high and 20 meters in diameter. The thickness of the wall at the entrance reaches 1.45 m. There is a problem with the dating of the tower. Some believe that the construction of Akayla kala began in the 13th century, while others, emphasizing the Zoroastrian features of architecture, believe that the tower was erected in the 5th century, since the Islamic expansion could hardly have left such architectural traces.
The tower was rebuilt several times, but initially it had five floors above the ground and two underground floors. On the top floor, Batirte's warriors trained and served. Two floors were set aside directly for living quarters. Two more floors served as a pantry for food supplies and a seikhhaus. One of the underground floors was a kind of guardhouse. This is due to the extremely harsh traditions of Batirte. For example, among the warriors, the "union of the unmarried" or "male union" was widespread. Members of this almost sectarian movement devoted themselves entirely to military service, but when the flesh prevailed, the warrior was sent to serve his sentence.
In general, legends still circulate about the severity of Batirte's rules. For example, they were allowed to appear in the village exclusively under the cover of twilight. According to one of the legends, once a mother recognized her son in one of the soldiers by an open hand and dared to call him by name. The next day, they sent her the severed hand of her son, so that she would not lead him astray from the correct military path.
Despite the strictly organized military structure of Batirte and the craft power of Zirichgeran, this tiny mountain state could not forever be on the outskirts of the bloody winds of history. The strongest Islamic-Arab expansion, which was of a coercive and violent nature, by the 15th century also affected this unique world. In 1467, the name Zirikhgeran disappears for the first time and the Turkic-language name Kubachi appears, which, in fact, is the equivalent of the words "chain mail masters" or "kolchuzhniki".
Save at any cost
Nowadays, Kubachi, despite the unfading fame of weapons, is a very modest village with a population of less than 3000 people. The unique tower of Akaila kala, which, fortunately, continues to dominate the area, is also going through hard times.
In the middle of the 19th century, the tower was rebuilt into a residential building, since its combat functionality lost its meaning. Some of the upper floors were dismantled, however, at the beginning of the 20th century, the third floor was rebuilt. However, the unique historical masonry has undergone significant changes, almost completely losing its original face. At the beginning of the XXI century, the tower was completely empty and began to collapse under mountain winds and snowfalls.
In 2009, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Dagestan and the forces of the Kubachi youth, the tower was restored as close to the original as possible. Inside the tower itself, a kind of museum was opened, recreating the entourage of an old Kubachi house. However, this is extremely small, since the ancient Kubachi needs fundamental ethnographic and archaeological research by a whole group of scientists so that there are fewer gaps in history.
