Turks
Religion There are nearly thirty ethnical groups most of whom are Sunnite Muslims that live in Daghestan together with the Kumuk Turks. Particularly since the century XVIII, the religious order of Nakshibendi gained a powerful influence in the region and it acquired prestige through the organisation of the movements of holy war against Russians. The people of Daghestan are faithful to their religions and they have given much importance to science. Thus, they have founded at least one theological school in every village. In the year of 1913, there were totally 2060 mosques in Daghestan and of these mosques, 360 mosques were great mosques. Nowadays, Kumuk people have initiated a mobilisation directed towards learning their religion again. We can observe this movement from the publication of the translation of Koran into Kumuk language and the publication of this translation in the magazine titled as Tangçolpan since its 3rd edition in 1992. Furthermore, the sayings of the Great Prophet are also published in Kumuk Turkish within this magazine.
Language and Literature
Kumuk historians of literature state that the Kumuk literature had started with the poet, Ummu Kamal (Ümmi Kemal) who had lived in the period XV. They assert that the literature of Kumuk people shall be examined together with the General Turkish Literature until the period of the aforesaid poet. Ummu Kamal who had come to the Ottoman Turkish lands had written his word in Ottoman Turkish, not in Kumuk Turkish. The Ottoman Turkish was the literary language of Kumuk Turks until Yırçı Kazak, the famous Kumuk poet.
The most significant poets that had lived in this period can be considered as Amanhor (1670-1706), Miskin Halimat (century XVIII.) and Kakaşuralı Abdurahman (the end of the century XVIII. - 1870). Yırçı Kazak (1830-1879) had laid the foundation for the New Kumuk Literature. Yarçı Kazak has a widespread reputation among Kumuk Turks. He has dealt with the themes of justice, honesty, bravery, love, etc. in his poems and he has also satirised the beys who overwhelmed the people.
Another significant Kumuk poet and theologist is Abusupiyan Akayev (1870-1931). He has written religious works as well as poets. Hasan Orazayev, one of Kumuk scientists has published one of his works titled as Payxamamı Yolu bulan (Following the Prophet) in Mahaçkala in the year of 1993. In this book, Orazayev has compiled the articles of Akayev about the social and political issues, his forewords that he had written to his books, his letters, various poems and his articles about religious affairs.
Kumuk literature has exhibited a sort of development in the recent years and there have been several poets, men of letters, short story writers and novelists who have brought up recently.
Tangçolpan that is a magazine of literature and art has been published since the year of 1917. The poems, short stories and various articles on art that have been published in the magazine have had great contributions to the progress of Kumuk literature. The newspaper titled as Yoldaş (Fellow Traveller) that was first issued in the year of 1917 still provided service for the progress of the literary development besides its normal functions of a newspaper.
Kumuk folk literature has been transferred from one generation to the other and it has been invigorated in the memory of people. Among these works, the poems that resemble to epics called as yır have an important place in respect of the literature. Yır poems are the poems that both address to the literary tastes and have a didactic quality. The most famous poet of yir poems is Yırçı Kazak that has been mentioned above. The second significant verse genre is the quatrain stanzas that are called as sarin. Sarins are the counterpart of ballads in our literature called as mani. They are sung impromptu or without knowing in the weddings and recreations or on every proper occasion.
Kumuk people have a rich treasure of proverbs and idioms. Thousands of these proverbs and idioms have been observed in miscellaneous resources. It has been accepted that the person who first attempted to compile the works of Kumuk folk literature was Mehmed Efendi Osman (born in 1843), the poet and the translator who was a Kumuk Turk. The famous Altayist G. J. Ramsted has also studied upon the Kumuk language and came to Xasavyurt in the last months of the year 1904. There, he has investigated the richness of the works of art pertaining to the language, literature and verbal folk literature of Kumuk people. The fundamental purpose of Ramsted was to research the reasons for the expansion of Kumuk Turkish to a wide area in the Northern Caucasus and the usage of this dialect by the other native tribes in the region. These materials that were not published due to some reasons for long years were compiled by Emine Gürsoy Maskali in a book and it was published as a book together with their translations in English in Helsinki in the year of 1991.
The Turcologists have asserted various views about the language group with which Kumuk Turkish was related among the Turkish dialects. The difference of opinion is focused on the subgroup to which this dialect belongs; however, as all of them have agreed upon, Does Kumuk Turkish essentially pertain to the North-West (Kipchak) group? As a result of the geographical position and the close relations, the Kumuk Turkish has some characteristics that are close and resemble to the Azerbaijani Turkish. The most significant similarity in respect of the vocal characteristics is that there is the consonant of (g) in Kumuk Turkish like in the Southern group as an equivalent of the consonant (k) in the North-West group in the every beginning of the words. (For example: gişi kişi, gel-gelmek, gör-görmek, etc.) In respect of the composition, the affix for the future time (a) caq/ (e) cek [however, as it can be seen in this conjugation, the singular and plural affixes for the 1st Person and the plural affix for the 2nd Person are much different from the Azerbaijani Turkish. Geleceğim (I will come) in Kumuk Gelecekmen= Geleceyem in Azerbaijani; Geleceğiz (we will come) in Kumuk, Gelecekhiz = Geleceyik, in Azerbaijani; Geleceksiniz (You will come) in Kumuk, Geleceksiz= Geleceksiniz in Azerbaijani, etc.] can be shown as an example.
Kumuk Turks used the Arabic alphabet until the year of 1929 and they accepted a new alphabet that was arranged on the basis of Latin letters in this period. Like in the other Soviet Republics, they were forced to use an alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet in the year of 1939. This alphabet that is still used is the most useless and complicated alphabet among the alphabets based on the Cyrillic letters. For example, the letter Q can represent the vocal groups of both yu and yü in the very beginning of a word or syllable. In the words such as yüz that do not have the consonants of k or g within their composition cannot be properly pronounced due to the presence of Q letter. Moreover, the same letter of Q can also be used as a counterpart for the vowel of ü in the casual words. The similar situation can also be observed for the letter of e.
Public Movement of Kumuk Turks:
Tenglik
Kumuk Turks established the movement of Tenglik that was a national organisation in respect of its policy in the year of 1989. The purposes of this organisation can be summarised as the protection of the cultural, political, economical and fundamental human rights of Kumuk People and the organisation of initiatives towards the settlement of the problems in similar fields. The quatrain stanzas pertaining to the Kumuk poet, Z. Batırmurzayev were published in the 1st page of the bulletin numbered 1 pertaining to Tenglig movement in the year of 1990. These quatrains voiced the main theme of the tenglig movement since they have warned the Kumuk Turks not to be late in the course of the national awakening.
The End
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