Before asking where they live, it is advisable to find out who they are. From the very beginning it is necessary to stipulate that the word "taty" originally did not represent an ethnonym. That is, it is not the name of the people, the nation, the tribe. Rather, this concept is social.
Social term
The Tatars were called sedentary tribes, referring to this term as people's way of life and position in society. And not just sedentary tribes, but conquered by them. Therefore, the name was pejorative. Later, the Turks under the term "tat" meant a person in service. Therefore, it is necessary to say that there is a nationality of the Tata with a reservation. During the times in different territories this term had distinct meanings. Thus, during the early Middle Ages, the entire population of Central Asia and the Middle East, speaking the Iranian language, was called tatami. In Iran, this term was applied to sedentary Iranian-speaking tribes.
Now it is more a nationality
Time passed, and the tribes turned into a nationality. In our time the phrase "Tata nationality" is found everywhere. Sometimes with the caveat that there is no clear definition of what nationality is. That this very concept is either simplified or deliberately distorted. One way or another, the nationality is either a language group, the Persians of Transcaucasia or the Iranian ethnos, it is clear from the names that where there are tatas, it is warm there. This is mostly southern backgammon. Depending on the region of residence, the Tatas have many self-names - Parsi and Lochidzhihon, Dagly and Tati. Each people has its own interesting story. The older the age of the people, the more rich the story. The first mention of tatami belongs, according to some historians, to the time of the Khazar Khaganate, that is, to the 7th-10th centuries. Tatas are extremely diverse. In their composition they have both Christians (mostly monophysts), Jews, and Muslims (Sunnis and Shiites).
There is no common opinion
A separate group includes Taty - Mountain Jews. Although other historians argue reasonably that it is absolutely impossible to combine these concepts, characterizing completely different nationalities. Mountain Jews, or givers, are a Jewish subethnos (this name defines a group of people living compactly and differing from their ethnos by small but distinctive features due to the history of education). Tats are a people mainly of the Iranian tribe or Persians. And the mountain Jews are the people, who are rooted in Judea. On the territory of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, mountain Jews, fearing persecution on ethnic grounds, were recorded by tatami. Perhaps this was due to the residence in one territories and a common language - both Tata and Mountain Jews spoke in the Tatar language until the appearance of the Azerbaijan Republic. What is wrong to conceal, in Soviet Russia there has always been a secret oppression of the Jews. Now, a century later, for the inhabitants of Dagestan tata, mountain Jews are identical concepts, words are synonyms.
Jews, when it is necessary to make aliyah
However, when, after perestroika, many Jews were drawn to their historical homeland, the Tatas began to prove that they were Mountain Jews. Thus, the confusion has become even more confusing, and there is no consensus on any issue. At the end of the XIX century, the opinion was expressed that the tatys were descended from the Iranians who had been resettled to the Caspian Sea under Shapur II (309-381), shahinshah of Persia. And the Jews, who moved here from Iran in the 5th century AD, adopted the Tat language, but remained faithful to their religion. According to other sources, the Persians appeared in Transcaucasia in 558-330 BC, when the dynasty of the Achaemenids, the belligerent kings of ancient Persia, successfully waging wars of conquest, annexed these territories in the form of satrapies, or military-administrative districts. One way or another, but taty - a nation that goes back to ancient Persia.
Not the biggest people in the world
Now the number of this people is 350 thousand people all over the world, there are territories where tats live, and it is possible, despite the lack of unity of opinion, to form a more or less clear idea of who they are, why and where they settled. In all points of the world you can find representatives of this nation, but there are certain places where tats live compactly. Today, the largest number of representatives of this nationality is in Azerbaijan. The next largest population of tatts is Russia, where they are concentrated in the north of Dagestan. In addition, they live in Georgia, Turkey, and some researchers believe that Tajiks have common roots with Tatami. On the territory of this country they also live.
The largest number of Tats reside in Azerbaijan
Let's return to Azerbaijan, where tats live in more numbers than in other countries. As noted above, because of the policy pursued by the Sassanid dynasty tsars (in particular, Shapur II), the taties to the territory of modern Azerbaijan came from Iran and settled in Shirvan, the historical region of Transcaucasia, which lies on the western coast of the Caspian and extends from the delta Chickens in its southern part to Derbent in the north. The overwhelming majority of immigrants professed Judaism. But taty in these territories willingly assimilated with the local population. In XIII Islamization of this nationality was carried out. In the 30s of the last century, after the introduction of the concept of the Azerbaijani, many Taty began to consider themselves to be them.
Love of language, carried through the ages
Despite assimilation, the adoption of another language, Islamization, fear of persecution on a national basis, taty in Azerbaijan live and now, in a narrow circle communicate in "Tatsky". Moreover, Azerbaijan adopted a national policy to preserve this language. Published primer and textbooks. Apsheronsky, Khyzyn, Divichinsky and Gubinsky - these are the areas where tats live, among which many famous people came out. For example, the world-famous composer Kara Karaev said that he considers his homeland Absheron, and not Azerbaijan. I must say that in this country there is a small, but rather closed community of Tata Jews whose distant ancestors, according to their convictions, were one of the lost tribes of the Israeli people, led by the king Nebuchadnezzar into captivity even before our era. Data on the number of tatami vary greatly. It can be concluded that the true number is not established, and the actual number of tat in this country - both Muslims and Jews - is much higher than the declared number.
Dagestan is the center of the tat in Russia
Tats in Russia live on the territory of Dagestan, which is a multinational republic. In small quantities are found in other republics of Transcaucasia. In total, there are 19,400 people in the Russian Federation. And in Russia, this people does not stop disputing. Some argue that all speakers of the Tatar language, referring to the Iranian branch of Indo-European languages, which is the dialect of New Persian, should be considered one ethnic group, others do not agree with this. There is a version that in the VI century after the suppression of the Mazdakite movement in Iran, 15,000 colonists were deported for the construction of the Derbent fortifications and the walls. Seven settlements today are inhabited by Tatami - Jalgan, Mitagi and Kemah, Zidyan and Bilgadi, Gimaydi and south of Rukel.
The status of an original people
Nowadays, Dagestan's tatts have been given state status as an original people, speaking the same language. True, this language, belonging to the Indo-European family, here has dialects - southern and northern, which is one of the literary languages of the republic. Taty - nation (established community of people) is industrious, sedentary, engaged mainly in agriculture. Of the total number of arable land in Dagestan, most of them were cultivated. Representatives of the people worked on hard-to-reach mountain slopes, turning them into fertile lands. In addition, where tats live, they have always been valued as wine growers, skilful leather handlers and large craftsmen for the production of copper utensils. For a long time the way of their life was patriarchal or semi-patriarchal. The main role was played by the oldest, to whom all unquestioningly obeyed. They had their own clothes and a rich kitchen that has survived to this day. Interesting Tat folklore, including legends, parables and fairy tales, was preserved thanks to folk tales. In a large multinational family of Dagestani peoples, this ethnos takes its rightful place, and disputes about who is the true tat will continue for a very long time.
And where else do tats live?
Adygea and Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia and Chechnya are the republics where Taty lives in Russia. True, very small groups, no more than 2-3 thousand. These are not diasporas, which mean a cohesive stable ethnic group, a part of the people outside their own country, living according to the customs and customs of their homeland. They are just representatives of a different nationality, which is not uncommon in the Caucasus. Another southern country where tats live is Georgia. Azerbaijan, Dagestan and Iran are the homeland of the Shia Tats, and Georgia and Armenia are the former republics of the union, where mostly Christian Tatians live. But they mostly consider themselves to be Armenians and Georgians and wonder why many of them speak Azerbaijani.
If Christians are monophysics
Indeed, it is rather difficult to trace the formation of individual peoples, even more difficult if they have changed their religion and place of residence several times. This applies to such a nationality as taty. Their history is very complicated. Not everyone, especially non-specialists, understands how one can come from Iran as a Jew, accept Islam, speak the local language, preserve their culture, assimilate with the indigenous population, and then move to their neighbors while communicating in the Azerbaijani language. It is necessary to stipulate that the Christian Tati in the majority were monophystic. And this Christian is not even a teaching, but the doctrine of Archimandrite Evtikhii from Constantinople. It is rejected as heresy, Orthodox, Catholic and many Protestant churches. Perhaps, therefore, the tatys of Armenia and Georgia do not differentiate between themselves and the main population. It should also be noted that the concept of "mountain tatami" does not exist at all. There are villages in the mountainous part of Dagestan where this nationality lives, for example, Rukel is a village located on the slope of the mountain called Jalgan. One article says that there were no pure Tat villages in Dagestan. Residents of mountainous settlements descend to the plains, and many immigrate from the country.