Kala-Koreish is the Dagestan Atlantis, which did not go under water, but on the contrary, ascended high above the world, reliably sheltered from prying eyes by mountain passes. Once upon a time the village was the capital of the largest medieval feudal possession - the Kaitag Utsmiystvo. Alas, from this Islamic civilization only a cemetery with the graves of the Utsmii of the 12th-19th centuries and a mosque of the 11th century remained.
But even the little that has survived in the village for more than a thousand years of existence is amazing: gravestones with verses and philosophical sayings, tombstones similar to sarcophagi with a world tree carved on them, wooden gates of the mosque covered with lace ligature. To see all this, today you do not need to make a pilgrimage to a hard-to-reach village-fortress. With the help of scientists, photographers and philanthropists, the lost world was transferred to the country's main museum: for almost a month, from September 25 to October 21, the Hermitage hosts the exhibition “Words of Stones. Experience of reading and broadcasting the legacy of Kala-Koreish”.
Exhibition “Words of stones. Experience of reading and broadcasting the heritage of Kala-Koreish”in the Hermitage. Photo: Evgeny Kurskov / Peri Foundation
The Hermitage has hosted an exhibition for the first time, which does not contain a single original. All exhibits are copies. The artifacts are digitized with the highest resolution 3D scanner and recreated with precision to the smallest detail. 3D models of the tombstones and doors of the mosque can be touched, using a tablet - to see the details, use headphones or a large touch screen. On one of the days of the exhibition, the Hermitage hosted an international round table on the development of a convention on copying cultural objects. In the era of the information society, museums, which are conservative in nature, must also change. Copying, which, according to the director of the Hermitage, Mikhail Piotrovsky, is “the most important way of telling about art,” makes it possible to preserve masterpieces despite their inaccessibility and external threats.
Exhibition “Words of stones. Experience of reading and broadcasting the heritage of Kala-Koreish”in the Hermitage. Photo: Evgeny Kurskov / Peri Foundation
Scientists discussed new realities, and the ancient Dagestan village, which unexpectedly found itself in the focus of attention of scientists of the XXI century, still kept its secrets, sharing with us one hundredth - or one thousandth - of them.
Legends and myths of the ancient fortress
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The legendary settlement has a corresponding history - it is deeply involved in incredible cosmogonic events. According to legend, the village was founded by people who came here during the Flood, and somewhere in the mountains an iron ring is embedded in a sheer rock, to which ships were moored. Oddly enough, there is some truth in this legend: once upon a time, the Sarmatian Sea splashed on the site of the Caucasus Mountains, and the mountains themselves looked like islands. But that was too long ago - 10-14 million years ago. Another legend attributes the foundation of the fortress to the Koreish Arabs - a Meccan tribe, the Prophet Muhammad belonged to it. This version explains the name of the village: Kala-Koreish is translated from Arabic as “the fortress of the Koreishites” (the locals called the village in their own way - Urtsmutsi).
Photo: Natalia Krainova
In the VII-VIII centuries. (according to the Arab chronicles) or in the IX-X centuries. (according to the historical chronicle "Tarikh Dagestan") Arab ghazis came to Kaitag - the champions of Islam, who, under the banner of a holy war, planted a new religion in Dagestan with fire and sword. The inaccessible summit of the mountain, standing at the confluence of five rivers, was an ideal strategic point for the warlike missionaries. On all sides the mountain was surrounded by gorges; only a narrow path over a steep cliff led to the village. Tall two-story houses, with their blind side facing the gorge, were a real fortress wall. Having fortified the settlement and built a system of signal-defensive towers, the aliens turned Urtsmutsi into one of the first outposts for the spread of Islam in the North Caucasus. It was here that the residence of the Kaitag Utsmiys was located, who, having converted to Islam, claimedthat they descend from the uncles of the Prophet Muhammad - the Koreishites Hamza and Abbas - whose descendants conquered Kaitag. “This is nothing more than a version,” says Makhach Musaev, director of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Dagestan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Photo: Natalia Krainova
He explains that this is a common practice: when the ruling dynasty, as it were, legitimizes its power, raising its clan to heroes, kings, mythical characters, gods, and prophets. - The oldest Islamic artifact we found in Kala Koreish dates back to the beginning of the 11th century. Hence, we can say that Muslims came here at least in the middle of the 10th century. But by this time the Arab Caliphate had already surrendered its positions, and with a high degree of probability we can say that not Arabs, but Seljuks or other gazis came to Kala-Koreish. It was quite common in the early Middle Ages to go abroad to bring Islam to pagans. In addition, the names on the graves of the first Kaitag Utsmiys are not Arabic, but local, for example Akhsibar, Khizdan. That is, an appeal to the uncles of the prophet,reckoning them among their ancestors is nothing more than a political move, an attempt to prove their rights to the throne during the period of defeudalization. Therefore, we do not know exactly when the settlement was founded and when it was conquered by the Arabs, and even if they were Arabs.
Death is the door
The Juma Mosque of the 11th century and the pantheon of the Kaitag utsmies with unique tombstones of the 11th - 19th centuries are what pilgrims, tourists and scientists rise to Kala-Koreish for. The steles are made in a single "Utsmi style": Koranic texts, philosophical sayings, poems are carved on a slab from a local stone in Arabic script, they are woven with geometric and floral ornaments. It's amazing: on rare graves you will find the name of the deceased.
Photo: Evgeny Kurskov / Peri Foundation
Inscription on the gravestone of Akhsabar, son of Khizdan, 13th century
The inscription on the tombstone of Akhsabar, son of Khizdan, XIII century “The Kingdom belongs to the Most High, the One, the All-Conquering. The owner of this grave with knowledge resembles the deeds of the prophets, his piety is like the piety of Abu Bakr, his valor is like the valor of Ali, his justice is like the justice of the righteous caliphs, and he is the owner of Kala-Koreish Ahsabar, the son of Hizdan. May Allah illuminate his grave, may Allah forgive his sins. " Abu Bakr Muhammad bin al-Walid al-Fihri at-Turtushi (1059-1126), "A Light for the Rulers"
- Of 39 gravestones, only five or six have names. Arabic script performs not only an aesthetic function, but, first of all, a semantic one. The text is primary, - comments on this feature Makhach Musaev. - It corresponds to tradition and has an edifying character: it tells about the inevitability of death, which at the same time is the “door” to the afterlife, about the equality of all before the Lord, about the transience of the world. “Everything that exists is perishable, except for Him”, “Isn't this world and everything in it similar to the shadow that leaves with the sunset?”, “In the afternoon and evening, the inhabitants of the earth arrive, and their beautiful features are erased” - sayings talk about the futility of all that exists, about the fact that the name of a person will be forgotten, only eternal wisdom will remain. - In addition to the texts from the Koran, the slabs are cut out from the works of poets from different countries. So,on the tombstone of Amir-Khamza (XVIII century) - verses of the Andalusian Hanafi scholar of the XI century Abu-Bakr at-Turtushi. On other stelae there are texts by Farazdak, an Arab poet of the 7th-8th centuries. from Basra; Zayn al-Abidina - the great-grandson of a prophet, ascetic, philosopher, a very devout person who lived in Medina in the 7th century, continues Musaev.
Photo: Evgeny Kurskov / Peri Foundation
An inscription on the gravestone of Utsmiy Amir-Khamza, son of Muhammad Khan, son of Ahmad Khan, 1788
“Where are the former kings and entire nations?
Where have the past generations gone?
Where are those whose heads were crowned with crowns?
Where did all their servants and retinue go?
Where are those who were so proud of their power and army?
Where have those who had power and authority gone?
Indeed, Allah brought them out of the open spaces of the castles into the cramped graves, And they dwell there under the weight of stones and rocks!"
But if all the sayings on the graves are dedicated to death, then the images speak of the eternity of life. - It is surprising that Dagestan stone cutters use motifs and symbols that appeared long before Islam: here there is an endless vine, a world tree with birds on branches and animals at the roots, and solar signs, and a swastika. All these are global symbols that appeared in primitive times and are found in the art of Iran, Ancient Russia, among the Viking runestones, among the peoples of the Far East … So, the lions and the eagle depicted on the sarcophagus-shaped gravestone of Khizdan of the 12th-12th centuries are strikingly reminiscent of animals carved on the walls of the Dmitrov Cathedral in Vladimir at the end of the 12th century.
Stop for a moment
In the 19th century, utsmiystvo in Kaitag was abolished, and Kala-Koreish lost its former glory and former greatness. And in 1944, an event happened from which the village could not recover: its inhabitants were forcibly resettled to Chechnya instead of the deported Chechens. Since then, no one has lived in Kala Koreish except the keeper.
Photo: Peri Foundation
Winds and rains are doing their job, destroying historical and architectural monuments. Archaeologists are trying to preserve the elusive beauty for history: studies of Kala-Koreish have been intermittently continuing since 1960. However, we can safely say that a new era in the study of the Utsmi dynasty began last year: in the spring, the Perry fund of businessman Ziyavudin Magomedov landed a landing of photographers and scientists in Kala-Koreish. “Our foundation is the only charitable organization in Russia dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage through digitization,” says Polina Filippova, executive director of Peri. - Many people ask: why? Yes, it's not obvious. But one of its main tasks, the foundation sees the creation of a new generation - smart, educated young people who have a cultural identity formed on the heritage of their ancestors. By digitizing masterpieces, we preserve them forever, and new technologies allow us to tell young people about them in an accessible, relevant language.
Photo: Peri Foundation
Mostly young people also worked in Kala-Koreish - curators, photographers, scientists. The selected photographers underwent training in Spain at the Factum Foundation. After that, the team lived in the mountains for a month: photographers took pictures, and orientalists deciphered the inscriptions. Then they combined and processed numerous files, wrote texts, created copies of objects on 3D printers - it took six months to prepare the exhibition. - What to do with digital copies, we are just now thinking, - says Filippova. - Of course, they will be posted online: we want Kala-Koreish to be seen and appreciated all over the world. It will be a virtual museum, possibly in several formats: after all, a scientist will need high-resolution photographs and data that are not needed by a common man in the street.
Photo: Peri Foundation
This is the first exhibition for the foundation, but the project "Cultural Heritage 2.0." not finished. The digitization of manuscript and architectural monuments of Dagestan continues, and the digitization of the frescoes of Dionysius in the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ of the Ferapontov Monastery has already been completed.