- Sarir
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Sarir or Serir was a medieval
Christian state lasting from the 5th century to the 12th century in the mountainous regions of modern-dayDagestan . Its name is derived from theArabic word for "throne" and refers to a golden throne which was viewed as a symbol of royal authority.Origin
Sarir was first documented as a political entity in the 5th century AD. The memory of its foundation was transmitted orally among the
Caucasian Avars . According to one legend, the kingdom was established by a Persian general who was sent to control the Caucasus by aSassanian king. This legend is corroborated by the names of local kings, which are normally of Persian or even Syrian etymology.On the other hand, the 10th-century Arab historian
Ibn Rustah names the king of Sarir as "Auhar", i.e., "Avar". Based on this evidence,Omeljan Pritsak favours another theory, which postulates that the ruling dynasty of Sarir was of theAvar origin.fact|date=August 2008Sarir bordered the
Khazars to the north, theAlans to the east, theGeorgians andDerbent to the south. As the state was Christian, Arab historians erroneously viewed it as a dependency of theByzantine Empire . The capital of Sarir was the city ofHumradzh , tentatively identified with the modern-day villageKhunzakh . The king resided in a remote fortress at the top of a mountain.History
During the
Khazar-Arab Wars of the 7th and 8th centuries, the kings of Sarir allied themselves with the Khazars. Following the victorious campaign of Merwan ibn Muhammad in 738–739, Sarir was pressed into submitting to theCaliph 's authority. It paid tribute and provided men for the Arab garrison of Derbent until the ninth century, when, emboldened by the shift in momentum in the south, Sarir asserted sovereignty over large portions of the Caucasus, including Gumik, Filan and parts ofArran .As the hegemony of the Caliphate crumbled, Sarir found itself continually at war with its successor states, such as Derbent and
Shirvan . In these wars it was generally victorious and allowed Sarir to manipulate the politics of Derbent. Concomitantly, the kings of Sarir shifted away from the Khazar alliance and mounted several incursions into the Khazarian steppes. The pattern of intermarriage between the royal houses of Sarir andAlania cemented the anti-Khazar alliance of the two Christian states.Disintegration
Alarmed by the growing Christian supremacy in the Caucasus, the Muslim powers of the region pledged mutual assistance against Sarir. Their economic and military pressure, coupled with internal discord, led to the state's disintegration in the early
12th century . After another century of Muslim ascendancy,Islam emerged as the dominant religion in the region. In the13th century , the Caucasian Avars formed a new Muslim state, traditionally known asAvaristan .References
*Минорский В.Ф. "История Ширвана и Дербента." М., 1963.
*Атаев Д.М. "Нагорный Дагестан в раннем средневековье (по материалам археологических раскопок Аварии)." Махачкала, 1963.
*Тахнаева П.И. "Христианская культура средневековой Аварии (VII–XVI вв.) в контексте реконструкции политической истории." Махачкала, 2004.
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