Rutuls
|
|
|---|---|
| Total population | |
| 36,400 – 55,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Russia ( Dagestan) |
35,240 (2010) |
 Azerbaijan
|
17 000 (~2000) |
 Ukraine
|
137 (2001) |
 Georgia
|
103 (1989) |
| Languages | |
| Rutul | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam | |
Rutuls, Rutulians (Rutul: Мыхабыр, Myhabyr, Russian: рутульцы, rutulcy) are an ethnic group in Dagestan, a republic in the south of Russia, and some parts of Azerbaijan. According to the 2010 Russian Census, there were 35,240 Rutuls in Russia. In 1989 Soviet Census in Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan SSR then) there were 336 Rutuls. The Rutul language is a member of the Northeast Caucasian language family; its speakers often have a good command of Azeri and Russian, as Rutul was not a written language until 1990. The Rutul culture is close to that of the Tsakhur and other peoples who inhabit the basin of the upper reaches of the Samur River. Most of the Rutuls are engaged in cattle breeding (mostly sheep husbandry), farming, and gardening.
The Rutuls adhere to Sunni Islam. The earliest attempts of Arabs to affirm as Dagestan concern the 7th century, and in Rutul's territory they made the greatest success. The earliest monument of Muslim culture testifies to it on caucasus - a tombstone of Sheikh Magomeda-ibn-Asada-ibn-Mugal, buried in Khnov in 675 d.C. About early Islamisation of Rutuls the earliest testify also in mountains of Dagestan monuments building epygraphic, found in some Rutul villages. It is a stone in a wall of a building of a mosque of settlement village Luchek on which the chronograph text in the Arabian language is cut, Islam carrying the statement here to 128 of Hijra, that is 745-746. Other stone with the chronograph text has remained in a settlement Ihrek mosque of Ihrek, in it is spoken «about restoration of the destroyed mosque in 407 of Hijra»
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