Are the mountain-dwelling Avars descendants of a lost Mongol empire?
Deep in the North Caucasus, the Avars—or 'mountaineers'—possess a history as rugged as their 2,000-meter villages. While many see them as a local ethnic group, some historians suggest a much more epic origin, linking them to the ancient nomadic hordes of the Eurasian steppe.
The Avars, also known as the Ma'arulal, are a Northeast Caucasian group primarily inhabiting the high-altitude villages of Dagestan. Their identity is deeply tied to the landscape; the name 'Ma'arulal' literally translates to 'mountaineers.' Historically, their territory has been a crossroads of empires, shifting from the influence of Georgian Orthodox Christianity to the Islamic conquests that brought Arab rule to nearby Derbent in 643. By the 12th century, following the fall of the Christian kingdom of Sarir, the Muslim Avar Khanate emerged, later being absorbed by the Shamkhalate of Kazi-Kumukh in the 15th century.
The question of their origins remains a subject of intense scholarly debate. While some researchers point to the Turanian nomads or the Hephthalite White Huns—linking the name 'Avar' to the Chinese 'Hua' or 'Uar'—others, such as Karl Heinrich Menges, propose a more striking connection. He suggested that the Eurasian Avars may have been an ancient Mongol people, noting 'traces of a Mongol residue' in the Dagestani highlands. This theory connects the highlanders to the vast, mobile empires that once stretched from the Adriatic to the Baltic.
Even the very language they speak carries echoes of the past. The Avar language contains roots that mirror ancient Iranian dialects; for instance, the word 'awar' is linked to Middle Persian terms meaning 'up' or 'superior.' Whether they are the descendants of steppe warriors or local mountain clans, the Avars have maintained a distinct self-governance through centuries of Safavid, Ottoman, and Russian expansion, surviving even the heavy taxation and fortresses of the Russian imperial era.
Source: Avars (Caucasus)
