Udis - History and Cultural Relations



The modern Udis are descendants of the Uti, one of the ancient tribes of eastern Transcaucasia. Classical sources place this tribe in the vicinity of Uti (the chief city of Partav Barda) in Caucasian Albania (which corresponds basically to northern Azerbaijan and southern Daghestan). The continual migration of Turkic tribes into eastern Transcaucasia led to the assimilation of the majority of the Udis, who converted to Islam and came to speak the Azeri Turkish language. One segment of the Udis, who adopted the Armeno-Gregorian faith, became Armenian-speaking and eventually considered themselves Armenian. Their descendants are found in Nij and, to a lesser extent, Vartashen. A small group of Orthodox Udis (living in Oktomberi and Vartashen) have preserved their self-identity, language, and cultural characteristics. During the eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries the Udi villages were within the Shekin Khanate, and after annexation by Russia they were included in the Nukhinski Uezd of the Elisavetpol Province.


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