Andis - Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. The Andis are Sunni Muslims. They definitively adopted Islam in the fourteenth century; the Muslim faith supplanted a Christianity syncretized with more ancient religious beliefs. The pre-Islamic Andis had a cultic center on the peak of the mountain of Bakhargan, which was associated with their chief deity, Ts'ob. The Bakhargan cult declined after the propagation of Islam but did not disappear entirely. Even now, in times of summer drought, men and women ascend the mountain to perform rain-making rites. They offer thanksgiving there and perform a ritual dance ( zikr, a term also used for Sufi rituals). This type of zikr was founded by Kunta Haji, a Chechen religious figure of the first half of the nineteenth century. There is also a cult connected with a local Andian holy man ( ziyarat ), Sheikh Umaraji (from the village of Andi). Mosques are located in all Andi villages; the chief celebrant is termed the dibir , and the mosque attendant is the budun . Until the 1930s medresseh schools for the education of gifted children were attached to the mosques.

The spiritual life of the Andis includes elements of superstition and various metaphysical conceptions concerning the world and the course of life. Belief in good and evil spirits is very widespread. The community of souls, which the Andis seek to appease with gifts, is imagined to be a Lilliputian world of miniature beings. According to popular belief, each person has an invisible doppelgänger, and the events in people's lives are but a repetition of what had happened earlier to their doubles. Ten days before a person's death the doppelgänger abandons him or her completely.

Ceremonies. The most elaborate Andi feast day was the festival of the "bull's departure," celebrated on New Year's Day, which traditionally occurred around the spring equinox. Twin bulls were yoked to a plow, and the first furrow was plowed by a person who had volunteered for that task at the previous holiday. During the festival, champions in running, wrestling, and stone tossing were presented, and horse races were held, with prizes being awarded.

Wedding ceremonies include a bridal procession, during which the bride is stopped at various locations, the road is closed off, ransom is demanded, supporters come to her aid, and a mock altercation takes place. An especially impressive ceremony is the reconciliation of a blood feud, accompanied by oratory and speech making, the offering of thanksgiving, etc. At Andi funerals, women perform keening rituals, which normally are not part of Islamic funeral rites, whereas the men sit together to express condolence.

Arts. Andi folk music resembles that of the Avars, but it has several distinctive characteristics. The dancing style is closer to that of the Chechens. The ancient Andi dance tlibdil is especially picturesque. The Andis have a keen sense of irony, and they are renowned throughout Daghestan as unsurpassed tellers of jokes and anecdotes.

Medicine. Traditionally, certain illnesses, especially neurological and psychological disorders, were believed to have been sent by spirits, and consequently magical healing practices were once widely used. There are also medical techniques based on the empirical knowledge of the people, intermixed with those acquired from practitioners of Oriental medicine. Wounds and broken bones could be effectively treated, and the technique of trephination (boring a hole into the skull) was known. Scientific medicine has now been made available to the Andi community, with clinics in the villages and a hospital at Andi. Some Andis have themselves become doctors, including the well-known neurosurgeon Rashidbeg Umakhanov from Gagatl.

Death and Afterlife. The Andis have adopted a basically Muslim eschatology. A few pagan beliefs concerning the afterlife persist (e.g., a belief in immortal souls that take on the appearance of people and participate in the daily life of the living).