Secular imagery in the Islamic space of medieval Zirikhgeran

Abstract

According to Dagestan scholars, the long process of Islamization of the Dagestan state entities in Kubachi was completed by the end of the 13th century. Scholars correlate the fl ourishing of Kubachi medieval art with the establishment of Islam. In the late 13th–early 14th century, stone reliefs decorating monumental structures were created in Kubachi. In the Islamic cultural space there appeared magnificent images of secular scenes with figures of people dressed in the garments of Northern Caucasus, Cuman, and Mongolian nobility, as well as real and imaginary animals. The Mongol Empire, whose policies were distinguished by the tolerance of all religious and cultural phenomena, could have neutralized the infl uence of Islam and given an impetus to secular multicultural art. The study of imagery and subject matter of the Kubachi reliefs in the cultural and political landscape of the Mongol Empire makes it possible to reveal the semantics of the subjects. The scenes on the stone reliefs refl ect not the regional but the imperial dimension of the situation in which medieval Zirikhgeran, now known under the Turkic name of Kubachi, found itself.