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Aghul people

Lezgic ethnic group native to Agulsky district in Dagestan

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ319066
Source-derived summary

Aghuls (Aghul: агулар, romanized: agular,) are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group native predominantly to Agulsky district of Dagestan, partly on the plain and in cities (Dagestanskiye Ogni, Derbent, Makhachkala, etc.). According to the 2010 census, there were 34,160 Aghuls in Russia (7,000 in 1959). The Aghul language belongs to the Lezgic language family, a group of the Northeast Caucasian family. Ethnically, the Aghuls are close to the Lezgins. There are four groups of the Aghul people, who live in four different gorges: Aguldere, Kurakhdere, Khushandere, and Khpyukdere. Like their neighbors the Kaitags, the Aghuls were converted to Islam at a fairly early date, subsequent to the Arab conquest of the eighth century.

Culture

As elsewhere in Daghestan, the Aghuls were divided into tukhums (clans), comprising twenty to forty households. Each tukhum had its own cemetery, pastures, and hay fields, and the members were bound by obligations of mutual support and defense.

Each Aghul village had a village council, on which each of the three or four tukhums were represented. The council was headed by an elder.

Editorial summary

“Aghul people” enters the record as lezgic ethnic group native to Agulsky district in Dagestan. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Aghul, people and Lezgic can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2010, 1959—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Aghul, people and Lezgic.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Aghul people” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Aghul, people and Lezgic provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q319066. The Library of Congress control number is sh85002518. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010 and 1959.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Aghul people”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Aghul people primary sources, Aghul people archive and Aghul research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Aghul people”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Aghul people” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.