On September 19th one of the oldest settlements in the country, Derbent, marks its 2000th anniversary. Dozens of delegations from Russian regions, Iran, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan will go to the celebrations. Ahead of the anniversary streets, parks and the fortress of Naryn-Kala have been reconstructed. The head of Dagestan, Ramazan Abdulatipov, says that festive cultural arrangements for Derbent residents and guests of the republic have been held throughout the whole year and will continue in all the exhibition and concert platforms of the city till September 21st. According to Abdulatipov, a program for the period till 2018 is being developed. It is aimed at turning Derbent into a center of Russian and international tourism.
Evgeny Bakhrevsky, Deputy Director of the D. S. Likhachev Russian Research Institute for Cultural and Natural Heritage, shares unknown and well-known facts of Derbent’s history. “There is a saying ‘The Thief of Bagdad’, and it is well-known to everyone because of the 1940 British film, and in the Soviet Union it was a very popular movie in the post-war years. But as it turns out, the history of Baghdad’s thief is Derbent’s story. A certain Jew came to the town of Derbent from Baghdad, he met with the local Jewish community, which was plentiful and rich, he explained that the coming of the Messiah was about to happen, just in a few hours. And the devout Derbent Jews were obliged to go on the roofs of their homes to greet the Messiah. Interestingly, the Jews of Derbent believed the Baghdad guest and went onto the roofs of their homes and waited for the Messiah while in a pious state, while the gang of the Baghdad thief robbed their homes and took all their possessions,” the orientalist said, stating it was a historical anecdote.
“For us, it is interesting, because we are people of the post-Soviet period, we are accustomed to the civilization, here we all know each other and communicate, and Baghdad is something distant and exotic. So, for Derbent, Baghdad was nearby several centuries ago. And these regions communicated very closely and in detail with each other,” Evgeny Bakhrevsky points out.
He says that Derbent is located in a key, strategic point between three great civilizational spaces. From the southwest territory adjacent to Derbent, which had been a hotbed of Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman civilization; in the southeast there was the Iranian civilization, the Arab Caliphate; and in the north there was a huge civilizational area, which went from Scythian power, through the Khazars, the Horde, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and now the Russian Federation.
“Derbent is the point where all civilizations meet, overlap. And at the moment, as I understand it, thanks to its ancient history, which includes many monuments of different civilizations, from the Zoroastrian, through the Muslim, Christian and Jewish, Derbent is the bridge that connects us with many modern countries, which are located in various civilizational habitats. That is why the importance of this place is obvious. I believe that the celebration of the 2000th anniversary of the city should encourage us to come to a more detailed and, shall we say, deeper understanding of our relations, our civilizations.”
