Schimara

Schimara (на ПРОЗА.РУ)

Also Guimar and Schimar among the Khazars, Humar among the Turks, Humarius and Schimarius among the byzans.

The city was located on the site of the Khumarinsky settlement on the right bank of the Kuban, in one walking passage from Karachaevsk.

The first fortifications here appear in the 2nd century after the birth of Christ, when the iranian-speaking sarmatians lived here. Not far from here there was a trade route along which caravans of the Great Silk Road went, accompanied by persian guards.

Here, in Schimara, the persians, together with the sarmatians, organized a place where they could relax and improve their military and commercial equipment. In order not to be disturbed by local nomads, the persians built a rampart around their camp, inside which there was another rampart. Inside there was a garrison with a caravan, and beyond that, there were workshops of artisans.

For a long time in this area crossed a variety of trade routes that went to Asia, Europe, Byzantium, and the North of Rus. Gradually, a trade and craft center is organized here, the fortress of which during the time of Shahinshah Yazdigerd became part of the system of fortresses and fortified points that controlled local trade routes.

In the middle of the 7th century, the khazars came here and built a fortress with a Citadel. They put a military garrison in the Citadel, which was served by local men, which was not the case with the persians.

Ancient architects chose a good place to create a control point from which you could observe all movements in the area within a radius of at least one horse crossing. The fortress stood on a hill that rose to a height of 30 meters above the valley. The entire territory of the city, along with the Citadel, fortress and townships was 25 hectares.

The city was surrounded by a powerful stone wall, the length of which is more than 2 thousand meters. The wall was equipped with many loopholes and ended with a crenellated parapet.

The fortress had thick walls up to 6 meters wide, made of stone blocks without binding material. 12 ambush towers were built into the walls. The total length of the fortress walls was 2 kilometers. It was riddled with loopholes, and on top of it was a stone parapet, behind which you could successfully hide from enemy arrows.

The Citadel, located inside the fortress, had its own wall with a gate in it. A ceramic water pipe was laid in the fortress, where water came from mountain springs.

In the Citadel lived the local Tudun, the chief of security and the khazar Governor, along with their families and clerks. In the middle of the 7th century, Maximus the Confessor, a fighter against heresy in the highest spheres of the Constantinople priesthood, was settled here for exile.

The fortress made an indelible impression on travelers who traveled along the Great Silk Road to distant countries. They called this fortress a formidable khazar outpost in the Caucasus.

Since the city has existed since ancient times, the population in it was mixed. Some aliens mixed in with the others. The sarmatians successfully mixed with the alans, they were later joined by savirs and bulgars, then came the pechenegs, who are sometimes considered descendants of the black khazars, all together they were layered on autochthonous tribes of the Caucasian type.

Each of these peoples and tribes left their mark on the cultural stratigraphy of the settlement. There are also runic inscriptions on the large stones of the Citadel walls, and tamgas, and greek and cyrillic inscriptions.

At the beginning of the 8th century, the arab-khazar war for control of the trade routes of the North Caucasus begins. The khazar army, which included organized tribal detachments of the alans, in 720, in 727, and in 739 successfully repulsed the attacks of the arabs on the fortress of Schimara.

In the 10th century, Khazaria fell under the onslaught of Rus. Its place is taken by the alanian Princes, who create their own state of Alania.

Experts use different lexicons to name the city. Local researchers believe that the name of the city of Schimara comes from the word «humari», which the ancient turks meant inheritance, that is, the city was a patrimony and was passed down by inheritance, according to the covenant.

According to another version, the name of the city was given by the ancient kabardins and cherchesians, whose word «humen» meant a fortress.

Among the abaza people, the word «khumaraa» meant the family name of the local Prince of the Mountains.

The name of the city of Schimara in different root interpretations is found in the byzantine, greek, georgian, Rus and armenian chroniclers and fastis.

It is believed that this fortress collected tribute from all the peoples who inhabited the Kuban basin. At the same time, the local Tudun exercised leadership over this part of Khazaria both on behalf of the Khagan and on behalf of the Alan Prince.

At the end of the 14th century, the city was visited by a tatar kirdyk named Tamerlane, who destroyed the fortress and many public buildings made of stone, and burned everything else. The city would have recovered, but Tamerlane destroyed the entire system of government of the country of Alania.

The townspeople dispersed to the local villages, many went to the Kuma river, establishing several ancestral settlements there. The locals were often called Humarin..

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