Family Cemetery in Zagawa Village

Zargava is a small mountain village in northern Azerbaijan. Obviously, it is the only place in the country where there is no public cemetery. Local residents bury their relatives in the yard or arrange a "family cemetery." But it turns out that this tradition is a well-kept secret, and we tried to unlock it by going to the village.

The village of Zargava is located in the mountains of the Cuban region of Azerbaijan, or more precisely, on the high mountains, where more than a thousand people live.

Found the road to the village very difficult. These roads are not marked on Google Maps. We can only reach the neighboring Chichi village, but there is no road at all.

The locals advised us to get off the car and walk. "Zargava is there, on the other side of the mountain", so we were pointed out and we set off.

After an hour of adventure hiking and successfully overcoming all obstacles, we reached our destination.

In a way, this trip explains why there is so little information about this village. The reporter is a rare guest here.

Barbed wire fences extend along the rugged paths of the village. Behind it is someone's big yard, a garden, a vegetable garden, and a house in the background. The chicks were walking around, and a tethered calf was grazing on the grass. Although it was November, it was still green.

But this traditional country painting has some surprising details. There, in the courtyard, there are two tombs. There are photos and inscriptions of the dead on the marble slabs. Flowers are all around.

If you go further along the streets of the village, you will see the same pictures in many other courtyards. In Zagawa Village, many residents have established their own family cemeteries beside fruit trees and cabbage or onion beds.

This tradition is so unusual for Azerbaijan that when we later told our friends and colleagues, many people did not believe us until they watched the video shot in the village.

The first person we decided to ask where this unusual tradition came from was the village administrative representative Zamig Dzhabrailov. A tall middle-aged man with a strong physique and well-dressed, he smiled and said happy-but until he heard the question of the "family cemetery".

"This is fictitious!". Dzhabrailov said categorically. Considering that this was not enough, he continued to look serious:

"A few days ago, TV people came here from a channel. When they talked about the grave, the locals almost beat the reporters."

Unable to get news from the official, we ignored his warning and still went to the local residents.

In Azerbaijan, as in many other countries, there are usually two cemeteries in the village-one old and one new.

But in Zargava, there are dozens of cemeteries in the courtyard of the house. Some have seven or eight tombs, all belonging to the same family. Almost all tombs are relatively new.

Among other things, we saw the grave of a young man—the only person in this village who lost his life in the Second Karabakh War in the autumn of 2020. He was buried in the family cemetery along with other deceased family members.

Cemeteries in Azerbaijan are usually open from all sides and anyone can enter. But these small cemeteries are surrounded by tall nets or stone fences.

There is a lock or a rope tightly tied to the gate. You can only enter through the gate and the main entrance to the courtyard to visit the owner of the house.

On the territory of the village, we later discovered many ancient tombs. They are different from the new-just big stones without inscriptions.

Such stones can be seen in different places in the village. Who they belong to is unknown. But the first impression of being abandoned and forgotten turned out to be wrong. As the theologian Gadir Rajabov will tell us later, this method is fully in line with Islamic traditions.

Local resident Shohrat (who refused to give his surname) said that the "family cemetery" is not only arranged in the courtyard. Wealthy families buy land specifically for this purpose.

"The fence is just to prevent the tomb from being damaged by animals. You can go there safely," Shohrat said. Although not far from where we were talking, the door was blocked by a rope tied with a complicated knot.

When asked why the funeral tradition in this village is so different, and what it has to do with, he didn't want to talk.

The same thing happened later. When we asked other residents in the village the same question, they either left or closed the door in front of us.

"Some sources indicate that the tradition of the Zagawa family cemetery dates back to the 13th century. It turns out that the funerals of relatives and friends on their land have lasted for nearly a thousand years", ethnologist and historian Sevinj Mammadova Say.

"The most likely reason is the remoteness of the village, inconvenient transportation, and isolation from other settlements for centuries.

Many traditions depend on natural conditions. Perhaps, the rugged mountainous terrain and the lack of flat land are also the reason why there is no cemetery in Zagawa.

People have no chance to bury their loved ones in accordance with religious requirements.

Today there is a mosque in Zagawa, but no mullahs. But not everyone can invite people far away to perform religious ceremonies before burying a person.

I can give an example from another region of Azerbaijan. In Shamkir in the northwest of the country, close to the Georgian border, until recently, there were no mosques and no clergy at all.

During the Soviet era, people there buried their relatives in coffins like Christians. Although this contradicts the requirements of Islam," said the ethnographer.

The theologian Gadir Rajabov told JAMnews that the unusual practice of burying the dead in Zargava does not contradict Islam.

He said that this has nothing to do with the cemetery. The fact is that Islam requires the tomb itself to disappear.

"If we talk about cannons, then no signs should be left in the grave. But the important thing is that no one will disturb the ashes in the future. That's why people are starting to bury their loved ones in a separate place-for example, to ensure the future No one will build things there.

But there are no signs on the ground, and it is difficult to know where there is a tomb. For this reason, the tombstone tradition that later appeared in Islam came into being."

Gadir Radjabov said that in the past, the residents of Zargava apparently followed the main rule-the tomb must disappear. Therefore, there is no inscription on the old stone stele, which serves as a tombstone.

One of the village chiefs, Gadim Israfilov, answered this question with a question:

"Why does everyone who heard about our village only ask about our cemetery? Who would think of the living? No one cares about us."

The natural gas has not yet been shipped to Zargava. "And we live in a natural gas exporting country," Gadim Israfilov reminded us.

That's not all-there is no running water in the village.

“All our houses have wood-burning stoves. The cost of firewood for a car is about 500 manats [approximately US$300]. If you save a lot, it can hardly survive the winter,” Israfilov said.

Water is scarce. The rich dug an artesian well in their yard, and the poor used buckets or carts drawn by horses or donkeys to fetch water from the spring. Some people bring themselves into the shopping cart.

But facts have proved that spring water is not a natural source. This is an ordinary faucet in the center of the village. It has a water supply system that draws water from a large artesian well.

In the middle of the village, there is a mosque. An elegant small beige building with a gray roof. But the door of the yard is closed. There is no need for people to come here, because the mullahs have been here for so long that no one remembers whether they ever owned them.

Some local residents are aware of these rituals. They hold rare ceremonies here during religious festivals.

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