"For honor, not for warmth" - hats in the North Caucasus. Who should not wear a hat. What you need to know about papakha Smart head and fiery heart

In the Caucasus, it has always been an honor to wear a headdress. After all, it’s not for nothing that they say: “If you have a head, then it should have a hat on it.” Of course, times change, and with them, customs. Today, it is not so often that you will meet a person with a beautiful and straight posture, whose head is decorated with caucasian hat.

Indeed, a hat is a decoration and personification of honor for a man. Some 20-30 years ago, very curious traditions were spread in the outskirts of the Caucasus. For example, no one, under any circumstances, had the right to remove someone else's hat from their heads. This was regarded as an insult to the owner of the headgear and very often entailed unpleasant consequences.

But, not all traditions that related to wearing a hat were so tough. In the old days, a guy who wanted to show his feelings to a girl resorted to two methods - either he personally told her about it in a dance, while holding a Caucasian dagger in his teeth, or he approached her windows and threw his hat on. If the girl left her at home, then it was believed that she accepted the marriage proposal, but if the headdress flew out of the window back to the owner, then the guy understood that his proposal was rejected.

Papakha Caucasian - classification by type and quality of material

It is worth noting that hats in the Caucasus were not always the same as we are used to seeing them today. In the 19th century, the following types of papaches were most widespread among the male population of the mountainous region: fabric, a combination of fabric and fur, fur, felt. Subsequently, it was fur hats and hats that replaced all other types.

Today, hats are classified into the following types:

1. Astrakhan - is considered the most valuable and desirable. Although, there are a lot of pitfalls here. Finding a hat made from real astrakhan is not an easy task. A lot of people sell fakes under the guise of high-quality astrakhan fur. In the article about astrakhan hats and hats, you can read about the types and how to correctly and quickly determine the quality of astrakhan. look interesting video Caucasian headdresses:

2. Classical (shepherd) - the most common type of headdress in the Caucasus, especially in the mountainous part. Often this headdress is called a "folk hat" due to the fact that it is not very difficult to manufacture. There are many types and subspecies of such papakhas, many of them are presented in the category "Shepherd's hats".

3. Cossack hat - another species that has become widespread in the Caucasus, with the exception of the national republics. This headdress is especially popular with the Terek and Kuban Cossacks, which is natural.

In addition to the species classification, there is also a division according to the material produced within the species itself. The same astrakhan hats are most often made from natural astrakhan of three varieties: Valek, Pulat and Antika. We do not take into account artificial astrakhan or cheap Moldovan. Caucasian craftsmen use only natural varieties of astrakhan in their work.

Classical (shepherd's) hats are made from goat, sheep and mutton skins. The inhabitants classify these hats according to external features: color (white, black, brown), shaggy, the presence or absence of the smell of the skin, the length of the coat, etc.

An example of a shepherd's hat made of natural white goat skin:

An example of a shepherd's hat made of natural black sheepskin:

Professionals, in their practice, use completely different criteria (although all of the above also matter): the presence or absence of bald spots, wool density, the presence of curls, tailoring accuracy, the presence of a lace for adjusting the size.

We tried to take into account all these nuances when choosing a craftsman for making papah, presented in our online store. For 2.5 years, more than 2000 papakhas have already passed through our hands, and this allows us to assert that when choosing a papakha, the main selection criterion should be the quality of the material used and the accuracy of tailoring.

If you typed in the search engine something like - buy a hat, then be sure that you have come to the right place where you can choose the highest quality Caucasian headdress to your liking. All our hats are made by real professionals - folk craftsmen of Dagestan - Salman Rabadanov and Yakub Akhmedov. These are people who have been sewing daddies for decades and have already sewn more than 40,000 pieces in total!

Papakha in the North Caucasus is a whole world and a special myth. In many Caucasian cultures, a man, on whose head a hat or a headdress in general, is a priori endowed with such qualities as courage, wisdom, self-esteem. The man who put on the hat, as if adjusted to it, trying to match the subject - after all, the hat did not allow the highlander to bow his head, and therefore go to someone to bow in a broad sense.

Not so long ago I was in the village of Tkhagapsh visiting Batmyz Tlif, the chairman of the village "Chile Khase". We talked a lot about the traditions of aul self-government, preserved by the Black Sea Shapsugs, and before leaving, I asked our hospitable host for permission to photograph him in a full-dress hat - and Batmyz seemed to rejuvenate before my eyes: immediately a different posture and a different look ...

Batmyz Tlif in his ceremonial astrakhan hat. Aul Tkhagapsh of the Lazarevsky district of the Krasnodar Territory. May 2012. Photo by the author

“If the head is intact, it should have a hat on it”, “The hat is worn not for warmth, but for honor”, “If you have no one to consult with, consult with the hat” - an incomplete list of proverbs common among many mountain peoples of the Caucasus.

Many customs of the highlanders are connected with the papakha - this is not only a headdress in which it is warm in winter and cool in summer; it is a symbol and a sign. A man should never take off his hat if he asks someone for something. With the exception of only one case: a hat can be removed only when they ask for forgiveness of blood feud.

In Dagestan, a young man, afraid to openly woo a girl he liked, once threw a hat into her window. If the hat remained in the house and did not immediately fly back, then you can count on reciprocity.

It was considered an insult if a hat was knocked off a person's head. If the person himself took off and left the hat somewhere, no one had the right to touch it, realizing that they would deal with its owner.

Journalist Milrad Fatulaev recalls in his article a well-known case when, going to the theater, the famous Lezgin composer Uzeyir Gadzhibekov bought two tickets: one for himself, the second for his hat.

They did not take off their hats indoors either (with the exception of the hood). Sometimes, taking off the hat, they put on a light hat made of cloth. There were also special night hats - mainly for the elderly. Highlanders shaved or cut their heads very short, which also preserved the custom of constantly wearing some kind of headdress.

The oldest form was considered high shaggy hats with a convex top made of soft felt. They were so high that the top of the cap leaned to the side. Information about such hats was recorded by Evgenia Nikolaevna Studenetskaya, a famous Soviet ethnographer, from the old people of Karachays, Balkars and Chechens, who kept the stories of their fathers and grandfathers in their memory.

There was a special kind of hats - shaggy hats. They were made from sheepskin with a long pile outside, padding them with sheepskin with sheared wool. These hats were warmer, better protected from rain and snow flowing into a long fur. For a shepherd, such a shaggy hat often served as a pillow.

For festive dads, they preferred small curly fur of young lambs (kurpei) or imported astrakhan fur.

Circassians in hats. The drawing was kindly provided to me by Timur Dzuganov, an Istrrik scientist from Nalchik.

Astrakhan hats were called "Bukhara". Hats made from the fur of Kalmyk sheep were also valued.

The shape of the fur hat could be varied. In his "Ethnological research on the Ossetians" V.B. Pfaf wrote: “The papakha is strongly subject to fashion: sometimes it is sewn very high, a arshin or more in height, and at other times quite low, so that it is only slightly higher than the caps of the Crimean Tatars.”

It was possible to determine the social status of the highlander and his personal preferences by the hat, only “it is impossible to distinguish a Lezgin from a Chechen, a Circassian from a Cossack by headdress. Everything is quite monotonous,” Milrad Fatullayev remarked subtly.

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. hats made of fur (sheepskin with long wool) were used mainly as shepherd's hats (Chechens, Ingush, Ossetians, Karachays, Balkars).

A high astrakhan hat was common in Ossetia, Adygea, planar Chechnya and rarely in the mountainous regions of Chechnya, Ingushetia, Karachay and Balkaria.

At the beginning of the 20th century, low, almost to the head, tapering hats made of astrakhan fur came into fashion. They were worn mainly in the cities and adjacent areas of planar Ossetia and in Adygea.

Hats were and are expensive, so rich people had them. Rich people had up to 10-15 dads. Nadir Khachilaev said that he bought a cap in Derbent of a unique iridescent golden hue for one and a half million rubles.

After the First World War, a low hat (band 5-7 sam) with a flat bottom made of fabric spread in the North Caucasus. The band was made from kurpei or astrakhan. The bottom, cut from one piece of fabric, was at the level of the top line of the band and was sewn to it.

Such a hat was called a kubanka - for the first time they began to wear it in the Kuban Cossack army. And in Chechnya - with a carbine, because of its low height. Among the youth, it supplanted other forms of papakh, and among the older generation, it coexisted with them.

The difference between Cossack hats and mountain hats is in their diversity and lack of standards. Mountain hats are standardized, Cossack hats are based on the spirit of improvisation. Each Cossack army in Russia was distinguished by its hats in terms of the quality of fabric and fur, shades of color, shape - hemispherical or flat, dressing, sewn-on ribbons, seams, and, finally, in the manner of wearing those very hats.

Hats in the Caucasus were very cherished - they kept them, covering them with a scarf. When traveling to a city or on a holiday in another village, they carried a festive hat with them and put it on only before entering, taking off a simpler hat or a felt hat.

In the next posts - a continuation of the theme of men's hats, unique photos and fashionable hats from Gauthier ...

Since ancient times, the Chechens had a cult of a headdress - both female and male

A Chechen's hat - a symbol of honor and dignity - is part of the costume. “If the head is intact, it should have a hat”; “If you have no one to consult with, consult with a hat” - these and similar proverbs and sayings emphasize the importance and obligation of a hat for a man. With the exception of the hood, hats were not removed indoors either.

When traveling to the city and to important, responsible events, as a rule, they put on a new, festive hat.
Since the hat has always been one of the main items of men's clothing, young people sought to acquire beautiful, festive hats. They were very cherished, kept, wrapped in pure matter.

Knocking a hat off someone was considered an unprecedented insult. A person could take off his hat, leave it somewhere and leave for a while. And even in such cases, no one had the right to touch her, realizing that he would deal with her master.
If a Chechen took off his hat in a dispute or quarrel and hit it on the ground, this meant that he was ready to do anything, to the end.

We know that a woman who took off and threw her handkerchief at the feet of those fighting to the death could stop the fight. Men, on the contrary, cannot take off their hats even in such a situation. When a man asks someone for something and takes off his hat at the same time, then this is considered baseness, worthy of a slave. In Chechen traditions, there is only one exception to this: a hat can be removed only when they ask for a blood feud.

Makhmud Esambaev, the great son of our people, a brilliant dancer, knew the price of a hat well and in the most unusual situations forced him to reckon with Chechen traditions and customs. He, traveling all over the world and being accepted in the highest circles of many states, did not take off his hat to anyone. Mahmoud never, under any circumstances, took off the world-famous hat, which he himself called the crown. Esambaev was the only deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR who sat in a hat at all sessions of the highest authority of the Union. Eyewitnesses say that the head of the Supreme Council L. Brezhnev, before the start of the work of this body, carefully looked into the hall, seeing a familiar hat, said: "Mahmud is in place, you can start." The only person in the Soviet era who had a passport with a headdress. He was the only one in the USSR who had such a passport; even in this he retained the etiquette of the Chechen people - not to take off his hat to anything. He was told that if you don’t take off your headgear, then we have no right to issue a passport, to which he answered briefly: In that case, I don’t need it. So he answered the higher authorities.

M.A. Esambaev, Hero of Socialist Labor, People's Artist of the USSR, throughout his life, creativity carried a high name - Chechen konakh (knight).
Sharing with the readers of his book “My Dagestan” about the features of Avar etiquette and how important it is for everything and everyone to have their own individuality, originality and originality, the national poet of Dagestan Rasul Gamzatov emphasized: “There is a world-famous artist Makhmud Esambaev in the North Caucasus. He dances the dances of different nations. But he wears and never takes off his Chechen cap. Let the motives of my poems be varied, but let them go in a mountain hat.

X abib at the awards ceremony after the fight with Dustin Poirier gave a speech that offended some women in the Caucasus. Women reacted sharply on social networks, calling Habib a sexist and a Freudian, and today the flash mob - photos of women in hats - is gaining momentum.

About this KU wrote the following.

For me, this whole story is divided into 3 parts: about Khabib; about papakha; about the cases in which womenin the North Caucasuswore men's clothes.

About Khabib. Khabib is certainly an outstanding and already made history athlete. It has a tremendous impact on millions of people. In the next 1-2 years, we will observe the politicization of everything related to Khabib and power sports in the Caucasus. We observed this before, but now this process will go in completely different boundaries. Rather, it will be a cross-border process. The dignity with which Khabib declares about the North Caucasus, about his culture and identity, is worthy of respect. But when he tries to be a spiritual leader and go beyond the profession, he does not always succeed as brilliantly as he fights in the octagon.

The victor in Abu Dhabi was a little tongue-tied, but still, it seems to me, he was not going to offend, humiliate women, let alone “show them their place.” I do not admit the thought that he, as a person brought up in traditional culture, does not know what “the honor of a woman” means among the peoples of the Caucasus - how many folklore texts about this; how many blood fights even at the beginning of the twentieth century were arranged because the honor of a woman was hurt!

“If you put on a hat, then you must match it, do not drop your honor and dignity. Our women traditionally do not wear a hat, because a hat (like, for example, a dagger or a belt for a Circassian coat) is an exclusively male attribute, ”I read Khabib’s text that way when I “deciphered” it.

About the hat. Papakha in the North Caucasus is the whole Universe. In many Caucasian cultures, a man, on whose head a hat or a headdress in general, is a priori endowed with such qualities as courage, wisdom, self-esteem. The person who put on the hat seemed to adjust to it, trying to match - after all, the hat did not allow you to bow your head, and therefore - to bow to someone in a broad sense.Many customs of the highlanders are associated with the hat - this is not only a headdress in which it is warm in winter and cool in summer; it is a symbol and a sign. A man should never take off his hat, with the exception of only one case: the hat can be removed when you ask for the forgiveness of the bloodlines.

The administration of the Kuban region, realizing that the highlanders will not accept the custom of taking off their hats indoors, at the end XIX centuries, issued a special order allowing the highlanders to be indoors in hats.

In Dagestan, a young man, afraid to openly woo a girl he liked, once threw a hat in her window. If the hat remained in the house and did not immediately fly back, then you can count on reciprocity.

It was considered an insult if a hat was knocked off a person's head. If a person took off and left a hat somewhere, in no case should it be touched and moved to another place.

Journalist Milrad Fatulaev recalls in his article that, going to the theater, the famous Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Gadzhibekov bought two tickets: one for himself, the second for his hat.

Did women in the North Caucasus wear men's clothes? Yes, they did. In exceptional cases, at weddings or when participating in certain ceremonies. In anthropology, this is called "ceremonial disguise." However, not only women dressed as men, but also men dressed as women.

For example, the ethnographer Vilen Uarziati wrote that “in Central Ossetia - in Urstual, Khudygom, Tyrsyg - at weddings, girls 12–15 years old wore men's clothes, gluing mustaches and pulling hats over their foreheads. In this form, they appeared in the evening towards the end of the wedding feast. Changing their voices, they introduced themselves as guests of the neighboring gorge and made fun of the men who were already tipsy.

In Dagestan, at weddings (v. Batsada, v. Rugudzha) there were constant characters - mummers. The mummers could be men and women, boys and girls. Sometimes a woman dressed up in men's clothes and attached a mustache, or, conversely, a man dressed as a woman. The mummers joked, threw flour and ashes into the crowd, and got dirty with soot. It was not customary to be offended by their jokes.

In with. Ruguja during the wedding, a woman dressed in men's clothes and danced the "male dance" (chirisani).

At the wedding of the Dargins, women-masqueraders were usually sisters, sisters-in-law or aunts of the groom aged 25 to 40 years. They dressed in men's clothes, attached mustaches, attached a dagger to their belt. The face was smeared with soot or a mask of dough was applied to it.

Ruslan Seferbekov, an ethnographer from Dagestan, believes thatsuch ritual disguise “was resorted to to enhance the laughter component of ritual rituals. At the same time, dressing up was a reaction to the strict regulation of gender roles in traditional mountain society.”

A woman could wear men's clothes not only to amuse the audience at weddings, but also on more serious occasions. Among the Abkhazians, if men died, they dressed in men's clothes and took revenge. In rare cases, a woman became an abrek and changed into men's clothes. For example, historian Aslan Mirzoev reports:

“In the history of Kabarda, a rare case is known when a woman became an abrek. Her name was Zurumkhan Shogenova, and her activities date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Zurumkhan was born in the Little Kabardian village of Kanshui (now Nizhny Kurp) into a simple peasant family. When her father died, her mother moved with her four children to her brother Batyrbek Naloev. From a young age, Zurumkhan dressed like a man, carried a weapon, rode a horse, and then became an accomplice of the abreks, with whom she led a life of robbery. Back to top civil war she was about 40 years old. Robbery began to bore her, she began to think about family life. Soon she married a Chechen, and in 1944, when the Chechens were deported, she did not leave her husband and left with everyone for Central Asia. After the death of her husband, she returned to Kabardino-Balkaria and served as a night watchman at the Argudan MTS.

That is, Khabib is not quite right. For women in the Caucasus, a hat is quite possible. And how!

The legendary Taymaskha Gekhinskaya, a Chechen, commanded a detachment during the Caucasian War for 10 years.

Historically, the hat in Azerbaijan is not only a headdress, but a symbol of honor, dignity and masculinity. Traditionally, in our country, sewing a hat as a craft developed in close connection with the history, life and culture of the people. Not accidentally oral folk art preserved many riddles, proverbs and sayings about hats.

The shape and material of this headdress, whose history dates back centuries, as a rule, was an indicator of the social status of the one who wears it. In the old days, men never took off their hats. Appearing in public places without a hat was considered unacceptable.

For centuries, papakh sewing masters, like representatives of other crafts, enjoyed great respect in society. However, over time, young people lost interest in papakhas, and the number of papakha masters decreased significantly.

Master Yagub lives and works in the village of Boradigah, Masalli region, who is well known not only in his native region, but also in neighboring regions, and even in Iran. Yagub Mammadov was born in 1947 in Boradigi, he learned the craft of papakhchi from his grandfather.

The shape and material of this headdress, which has a history dating back centuries, as a rule, was an indicator of the social status of the one who wears it.
© Sputnik / Rahim Zakiroghlu
Master Yagub from the village of Boradigah, Masalli region, has been engaged in this craft for almost half a century.
© Sputnik / Rahim Zakiroghlu
Traditionally, hat sewing as a craft developed in close connection with the history, life and culture of the people.
© Sputnik / Rahim Zakiroghlu

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Papakha in Azerbaijan is not only a headdress, but a symbol of honor, dignity and masculinity

“My grandfather Abulfaz was the most famous papakhchi of our region. I often came to him, watched how he worked and slowly learned everything. Since 1965, I became his student,” the master recalls.

Mammadov graduated from high school, entered the correspondence department of the institute and continued to work. In those years, he continues, orders were received all year round and quite a lot: "And now there are much fewer orders, and even then mostly only in autumn or winter."

According to him, he mainly sews Bukhara papakhas (they got their name from the city of Bukhara, from where they brought leather for papakhas - ed.), and either elderly people or mullahs wear them. The master says that earlier hats were treated with great respect: "In the old days, theater goers bought two tickets - one for themselves, the other for the hat. But now the bukhara hat has gone out of fashion."

The master says that earlier he sewed 30-35 papas in a single winter month, and 15-20 papas in the remaining months, but now orders are received for only 5-10 papas. At the same time, Mammadov is sure that it is possible to sew a high-quality hat only if you really love your job. In addition, you must have at least a minimal artistic taste.

“The master must know whether a hat is suitable or not for a person. For example, a small hat will not suit a full person, but on the contrary, it will suit a thin person,” Mammadov says.

He also spoke about the fact that the skin for dads is brought from Uzbekistan: “Little lambs are killed by strangulation in order to preserve curls of wool. The resulting wool is wrapped in gauze and kept in a special place for two days. Then the skin is salted, its reverse part is cleaned, process and eventually get the material for the papakha".

Master Yagub says that great importance also has the correct tailoring of the hat. When sewing the inside of the hat, he sews the felt with a sewing machine, and the skin - only by hand. Some craftsmen, Mammadov continues, in order to quickly complete the order, sew the skin with a machine. But it’s better not to do this, because after a while the seams on the hat begin to gather, and then folds form in this place, and the hat deteriorates.

As for prices, they range from 100 to 300 manats on average, but the master says that he is always ready to negotiate with the client.

The master taught this craft to his brother Zahid, and now they work together. Young people are not interested in this craft, because today Mammadov is the only master in sewing papakh in the whole district ...