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Azərbaycan folkloru  və milli-mədəni müxtəliflik 
 
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Galina Woodova PhD,  
Charles University, Prague 
 
LAHIJ ‘TOGETHERNESS’ THROUGH SHARING IN LIFE CYCLE EVENTS 
 
Key words: Ismayilli, Lahij, unique, religious, ethnic, national 
Açar sözlər: İsmayıllı, Lahıc, unikal, ayin, millət, milli 
Ключевые слова: Исмаиллы, Лагидж, уникальный, церемония, нация, национальный
 
 
This article expresses gratefulness to hospitable Azerbaijan, to AUL, which accepted me as a 
doctoral candidate and mostly for the open doors of Lahij. It reflects upon three years of exploring 
the Lahij identity through the fieldwork method of observant participation.
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 The resulting doctoral 
thesis was called “Lahij, Living Heritage of Azerbaijan”. This study focuses on the close-knit 
community partaking in two key life events: wedding and mourning. 
Azerbaijan emphasizes multiculturalism. Lahij is built in Eastern architectural style and 
surrounded by mountainous wilderness. The Lahij people, loyal Azerbaijani citizens, are bilingual 
in titular Azeri and an old variety of South West Iranian vernacular. The language of wider 
communication, Azeri, has mostly replaced the Tat language elsewhere
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. Mountain Jews in the 
Quba region have kept ‘Tat’ alive, but call it Juhuri. The Lahijans call their mother tongue Loyishi 
according to their heartland. While related to Neo Persian (Farsi), Tajik and Dari, it has kept some 
archaisms from Middle Persian. Loyishi even contains some concepts from the oldest Iranian 
tongue, Avestan; it also became hybridized with Turkic Azeri and borrowed from Russian. The 
current tongue of religious instruction, for both boys and girls, is Arabic facilitating reading of the 
Quran. The settlement of Lahij craftsmen was thriving on the Silk Road. The coppersmith became a 
synonym for Lahij; however, many other kinds of trades and crafts are still practiced. When 
manufactured goods flooded the market, resilient craftsman tried to adjust their artifacts for 
tourism. Many young people leave home in search for jobs. Some parents predict that the patient 
daily work of skillful hands is becoming a forlorn trait. Nevertheless, Lahij, with its particular ethos 
as a whole, still functions as a living museum. Positive traditional values, attitudes and behavior, 
common to Turkic and Iranian lands of old, still characterize the Lahij ways. This is best illustrated 
by rites of passage such as weddings, births, circumcisions, homecomings of soldiers and sharing 
grief together. 
While genuine community sharing and caring is based on a simple principle, it is disappearing 
in contemporary, urbanized settings. Though large crowds gather for Baku weddings, the events are 
impersonal and mass-produced. The Shadlik Sarai (‘Palace of Happiness’) gets rented for an 
occasion lasting but a few hours. This type of a chain restaurant is a neutral, public space, catered 
for by paid professionals on a background of loud music. Nevertheless, the Lahij society still draws 
together to share both joy and sadness in the warmth of their homes and courtyards. 
A wedding
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 is considered the most auspicious occasion in Lahij. Starting a new family 
counts as one goal reached within the best will of God. Specific blessings are given for the 
happiness, fruitfulness and faithfulness of the couple. Purity before the wedding and exclusive 
intimacy of the couple is expected equally of all. The neighbors watch out for each other ensuring 
required decency.
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A divorce or remarriage upon widowhood is still an exception.  
An upcoming wedding is announced by a red ribbon tied above the gates of the two host 
families. A group of five local musicians, playing traditional instruments guide people through the 
                                                            
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 The particular approach changed qualitatively from typical anthropological ‘participant observation’, through an 
attitude of a learner.  
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 For the sociolinguistics of local language attitudes see: Clifton J.M. Studies of Languages of Azerbaijan, Vol.2. 
North Eurasia Group SIL International and Institute of International Relations Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, St 
Petersburg and Baku, 2002. 
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 Rəcəbli gives more information on the customs of engagement, the groom’s and bride’s part in the wedding, and 
the main wedding ceremony in Azerbaijan in The Ethnography of Azerbaijan II, pp. 318- 331). 
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 Suleymanov, M. Azerbaycan Diyari Lahic [Lahij Frontier of Azerbaijan], Baku: Bilik, 1995. 

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Azərbaycan folkloru  və milli-mədəni müxtəliflik 
 
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order of events with their rhythms and melodies. Each person can help to create the atmosphere of 
the favorite celebration. Customarily, a male relative of the hosting family sits by the door marking 
each financial contribution. The concrete sum is recorded. The hosts are expected to return equal 
amounts to today’s guests, who will in their turn host their family wedding. This reciprocity is a 
token of security or an investment toward the next shared event. In this way, even the poorest 
couple can afford a generous wedding reception.  
Həmişə bə ərsi! (May you always be at a wedding!) This cheerful greeting resounds as people 
meet on the streets on the day of the wedding. The wedding traditionally consists of two 
consecutive parties: the girl’s and then the boy’s. Two seasoned women cooks prepare festive meals 
over an open fire in huge qəjqunhon (pots) placed on tripods. Traditionally they make bih dulma 
(minced meat in rice, wrapped in quince leafs) and oş pilov (rice pilaw with tenderly cooked cubed 
meat in fried onions, apricots, raisins and horse chestnuts). For celebrations, the museum provides 
an especially large, old, coal fueled samovar. The museum director Maarif serves freshly made hot 
black tea
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 in armudi stəkan (pear shaped glass).  
Women arrange salads and wash unending piles of dishes. Girls step in as waitresses, carrying 
filled plates and drinks to the guests, who are seated on benches by tables in a courtyard. Little boys 
play games like tug-o-war. Guests bring on their heads xunçəhon, gift trays full of candies, home-
baked goods like baklavo (a cookie filled with walnut and honey), şəkərbura (a moon-shaped, sugar 
filled cookie) and şəkərçörəyi (a heart shaped cookie tasting like a Scottish shortbread). Most 
copper or silver trays present gifts ordered by a bride such as new slippers, nighties, a bathrobe, 
sweaters, underwear, perfume, soap or makeup.  
At the girl’s wedding, the bride sits in front of the mirror with candles reflecting light. The 
ladies place long strips of red cloth around her neck while wishing her happiness. In a similar way, 
red cloths are presented to the bridegroom in his home, only without a mirror. Henna is used to 
decorate people’s hands. These practices are about ensuring happiness.  
Blessings are given for the happiness, fruitfulness and faithfulness of the couple. As people 
mingle, they express a desire to share in celebrating future weddings of their children and 
grandchildren. As they say “If God wills.” The key wedding blessings are Xudo işmunə xoşbəxt 
sozı! (May God make you happy!), Bə ye co gər boşınd! (May you keep warm together!), Kük vo 
kilərə gərdınd! (May you raise boys and girls!) The hearers return a blessing –En tyiş boşı! (May it 
be that way for you, too!) Be elhöntı, be nəvəhontış boşı! (May your children and grandchildren 
also be happily married!) Bə ərsi kilontı! (At your daughter’s wedding!) These blessings confirm a 
hope of sharing joy again. 
During my stay in Lahij, in the summer of 2013, after a month of Ramazon fasting, the 
eagerly expected wedding of Camal and Nuriyə finally took place. It was the first one after the last 
Iftor (the breaking of the fast). The couple liked each other and had waited for five years to get 
married. Both sets of parents decided that the groom should get his degree in informatics first. 
Camal opened an Internet café and a photography shop on the main street. The bride worked in a 
cozy post office. Both were popular figures in Lahij.  
The bridegroom’s party was charged with an atmosphere of excitement. Friends expressed 
happiness through vigorous dancing in a circle around the groom. The musical quintet kept playing 
faster and faster as the culmination was approaching.  
The procession waited for the sunset to fetch the bride from her parents’ home. As soon as the 
darkness set in, the men rose and held the lit up torches high. The musicians led by playing, and the 
father and uncles of the groom and others followed. People would come out of their homes and greet 
each other joyfully Həmişə bə ərsi! (Always at a wedding!) Upon the arrival to the courtyard of the 
bride’s home the procession chanted, “We are here, we are here, we have come to get the bride!”  
Camal’s father and relatives briskly walked up the stairs into the bride’s parents’ living room. 
An attractive, see-through, red veil ‘covered’ Nuriyə’s face. When it was lifted, tears were rolling 
from her beautiful, highlighted eyes. For the bride, erus, it was a bittersweet moment. She could be 
                                                            
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 People in Azerbaijan usually drink tea by sipping it through the sugar cubes between their teeth. 

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