Islamic component in calendar rituals and folk medicine of the peoples of Dagestan: traditions and modernity

The article examines the types and forms of manifestation of the Islamic component in the calendar rituals and folk medicine of the peoples of Dagestan that have survived to our time. On the basis of field material and literary sources, the author cites the calendar holidays of the first furrow, the beginning of spring, the collection of edible herbs, medicine. The Islamic component in these holidays and rituals is manifested by the participation of a Muslim clergyman in them, the remembrance of Allah, the recitation of verses from the Koran, the conduct of the mawlid and the ritual of zikr, and the distribution of alms sadaqa. This component has been woven into agrarian holidays; meteorological ceremonies with «binding the rain», the use of a horse’s skull, wooden and stone boards, «overturned stones»; «sacred» trees, springs and stones in the rituals of traditional medicine. Collected in a special sacred period of time (pre-dawn hours before morning prayer) on the day of Eid al-Adha or the holiday of spring, spring water became similar to zamzam water and acquired healing properties. There are no analogues adapted to Muslim holidays, calendar and household rituals, built on the tops of mountains and passes, special religious buildings of Tabasarans – «Prayer houses». According to the author, the cited calendar rituals and methods of traditional medicine belong to the category of syncretic so-called “everyday” or “folk Islam” and can serve as an argument in countering religious extremism. The reasons for the preservation and functioning of traditional rituals and beliefs at the beginning of the XXIst century should be sought in the stability of ancient beliefs and rituals adapted to the requirements of the Sufi form of Islam, the peculiarities of the mentality and ethnic psychology of the Dagestanis adherent to conservatism and traditional way of life.