Dagestan – History, Culture, Identity provides an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of Dagestan, a strategically important republic of the Russian Federation which borders Chechnya, Georgia and Azerbaijan, and its people.

It outlines Dagestan’s rich and complicated history, from 5th c ACE to post USSR, as seen from the viewpoint of the Dagestani people. Chapters feature the new age of social media, urban weddings, modern and traditional medicine, innovative food cultivation, the little-known history of Mountain Jews during the Soviet period, flourishing heroes of sport and finance, emerging opportunities in ethno-tourism and a recent Dagestani music revival. In doing so, the authors examine the large number of different ethnic groups in Dagestan, their languages and traditions, and assess how the people of Dagestan are coping and thriving despite the changes brought about by globalisation, new technology and the modern world: through which swirls an increasing sense of identity in an indigenous multi-ethnic society.

Robert Chenciner was a Visiting Academic at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. He was an honorary member of the Dagestan Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Magomedkhan Magomedkhanov is Head of the Ethnography Institute of the Dagestan Scientific Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences, Makhachkala, Republic of Dagestan, Russian Federation.