Avar

Avar refers to the Avar people and their language, native to the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, Russia. The Avar are one of Dagestan’s largest ethnic groups, with communities across the republic's lowland and mountainous areas and a substantial diaspora in other parts of Russia and the Caucasus. Historically, they formed the core of the Avar Khanate, a regional polity that exercised influence in the Caucasus from the 15th through the 19th centuries before being incorporated into the Russian Empire during the Caucasian War.

Avar (Avaric) is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by Avar communities in Dagestan and in diaspora communities. It lies in the Avar–Andic branch of the Dagestanian sub-branch of the Northeast Caucasian language family. The language comprises multiple dialects with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility and has a standard literary form used in education and media. Modern Avar is written primarily in the Cyrillic script; historical scripts have included others. The grammar is polysynthetic and rich in affixes, with complex verb morphology and a subject–object–verb word order.

Culture and religion: Islam, principally Sunni and following the Shafi'i school, has been the dominant faith among Avars since the medieval period, with regional Sufi influences in some villages. Traditional Avar music, dance, weaving, and metalwork are distinctive elements of their cultural heritage. Social organization has included clan and village structures, with customary law and hospitality playing important roles in community life.

Diaspora and modern status: In addition to Dagestan, Avar communities exist in larger Russian cities and in neighboring regions, where the language and cultural associations work to preserve heritage through education and media.