The Kaitag people themselves did not preserve ancient legends about the origin of themselves. In pre-revolutionary and Soviet literature, there were theories about the
Mongolian and
Oghuz roots of the Kaitag people, held in particular by orientalist
Vasily Bartold. In Soviet times, the Mongolic theory appeared in some works of linguists: For example,
Nikolai Dmitriev believed that the modern Kaitag people had lost their
Mongolic language save for very few vocabulary elements. Meanwhile orientalist
Vladimir Minorsky referred to this theory as "pure delusion". According to him, the name Kaitag is attested with various spelling errors by Arabic authors as early as the 9–10th centuries. The history of the Kaitag people is traditionally covered within the framework of their family ties with other Dagestani peoples, in particular with the
Dargins. Recent genetic studies also revealed ties with the Dagestan peoples, showing that the most common haplogroup among the Kaitag people is
J1, which also predominates among the Dargins (70–80%, up to 91%). Kaitag people founded the
Kaitag Utsmiate, which was one of the princely possessions in Dagestan with a ruler known as an
utsmi. The military and political power of the utsmi was made up of the Upper Kaitag and Dargin free societies of Utsmi-Dargo,
Akusha-Dargo, Kaba-Dargo, Burkun Dargo, Muira, Gapsh, Syurga. Utsmi usually sent a newborn son to them for
fosterage to cement a political alliance. The capital of the Utsmiate was
Kala Koreysh – later,
Urkarakh,
Majalis and
Bashly also grew in importance. Since the 1860s, the Kaitag people have been included in the
Kaitago-Tabasaran district of the
Dagestan region. According to
the 1926 census, the Kaitag people numbered 14,400. Beginning with the
1939 Soviet census, they were included within the count of ethnic Dargins. == References ==