Lak

The Laks, who call themselves Lakru, are a Northeast Caucasian people of the arid interior of Dagestan, grouped around their ancient fortress capital Kumukh. From the eighth century its rulers bore the title of shamkhal; Arab armies built a mosque there in 777.

The shamkhals accepted Islam at the end of the thirteenth century, and in the fourteenth century Kumukh became the gazi-center of Gazi-Kumukh, the principal base from which Islam was carried across Dagestan in the following century. When the shamkhalate broke up in 1642 there emerged the Gazikumukh Khanate, whose rulers balanced between Safavid Persia, Ottoman Turkey and the advancing Russian Empire.

With thin soil and no forests, the Laks lived mainly by transhumant sheep herding and specialized crafts: Kumukh was famed for jewelers and coppersmiths, while other villages produced saddlers, masons and even travelling acrobats.