http://turkicworld.org/turkic/29Huns/Huns_Gmyrya/GmyryaHunCountryRu.djvu (In Russian)

The author L. Б. Gmyrya is a PhD, DSc of historical sciences, a senior scientific associate of IAE DNC of the Russian Academy of Science Institute, is an archeologist, an expert in the area of early Middle Ages. She penned monograph “Caspian Dagestan during epoch of the Great Movement of Peoples (Makhachkala, 1993), and tens of other scientific publications  (http://www.ihae.ru/personnel/Gmirya.htm, in Russian).

After the groundbreaking work of Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen (1973) The World of the Huns, and seminal works of L.Gumilev Ancient Türks (1964) and The Huns in China (1974), this work is probably the most important contribution to the history of the Huns, not because it attempts to paint a wide synopsis like the above two authors, but because the monograph mines the microcosm of the Caspian Huns to the depth far exceeding the depth of the prior wide-spectrum outlines. It suffices to state that L.B. Gmyrya attracted 678 references to many aspects of the Hunnic life in the Caspian littoral, exhausting all known ancient sources and analyzing the prior scholarship in Russian-language. The case of Caspian Huns is a proverbial test-case, blessed by availability of multi-faceted sources from local Armenian and Georgian authors, and from a range of areal players including Byzantine, Roman, Arabic, Persian, Jewish, and Slavic authors.

Probably due to technical limitations of the tumultuous time around 1995 period, the monograph did not include customary indexes guiding a reader through the maze of the names, cities and geographical locations, and political events, nor did it include a chronology. These shortcomings are ameliorated with the electronic media that allows similar access in search for quick references. An acceptable chronology listing can be found at M.I. Artamonov (1962) Khazar History, with a caveat that it follows the Arabic anopia to the ethnic composition of the “Khazars”.A quite extensive introductory section with panoramic background of the historical scene, and review of various angles within historiographical approaches would also make the monograph more universal, but since the background references became readily available on-line shortly after publication, its absence became a minor glitch. The nearly complete absence of archeological information, with its typological insights, anthropological and biological specifics probably reflects the state of affairs at the time of publication, and the confinement of the scholarship to exclusively Russian sources adds to the disconcert. L.B. Gmyrya have performed a monumental task, bringing to the surface innumerable details in the area that not only straddles the histories of the Eastern and Western Huns, but also carries a reflection of the Northern-Central and South-Central Huns.

The Caspian Huns fit neatly into the partial maps of Hunnic migrations composed by M.Erdy, who archeologically traced Hunnic migrations from east to the Central Europe, without addressing the Caspian Huns and South-Central Huns. The maps of M. Erdy do not show the artifacts of the Hunnic branch in Dagestan and its vicinity, but that does not mean that they were not found.

The monograph contributes mightily to one highly speculated and thoroughly obfuscated subject of the Caucasian Aguania, floodlighted by the Armenian sources. The story about the Aguanian King of Maskuts and Huns Sanesan allows an insight into otherwise murky subject, the temporal correlation between the Maskuts (Alans) and Huns, which for a time puts the Kayi Huns in a secondary position in respect to the Maskuts. That signals that the Huns did not come to the S.Caucasia as powerful conquerors, but rather as refugees seeking shelter and patronage from the Maskut-Massaget tribes. That also signals that paralleling the Caucasian Huns - Western Huns situation, the Caucasian Maskuts were an appendix of the Middle Asian Maskuts, an extension of a greater Maskut power centered in the greater Horezm area, and not adequately reflected in the surviving written sources.

Poor print quality hurts the accuracy of this posting, but fortunately the contents are not impacted. Page numbers of the original are shown at the beginning of the page in blue. Page breaks in continuous text are indicated by //. Posting notes and explanations, added to the text of the author and not noted specially, are shown in (blue italics) in parentheses and in blue boxes, or highlighted by blue headers.

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INTRODUCTION 1. ANCIENT AUTHORS ABOUT CASPIAN DAGESTAN		4
1.	Antique and Early Byzantian writers	8
2.	Syrian chronographs and historians	19
3.	Armenian historians	22
4.	Aluankian (Albanian) historians	26
5.	Arabian geographers and historians	30
2. CASPIAN COUNTRY
1.	Limits of the Huns (2nd-4th centuries)	46
2.	Country of the Huns (5th-7th centuries)	54
3.	Caspian political centers in the 8th century	66
“Hun Country” - Possession Semender		67
“Balandjar Country”		76
“Vabandar Territory”		82
“Haydak Land”		83
“Khazar's Country”		85
Historical Geography		86
3. CASPIAN PEOPLES		89
1.	Population of the “Huns' country”	91
2.	Endoethnonym of the “Huns' country” inhabitants	101
3.	Language of the “Huns' country” population	103
4.	Outward appearance of the Caspian Huns	106
4. NATIONAL ECONOMY OF THE HUNS
1.	Cattle breeding, crafts, agriculture	115
2.	Craft and trade	119
3.	War as a means of enrichment	127
5. CITIES IN THE HUNS COUNTRY
1.	Cities	134
2.	Houses of inhabitants	156
6. GREAT PRINCE OF HUNS
1.	Consolidation of the Hunnish union	164
2.	Power and weakness of Hun Khan  authority	166
3.	Closest circle of the Khan	171
7. ARMY AND WAR
1.	Huns Army	174
2.	Soldier's armaments and equipment	178
3.	Battle tactics	184
4.	Military campaigns and military assistance	187
5.	Caspian Huns and Arabo-Khazarian wars	204
8. SUBJECTS OF HUN “GRAND PRINCE”
1.	Commoners	207
2.	Population of subject territories	209
3.	Slaves	210
4.	Family and marriage	212
9. GODS AND CULTS
1.	Nature Deities	219
2.	Fertility cult	221
3.	Tengri-khan god	237
4.	Amulets and fetishs	239
5.	Priests and cult clergy	241
10. ON A PATH TO THE WORLD RELIGIONS
1.	Christianity	244
2.	Islam and Judaism	253
11. BURIAL
1.	Funeral ceremony	259
2.	Memorial ceremonies	263
3.	Ancestor cult	267
LITERATURE		269
WORKS OF RESEARCHERS		274
ABBREVIATIONS		282
CONTENTS		284

LITERATURE

L. B. GMYRYA
THE HUN COUNTRY AT THE CASPIAN GATE
Caspian Dagestan during epoch of Great Movement of the Peoples
Dagestan book publishing house, Makhachkala, 1995, 228 pp
© Гмыря Л.Б. 1995
ISВN 5-297-01099-3
Gmyrja L.B., 1995