The Godoberi are one of the Andi-Dido peoples of

Dagestan Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North C ...

. They numbered 1,425 in 1926 and about 4,500 in 2007. They live mainly in the three villages of Godoberi (abt 2500), Ziberkhali (abt 60) and Beledi (abt 10) in the

Botlikhsky District Botlikhsky District (russian: Ботлихский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #16 and municipalLaw #6 district (raion), one of the forty-one in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia. It is located in the west of the republic. The area of ...

. About 1800 Godoberis live on the plains of Dagestan in Terechnoye (close to the city of Khasavyurt). Most Godoberi are followers of

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagre ...

. They had their own feudal free community that had a loose relationship with the

Avar Khanate The Avar Khanate, the Avar Nutsaldom ( av, Avar Nutsallhi; russian: Аварское ханство), also known as Khundzia or Avaria, was a long-lived Avar state, which controlled mountainous parts of Dagestan (in the North Caucasus) from the ...

prior to the annexation of the area to Russia in 1806. During the transition from Czarist to Communist rule many Godoberi became involved in nationalistic and pan-Islamic movements. Among these were Firkatul-Vedzhan. Large numbers of the supporters of such movements were killed by Soviet authorities around 1930.

References

Sources

Kolga et al., ''

The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire ''The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire'' is a book about the small nations of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and Russia and some other post-Soviet states of today. It was published in Estonian in 1991 and in English in 2001. T ...

'', p. 129-132. {{Peoples of the Caucasus Ethnic groups in Dagestan Muslim communities of Russia Peoples of the Caucasus