Dagestan

**Dagestan** is a federal subject of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus region. Dagestan has a population of nearly 3 million, and its people are known as _Dagestani_. Its capital city is Makhachkala.

## Etymology

The name comes from two combined Turkic and Persian words, _dag_ which means mountain in the Turkic languages, and _stan_ which means land in the Persian language. Therefore, the literal translation of Dagestan is **Land of the Mountains**.

## People

Dagestan has the status of "republic" in Russia and has its own constitution and official languages. Republics in Russia are the home of its ethnic minorities (those who are not Russians), and usually one or two nationalities have a majority of the population in each republic. But in Dagestan, there are over 30 different nationalities (the largest of which are the Avar, Dargwa, Lak, Lezgian, Rutulians, Tabasaran), and none of these form a majority. This is because the mountains in the region make it hard for people to move around. These people speak 30 different languages, but use Russian as their lingua franca to communicate between each other.

Most people of Dagestan are Muslim and belong to the Shafi`i school of Sunni Islam.

### Famous people

- Rasul Gamzatov
- Imam Shamil
- Shaykh Said afandi al-Chirkawi
- Khabib Abdulmanapovich Nurmagomedov
- Islam Ramazanovich Makhachev

## Sources

- Islam in Dagestan
- Official website of Dagestani government

## Infobox (russian federal subject)

- **en name**: Republic of Dagestan
- **ru name**: Республика Дагестан
- **image map**: Map of Russia (2014–2022) - Dagestan (Crimea disputed).svg
- **image coa**: Coat of Arms of Dagestan.svg
- **coa caption**: Coat of arms of Dagestan, Coat of arms
- **image flag**: Flag of Dagestan.svg
- **flag caption**: Flag of the Republic of Dagestan, Flag
- **anthem**: State Anthem of the Republic of Dagestan

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- **political status**: Republic
- **political status link**: Republics of Russia
- **federal district**: North Caucasian Federal District, North Caucasian
- **economic region**: North Caucasus economic region, North Caucasus
- **adm ctr type**: Capital
- **adm ctr name**: Makhachkala
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- **official lang list**: Aghul language, Aghul, Avar language, Avar, Azerbaijani language, Azerbaijani, Chechen language, Chechen, Dargwa language, Dargwa, Kumyk language, Kumyk, Lezgian language, Lezgian, Lak language, Lak, Nogai language, Nogai, Rutul language, Rutul, Tabasaran language, Tabasaran, Tat language (Caucasus), Tat, Tsakhur language, Tsakhur
- **pop 2010census**: 2910249
- **pop 2010census rank**: 12th
- **urban pop 2010census**: 45.2%
- **rural pop 2010census**: 54.8%
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- **area km2**: 50300
- **area km2 rank**: 52nd
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- **established date**: January 20, 1921
- **license plates**: 05
- **iso**: RU-DA
- **gov as of**: October 2017
- **leader title**: Head of the Republic of Dagestan, Head
- **leader name**: Sergey Melikov (_acting_)
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- **legislature**: People's Assembly of Dagestan, People's Assembly
- **website**: http://www.e-dag.ru/
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- **date**: October 2017