Zal
Lak · deity · Lak traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Zal is the supreme sky-god of the Laks, whose name is one with the everyday Lak word zallu, 'master' or 'owner', so that the deity is quite literally 'the Lord'. He presides over the heavens, over rain, and over the fate of the highland communities of the Kazikumukh uplands. When the Laks, reputedly the first people of Daghestan to receive Islam, adopted the new faith, the old name attached without friction to the God of monotheism, which is one reason the pre-Islamic figure is thinly attested in narrative and survives chiefly in vocabulary, oaths, and the agrarian rites that petition him for rain over the barley terraces.
Domains
- celestial sovereignty
- rain and harvest
Powers
- governs the heavens
- grants rain and harvest
Epithets
- Заллу — the Lord, the MasterУслар П.К. Этнография Кавказа. Языкознание. IV. Лакский язык. Тифлис, 1890. (primary)
Sources
- Zal is the name of the supreme celestial deity in Lak mythology, cognate with the ordinary word zallu 'master, lord'.: Мифы народов мира: Энциклопедия / Гл. ред. С.А. Токарев. Т. 1. М.: Советская энциклопедия, 1980. Ст. «Кавказско-иберийских народов мифология». (secondary); Услар П.К. Этнография Кавказа. Языкознание. IV. Лакский язык. Тифлис, 1890. (primary)
- The high god is invoked in Lak agrarian and rainmaking ritual as giver of rain and harvest.: Булатова А.Г. Традиционные праздники и обряды народов горного Дагестана в XIX – начале XX в. Л.: Наука, 1988. (secondary)