History of the Pamirs!!! One of the earliest descriptions of the Pamirs can be found in the diaries of the Chinese Xuan-Tsang, who passed through it as a Buddhist pilgrim in the summer of 642. But Europe learned about the existence of the Pamirs much later - in the 13th century, after the publication of the diaries of the Venetian Marco Polo, who visited it in 1270, traveling along the Silk Road with other merchants. His memories seemed so incredible that they were questioned for a long time. And only now can one be surprised with what amazing accuracy he described everything that he saw. The very interpretation of the word “Pamir” still causes numerous disputes: some believe that it came from the abbreviation of the words “upa-Meru”, that is, “the country above Meru”, the divine mountain of the Indians, the habitat of the god Shiva, denoting the center of the Universe (it mentioned in the Indian poem "Mahabharata", 6th century BC); others from “Poi Mehr”, which means “foot of the sun”; the third - from the Chinese “Po-mi-lo”, that is, “land of the rising sun”. But recent historical and linguistic studies are inclined to believe that the word “Pamir” should be translated as “Country of the Aryans” (as well as Iran and Kashmir). In the legends of the Iranians, this is the legendary country of Aryana-Vaija, at the source of the Oxus (Amu Darya), from where Zarathustra came and from where they began their settlement throughout Western Asia in ancient times. In the Indian tradition, this is the mystical center of the universe, where the earth connects with the sky, the source of knowledge and world order. According to legend, a person burdened with sins does not dare to approach him, and a righteous person who sets foot on this earth never returns back. The Pamirs have long attracted the attention of scientists, but many of the secrets of its history have remained unrevealed. Despite the fact that for a long time small groups of related tribes from neighboring territories penetrated into the Pamirs, over the past centuries little has changed in the material culture, social structure and folk beliefs of the local residents.The closeness and unity of the ancestors of various Indo-Iranian tribes is evidenced by their common self-name It was widely known both from the most ancient Iranian and Indian texts, and from other sources. The modern comes from the same name - from the ancient Iranian (Country of the Aryans); Indian (Country of the Aryans) - Northern India or part of it with its center in the interfluve of Jammu and Ganges t i.e. one of the oldest Aryan centers in India) Avestan (Aryan expanse) - the legendary homeland of the Iranians; names of a number of Iranian tribes of fiery groups: the Median tribe of the Aryans (tribe of the Aryans), the Sarmatian tribe of the Aryans, the tribal union of the Alans (as well as the self-name of the Ossetians in their Nart epic - allon - from the ancient Iranian Aryan and shаgni (shugni) Pamir tribal union, etc.History of the Pamirs!!! -Part 2. Due to its inaccessibility, the Pamirs have preserved not only ancient Aryan beliefs and way of life, but also a dozen relict East Iranian languages, the ancient Persian language - originating from ancient Aryan dialects (they were aptly defined at the beginning of the 20th century by the largest scientist from St. Petersburg, linguist and philologist Professor I .I. Zarubin as a “tangle of languages”) The Pamir languages include: 1) the Shugnan-Rushan language group, including: Shugnan with the Badzhuv subdialect, Rushan with the Khuf subdialect, Bartang and Roshorv, 2) Yazgulyam language, 3) Wakhan language, 4) Ishkashim language, 5) Munjan language, 6) Sanglich language, as well as recently extinct languages: 7) Sargulyam and 8) Old Vanj. Along with these languages, the so-called Inter-Pamir Farsi is also widespread in the Pamirs (this term was introduced into scientific use by I.I. Zarubin and his student A.Z. Rosenfeld), which serves for communication between all nationalities. Religious rituals and folklore works are performed on it, poetry is written, rock inscriptions and epitaphs are created. Based on historical and linguistic research, many of the largest Indologists and Iranianists of the past were inclined to consider the Pamirs as the cradle of all Indo-European peoples. Starting from ancient times, the Aryan tribes, exploring new territories, settled in several migration waves and were in close contact with each other for a long time, finally dividing only towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. on Indo-Iranians and ancient Europeans. Naturally, contacts between them occurred later, in the form of constant migrations of individual tribes. By the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. The Aryans are already invading much of Greece, Iran and India. Moving through the mountainous territories of the Pamirs and Hindu Kush, many nomads settled down, adopting the related culture of the local people who had lived here since Neolithic times and whose early migrations may have formed the first centers of Indo-European civilization. Their primitive - natural and harsh, but at the same time fair life, personified their own past for passing peoples.