It is amazing the new things one learns. Earlier this year I did a dna test which analyzed my at-dna on each chromosome. I found I had dna from Dagestan- a place i had never heard of before. I wondered how this entered my family. I was studying my mother's 2x great grandfather (who was of J1a2 y-dna) who was a crypto-Jewish Hazzan or Rabbi in Athlone in Ireland who was descended from William Annyas (Anes/Eanes) the first openly Jewish Mayor of Youghal in Ireland. His grandfather was Gil Anes of Belmonte in Portugal. What i was puzzled about was how this Spanish/portuguese Jewish family could belong to J1a2 of which most of them were from the area of the Caucasus Mountains and surrounding areas. Further research demonstrate that this family were descended from an Armenian Jewish merchant who came to Iberia in the 12th century.
I then remembered about my Dagestan dna and was reading about the Mountain Jews and was amazed that there was an semi-Independent Jewish state from 1630-1800 called Juhud Kata (the Jewish Valley ) in southern Dagestan with its capital city of Aba Sava. How amazing that I had never heard of it before. Have you?
Wikipedia under the entry of Mountain Jews has this:
"The Jewish Valley"
By the early 17th century, Mountain Jews formed many small settlements throughout mountain valleys of Dagestan.[23] One valley, located 10 km south of Derbent, close to the shore of the Caspian Sea, was predominantly populated by Mountain Jews. Their Muslim neighbors called this area "Jewish Valley." The Jewish Valley grew to be a semi-independent Jewish state, with its spiritual and political center located in its largest settlement of Aba-Sava (1630-1800).[23] The valley prospered until the end of the 18th century, when its settlements were brutally destroyed in the war between Sheikh-Ali-Khan, who swore loyalty to the Russian Empire, and Surkhai-Khan, the ruler of Kumukh.[citation needed] Many Mountain Jews were slaughtered, with survivors escaping to Derbent where they received the protection of Fatali Khan, the ruler of Quba Khanate.