Nakh peoples
These are chiefly the ethnic Chechen, Ingush and Bats peoples of the North Caucasus, including closely related minor or historical groups.
Starting in the second half of the 19th century, the term was used by some Russian officers, historians and linguists for both the Chechen and Ingush nations (and sometimes for the Batsbi, notably by Peter von Uslar).
[5] The famous Russian linguist Peter von Uslar, who studied the North Caucasian languages, also referred to both nations in 1888 as "Nakhchuy"/"Nakhchiy".
they always confirm their unity of tribe, expressing themselves: "We are common brothers (wai tsa vezherey detsy)" or "We are the same Nakhchoy (wai tsa nakhchoy du)".However, it was mentioned by Peter Simon Pallas in the late 18th century that a clear distinction between self-designation of the Ingush and Chechens had already existed: There is a tribe of people differing entirely from all other inhabitants of the Caucasus, in language as well as in stature, and features of the countenance: the Galgai or Ingush, also referred to as Lamur, meaning "inhabitants of mountains".
The term Nakhchiy has also been connected to the city Nakhchivan and the nation of Nakhchamatyan (mentioned in the 7th-century Armenian work Ashkharhatsuyts) by many Soviet and modern historians.
[13] Linguists like Arbi Vagapov have also pointed out that similar terms are found in other Northeast Caucasian languages such as Rutul where "Nukhchi" translates to "Tribesman".
[49][50][51][52] The famous Georgian historian and linguist Ivane Javakhishvili proposed to use Ghalghaï (Georgian: Ghilghuri or Ghlighvi)[53] as a general name or classification for the Ingush, Chechen and Bats languages: "Chachnuri" (Chechen) – i.e. "Nakhchouri" (Nakhchoy), "Ingushuri" (Ingush) – i.e. "Kisturi" (Kist) in the North Caucasus, and "Tsovuri" (Tsova) – i.e. "Batsburi" (Batsbi) in Georgia, in the Tushin community, constitute another separate group, which currently does not have its own common distinct name.
In ancient times, Greek and Roman geographers called the native inhabitants of the middle and eastern parts of the North Caucasus – "Geli" and "Legi".
It is with this in mind that I choose to present this group of languages – Chachnuri (Chechen), Kisturi (Ingush) and Tsovuri (Tsova, i.e. Batsbi) — under the general name "Ghilghuri" (Ghalghaï)Traditionally, Nakh peoples were known as a society with a highly developed and complex clan system.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a couple of Circassian tribes overthrew their traditional aristocracy and established a democratic, egalitarian society, with some adoptions from the Nakh system.
This advance, which may have spread eventually to all of the Circassian tribes, was halted by their political state being annihilated by Russian conquest, a fate later shared by the rest of the Caucasus.
[64] During the Soviet Union period, as well as during Ramzan Kadyrov's regime, the Teip-Council system was strongly criticized by the federal and local administration installed in Chechnya and Ingushetia, who viewed it as a destabilizing force and an obstacle to maintaining order.
[65] The democratic and egalitarian nature, the values of freedom and equality of Chechen society have been cited as factors contributing to their resistance to Russian rule (in addition, there was no elite to be coopted by Tsarist authorities, as Wood notes).
Nakh towers used to be sparingly decorated with religious or symbolic petrographs, such as solar signs or depictions of the author's hands, animals, etc.
Some scholars notably I. Diakonov and S. Starostin proposed that Epala and Aparri may correspond to Urartian irrigation canal name "pili" and Hurrian "pilli/a".
Stone steles, churts, inscribed with prayers and epitaphs, began to be erected at the graves and more prosperous mountaineers were honoured with mausoleums after death.
These fragments consist of the names of deities personifying elements of animist ideas, the Nart sagas, cosmogonic tradition, remnants of stock-breeding and landtilling, totemic beliefs, and folk calendar.
[83] The Nakh myth recounts the tale of the legendary figure Pkharmat, who was purportedly shackled atop Mount Kazbek by God Sela as punishment for his audacious theft of heavenly fire.
According to this myth, a ram's skin was ceremonially placed within an oak frame known as "Jaar" for a duration of 11 years, eventually yielding the revered Golden Fleece known as "Dasho Ertal.
Interestingly, the tradition of an ancient settlement associated with the lake is borne out by the archeological record for the area: traces of human habitation dating back as far as 40,000 BC have been found near Kouzan-am.
This destruction continued until, at last, the bull was tamed in the aul of Ame in the area named Galain-Chazh (after the Galay-teip, a clan later deported en masse to Kazakhstan in 1944).
Deeli-Malkhi was not an evil realm of the dead or undead, but not far removed in morality from the upper world – even superior to it in some respects – most notably in its social structures.
[86] The names of stars and constellations were also connected to myths: A 2011 study by Oleg Balanovsky and a number of other geneticists showed that the Y-DNA haplogroup J2a4b* (a subclade of J2, located mainly in the Middle East, Caucasus and Mediterranean) was highly associated with Nakh peoples.
Historical linguists, including Johanna Nichols, have connected ancestral Nakh languages and their distant relatives to a Neolithic migration from the Fertile Crescent.
[99] According to Amjad Jaimoukha, the mythological Gargareans, a group who migrated from eastern Asia Minor to the North Caucasus mentioned by Greek writer Strabo,[100] are connected to the Nakh root gergara, meaning "kindred" in proto-Nakh.
After uniting the region with his kingdom in the early 8th century BCE, king Argishtis I of Urartu resettled many of its inhabitants to his newly built city of Erebuni.
[112] Some scholars (P. K. Uslar, K. Miller, N. F. Yakovleff, E. I. Krupnoff, L. A. Elnickiy, I. M. Diakonoff, V. N. Gamrekeli) supported the proposal that Gargarei is an earlier form of the Vainakh ethnonym.
Despite Jaimoukha's claims, Strabo suggests that the Gargareans were Aeolian Greeks and locates their homeland Gargara in Troad, in the far west of modern Turkey.
Their language is thought by many historians (including Vladimir Minorsky and Amjad Jaimoukha) to be Nakh, based on placenames, geographic location, and other such evidence.
Они не только хлопочут по хозяйству, но также шьют одежду для своих мужей, ходят в лес за дровами и несут этот тяжелый груз верст 10 через горные хребты.
