ABSTRACT
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a rather original mixed culture grew out of the intercourse between the Cossacks settled along the Terek and Sunzha and the neighbouring inhabitants of the mountain zone - Kumyks, A vars, Chechens, Ingushes, Kabardans and Osetians. There were many combinations, and relations between the Cossacks and the tribesmen did not really harden until the eighteenth century. Then the progressively bureaucratic aspects of Russian rule along the Cossack Line (inevitable in the pattern of contemporary administrative techniques) and the attempts at proselytization on the part of the Orthodox Church (which were countered by Islamic propaganda sponsored by the Ottomans) provoked bitter antagonisms and chronic conflict. In the earlier period, the Kabardans welcomed Russian support against the N ogays, while the Chechens were subject to pressures from the Shevkal and the A var khans; some Ingush clans mistrusted their Chechen neighbours; and both Ingushes and Osetians resented pretensions to overlordship on the part of the Kabardan princes.
