ABSTRACT

East of the T erek gorge, the country to the north and northeast of the main granitic ridge of the Caucasus was the setting for varied ethnic, social and economic conditions. Over the high pastures and in the deep ravines of the feeders of the Sunzha lived patriarchal communities of very democratic type. Here, according to Baddeley, no man would accept 'princely' rank, even when pressed by his fellows. The people generally called themselves maarul, 'mountaineers' - which is reflected in the Tavlistan of the Russian maps, from Turko-Tartar tau, mountain; and in Daghestan further east, from Turkish dagh, mountain. The names Chechen and Inguslz, familiar in the literature of European travellers, are comparatively recent appellations of communities identified by the Russians with local place-names.2 Clzeclzen derives from the great aul Chechen on

the banks of the Argun; the first documentary reference dates from the year 1708. Ingush derives from the village of Angusht, first attested by Wakhusht in 1724. The Chechens call themselves Nalctchoi (Baddeley) with which may be compared the west Circassian Natulchoi (Dubois de Montpereux). The name implies 'family', 'stem', and has Armenian and even, perhaps, western pre-Celtic connotations as in Pictish necht. I Of the Ingush self-name, Ghalgha or Galgay, Wakhusht gives the Georgian form Ghlig(os) - whence the district of Ghligveti shown on his map of Oseti. Ghligos he describes as the mythical grandson of Durd'{ulcos. This latter name is found in Georgian sources as early as the tenth century A.D.; and Genko believes that 'for the most ancient epoch Durd{uIc(os) signifies the whole of the northern Caucasus'. He suggests that the origin of the name may be detected in the word durd'{uq which survives among the contemporary Osetians with the meaning of 'rockpit', i.e. ravine. Thus the Durdzuks of the Georgian sources would be the 'people of the ravines'. This may be compared with the tribal name Olcolc in Zvenigorodski's reports, rendered in Steder's T agebuch as Agi. Genko gives the Inguish form as

.4 P

aqqij, Chechen aqquoj, and he interprets the name of the Ingush and Karabulak settlements along the upper waters of the Sunzha,Akhin-yurt, as Ingushoekhi T. yurt, meaning precisely 'villages of the ravine' . I

The Arab geographers called the Caucasus 'the Mountain of Languages'; and there has been great differentiation of language among the small and often isolated communities who inhabit the great range. Modern philologists, shying away from the late Professor Marr's 'J aphetic' classification, have defined the languages of the Caucasus as 'Ibero-Caucasic' and, while comparisons remain hazardous, there is found to be some affinity between the western (Circassian) and eastern (Daghestan) groups. The Georgian dialects constitute a southern group which has very distinct characteristics.