ABSTRACT
The literature of Chechnya is terra incognita to all but a handful of Western scholars and readers. Even within the former Soviet Union Chechen literature is not widely known. Cultural life in Chechnya has been very much influenced by both Christian Europe to the north, and the Muslim Middle East to the south. In this geographically advantageous position (from a cultural, not a military point of view), they have been able to draw on the best of both civilizations, combining them with ancient Chechen cultural traditions to create their own distinctive form of the North Caucasian ethos. Mountains and mountain people the world over tend to attract and collect myths, and because of their island-like existence, to maintain them to an unusual degree, as has also been seen in both Afghanistan and Tibet.
