Chechens: A Handbook (Causasus World, Peoples of the Caucasus)

357 Pages·2005·2.78 MB·English

by  A. Jaimoukha

The Chechens
The ancient Chechen nation has been living in its idyllic homeland in the North Caucasus
for thousands of years, building states, creating its own civilization, and forging relations
and interacting with other Caucasian and Near Eastern civilizations.
The only comprehensive treatment of the subject available in English, this book
provides a ready introduction and practical guide to the Chechen people, and to some
little known and rarely considered aspects of Chechen culture, including customs and
traditions, folklore, arts and architecture, music and literature. The Chechens also
includes:
• Chechen history from ancient times, providing sketches of archaic religions and
civilizations;
• the present political situation in Chechnya;
• the esoteric social structure and the brand of Sufism peculiar to the Chechens;
• analysis of Chechen media development since the early twentieth century, and of the
short-lived Chechen film industry; images of the Chechens carried by Russian and
Western medias;
• a section on proverbs and sayings;
• appendices detailing social structure, the native pantheon, bibliographies and
periodicals pertaining to the Chechens and Chechnya, and a lexicographic listing;
• a comprehensive bibliography, with many entries in English, for further reading.
This handbook should prove a corrective to the negative stereotypes that have come to be
associated with the Chechens and put a human face back on one of the noblest—yet least
understood—of nations. This book is an indispensable and accessible resource for all
those with an interest in Chechnya.
Amjad Jaimoukha is Assistant President of the Royal Scientific Society in Jordan.
Educated in England, he has written a number of books and articles, including The
Circassians (also published by RoutledgeCurzon), Kabardian—English Dictionary, The
Cycles of the Circassian Nart Epic and Circassian Proverbs and Sayings. He is also a
member of the Central Eurasian Studies Society at Harvard University.
Caucasus World Peoples of the Caucasus
Series editor: Nicholas Awde
This series of handbooks provides a ready introduction and practical guide to the many
peoples and languages of the Caucasus. Each handbook includes chapters written by
experts in the field, covering all aspects of the people, including their history, religion,
politics, economy, culture, literature and media, plus pictures, chronologies and
appendices of up-to-date statistics, maps and bibliographies. Each volume in the Peoples
of the Caucasus series will be an indispensable resource to all those with an interest in the
Caucasus.
The Abkhazians
Edited by George Hewitt
The Circassians
Amjad Jaimoukha
The Chechens
Amjad Jaimoukha
The Armenians
Edited by Edmund Herzig and Marina Kurkchiyan
The Hemshin
Edited by Hovann Simonian
The Kalmyks
David Lewis
Other books in Caucasus World include:
The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus
J.F.Baddeley, with a Preface by Moshe Gammer
Small Nations & Great Powers
Svante E.Cornell
Storm Over the Caucasus
Charles van der Leeuw
Oil and Gas in the Caucasus and Caspian
Charles van der Leeuw
After Atheism
David C.Lewis
Daghestan
Robert Chenciner
Madder Red
Robert Chenciner
Azerbaijan
Charles van der Leeuw
Georgia: In the Mountains of Poetry
Peter Nasmyth
The Literature of Georgia
Donald Rayfield
The Russo-Caucasians of the Iranian Left
Cosroe Chaqueri
Society, Politics and Economics in Mazadaran
M.A.Kazembeyki
The Armenian Kingdom of Cilcia during the Crusades
Jacob G.Ghazarian
The Kingdom of Armenia
M.Chahin
A Bibliography of Articles on Armenian Studies in Western Journals 1869–1995
V.N.Neressian
Armenian Perspectives
Edited by Nick Awde
Armenian Sacred and Folk Music Komitas
Soghomon Soghomonian, translated by Edward Gulbekian
The Armenian Neume System of Notation
R.A.Atayan, translated by V.N.Neressian
Ancient Christianity in the Caucasus
Edited by Tamila Mgaloblishvili
Pilgrimage
Edited by Mzia Ebaoizide and John Wilkinson
The Man in the Panther’s Skin
Shot’ha Rust’haveli, translated by Marjory Scott Wardrop
Chechen Dictionary and Phrasebook
Nicholas Awde and Muhammed Galaev
Azerbaijani Dictionary and Phrasebook
Nicolas Awde and Famil Ismailov
The Chechens
A handbook
Amjad Jaimoukha

LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2005 by RoutledgeCurzon 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14
4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeCurzon 270 Madison Ave, New
York, NY 10016
RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis
or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to
http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.”
© 2005 Amjad Jaimoukha
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been
requested
ISBN 0-203-35643-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-68299-8 (Adobe e-Reader Format)
ISBN 0-415-32328-2 (Print Edition)
Contents

List of illustrations ix
Foreword x
Acknowledgements xii

Introduction 1
1 People and land 13
2 History from the earliest to the end of the eighteenth century AD 24
3 History from the Russian-Caucasian War to the Second World War 41
4 History from the deportation to the ‘Second’ Chechen War 60
5 Politics and current affairs 74
6 Society 87
7 Economy 101
8 Religion and beliefs 111
9 Customs and traditions 129
10 Folklore 146
11 Arts, crafts and architecture 165
12 Music and dance 182
13 Language and linguistic policy 200
14 Literature 212
15 Media and film 225
16 The diaspora 236

Afterword 249
Proverbs and sayings 248
Appendices 259
1 The Chechen tukhums and taips 259
2 The Vainakh Pantheon 262
3 Bibliographies and journals 265
4 Nakh lexicography 268
Notes 270
Bibliography 287
Index 320
Illustrations
Map

Map 1.1 Principal towns and cities in Chechnya 19
Figures

9.1 Girls at (secluded) fountain being serenaded by men on ancient 121

and modern ponders
11.1 Ancient stone relief of a man 168
11.2 Istang showing common patterns 170
11.3 Dagger and belt on a burka 173
11.4 A tower village high up in the mountains 177
11.5 The medieval Georgian-style Christian-cum-pagan Tkhaba- 178

Yerdi temple
12.1 ‘Illi, or Dancing Grandson’, a wood-carving by I.Dutaev 186
12.2 Èsambaev performing one of his own exotic choreographies 198