DOSH-journal

NEW BOOK ABOUT THE MAIN THINGS

Iless Sigauri is a famous scientist, specialist in the history of Chechnya and the Nakh peoples. The final volume of his extensive research, “Essays on the history and state structure of the Chechens from ancient times,” was recently published.
The completion of this work was an event for the scientific community of the republic and a wide range of readers. Below, in a somewhat abbreviated form, we publish a review of him by Doctor of Philological and Historical Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Honored Scientist of the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the RSFSR, Professor Ibragim Aliroev.

The fifth and final volume of Iless Sigauri’s research on the ancient history of the Chechens was published this year. It consists of ten chapters, informative and interestingly presented.
The topic of each chapter is considered by the author independently, and the history of ancient civilizations (Sumerian, Hurrian, Urartian, etc.), already reflected earlier in scientific literature, is presented here in the original author’s interpretation with broad polemics concerning the tribal system of the states of Transcaucasia and Ciscaucasia. Moreover, the degree of completion of the chapters is such that any of them could be published as a separate book.
Based on rich scientific material, the book comprehensively explores the Sarmatian-Alan period of Nakh history (“Nakhs and Alans”, “Nakhs and Türks”).
A special place in I. Sigauri’s research is occupied by such topics as “Chechen teips”, “Ingush”, “Religion of the Chechens and their ancestors”. The history of the Vainakh tukhum malkhi, to which the author himself belongs, attracts close attention. After Khalid Oshaev, scientists did not attempt to give such a large-scale description of “malkha”. The author managed to attract a wide range of competent informants and highlight the rich history of the Malkhi and their linguistic dialect. The essay speaks of the “antiquity” of this tribe, which, presumably, like the Maistians, settled in the Caucasus Mountains in ancient times. It is possible that these are the ancestors or a fragment of the mighty Nakh ethnic group, which once lived in Kakheti as part of the Urartian state.
The ancient onamasticon of Malkhi is of deep interest; one gets the impression that many secrets of ancient Chechnya are kept in the history of Malkhi and their dialect...
In the chapter “Chechen teips”, Chechen clans are examined for the first time on such a broad historical and linguistic material. Our greatest poet and prose writer Magomed Mamakaev, in his famous work “The Chechen teip (clan) in the process of its decomposition,” was the first to describe and enumerate Chechen clans. Sigauri, also drawing on a large amount of factual material, classifies them, explains their origin, migration, and structure. We can safely say that he clarified the problem posed to the end.
The author describes interestingly and at a high scientific level the ancient religion of the Vainakhs, the pantheon of their pagan gods, the process of transition to monotheism, and the triumph of monotheism in Chechnya. It is correctly noted that Christianity penetrated here from Georgia, establishing itself on the basis of the pagan beliefs of the Vainakhs, when ancient sanctuaries in the mountains turned into Christian temples, such as Thab1a-erdy and a number of others.
The relationship between the ancient Nakhs and the Sarmatians, Alans, and Turks is widely covered. For the first time, the ancient connections of the Vainakhs with the Alan-Turkic tribes, which led them to peaceful assimilation, as a result of which Kumyks and Ossetian wild people appeared in the North Caucasus, are examined in such detail.
I. Sigauri deeply explores the clan system, its evolution in general and in Nakh society in particular.
“Another ancient form of social organization, which has not lost its significance to this day, is the community, which is capable of clearly responding to a changing situation,” the author writes in conclusion. He also finds that “the main advantage of kinship and community structures is the highest degree of autonomy in relation to both society as a whole and the state.”
In general, the work is written at a high scientific level, using a large scientific apparatus that surprises the reader with its accessibility.
I remember with what interest the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences received S. Pliev’s dissertation on the kinship of the Vainakh languages ​​with the Etruscans, which the author of these lines had to oppose.
Back in the eighties, I remember, speaking at the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian Republic, I raised the question of the relationship of the Nakh languages ​​with the ancient languages: Sumerian, Hurrian, Urartian, which aroused surprise and deep interest among the listeners. After this, very soon, the work of the Armenian scientist Dzhaukyan “The relationship of the Hurrian-Urartian languages ​​with the Caucasian languages” appeared. At one time, this relationship was recognized by such authorities in linguistics as V. Ivanov, Klimov, Melikashvili, Deshiriev and others.
Frankly, it is insulting and even painful when one of the Chechen historians, frankly speaking, thoughtlessly asserts that “... now, for example, it has become fashionable to write about the Sumerian or Hurrian roots of modern Chechens and Ingush. But all discussions on this topic are meaningless” (Vestnik “Lam” No. 29 (2005) Interview with Sharpudi Akhmadov).
I sincerely welcome the great, arduous work of I. Sigauri. I am glad that the history of Chechnya, both ancient and modern, is being written with such enthusiasm, inspiration and on such a large scale!