Chechen teips of Dagestan origin. Chechen teip and tukkhum, structure and formation

Today it is no longer possible to find out why and at what time such a system as Chechen teips was established. It is known that already in the middle of the eighteenth century, the Nokhchi (Chechens), having united with the Ingush, completely laid down their ethnic group. And until that time, it is not known how long a kind of military-economic unions, that is, Chechen teips, were formed.

Legend

Legends say that the ancestors of the Chechens had a bronze cauldron with the names of the first twenty teips forged on it, but the cauldrons that were not included in this list were melted down. Nevertheless, the names of the original twenty survived: Sesankhoy Ilyesi-nekye, Benoy, Mlli-nekye, Yubak-nekye, Tsentoroy and the remaining fifteen.

Chechen teips also united with each other. These large formations were called tukhums. Already in the middle of the nineteenth century, nine tukhums united Chechen teips, of which there were one hundred and thirty-five. Today there are more of them, and they are divided into mountainous ones, of which there are more than a hundred, and plains, of which there are about seventy. Each teip is internally divided into branches and surnames (gars and nekis). The head is the council of elders of the teip, where the most experienced and respected representatives make the law, in addition, the position of a byachcha - military leader is obligatory.

pure and mixed

Chechen teips were named, the list of which will be presented as completely as possible, according to the area where the clan lived, or the business that the clan was engaged in. For example, teip Kharachoy (translated into Russian - "cave") or teip Shara (translated - "glacier") are clearly named after the first type, but teip Peshkhoy is the teip of stove-makers, teip Khoi is guards, teip Deshni is gold jewelers .

There are pure and mixed teips. Nokhchmakhoy - this is the name of any pure teip - formed purely from Chechens, other blood was mixed with the rest. Guna, for example, is related to the Terek Cossacks, Kharacha - to a large extent with Circassian blood, Dzumsa - with Georgian, and Arsala - with Russian. Thus, mixed Chechen teips are distinguished. Their list is more extensive than the Nokhchmakhoy.

The main thing for teip is the beginning

Since this is a tribal union, the personality of each Chechen is formed here and all moral and moral norms are instilled in him. Postulates these Chechens call beginnings. Total started twenty-three. Some will be listed here. The inviolability and unity of customs for all members of the teip, without exception, is the first beginning. The second gives the right to land ownership on a communal basis. The third principle is unlikely to correspond to the ideas of the rest of the civilized world - it prescribes blood feud for the murder of a relative in a teip, and this does not even depend on the proximity of kinship. To this day, pure Chechen teips are zealous about the established principles.

The fourth principle prohibits incest, that is, marriage between members of the teip is impossible. Fifth - for mutual assistance, if necessary, the entire teip is obliged to provide assistance to its representative. At the sixth beginning, the Chechens call to honor the dead: if a member of the teip dies, everyone wears mourning for a certain period of time, holidays and entertainment are prohibited. The seventh principle is about the council of elders, the eighth is about the choice of a leader and commander, not a single position is inherited. The ninth beginning is about representation, which is also decided by the council of elders, and the tenth is that positions in the council of elders are for life, but the history of Chechen teips also tells about cases of displacement of a representative.

blood feud

The third principle, which is professed by Chechen teips and tukhums, requires a wider disclosure. So, chir - for any person from the representatives of this genus. This is a custom with unusually deep roots. Even in the recent past, in the event of a murder, the whole family, and sometimes the teip, was forced to flee to foreign lands. Qi - blood - passed for many decades from generation to generation, until the last representative of a given surname, branch or teip was killed.

In later times, blood passes only to one family, but earlier the boundaries of the chir were determined by the council of elders of neutral teips.

Immediately after the murder, councils of elders gathered both in the teip where the misfortune happened, and in the one through whose fault it happened. In the first, they made a decision on revenge, and in the second, they looked for opportunities for reconciliation. Further negotiations followed. If the teip of the murdered person did not agree to reconciliation, then they connected neutral tips elders. If they did not win peace, then they began to work out the conditions for revenge: how widely revenge would spread, with what weapons. Under no circumstances can you kill a blood lover in the back and without warning, in the holy month of Ramadan, as well as on other holidays, you cannot kill in a crowded place and, even more so, at a party.

The beginning of the decomposition of the system

Civilization is taking over. Researchers are sure that today the teip system in Chechnya is gradually dying. Large teips - for example, Tsentaroy and Benoy - have grown so much that even blood relationship is forgotten and marriages within teips are possible. Many of them are gradually divided into an increasing number of genera, and the original teip becomes a tukhum.

Many Chechens remember the time when the youngest of them could name more than twenty tribes of their own direct ancestors. Now, not every young Chechen will even answer about belonging to a teip. Adults and elderly people are visibly worried, because kinship in Chechen society is a fundamental value. People without a clan-tribe cannot be Chechens.

Noble Chechen teip

Yalkhoy, or rather, Yalkhoroy, a very famous teip. It was from him that the surname of Dudayev originated, and it is also one of the few teips in which alien hired workers existed, and according to other sources, slave labor. The origin is connected with the caste professional organization, the warriors of Yalkhoroy even earned money by guarding the borders of other teips.

They lived in the village of the same name, as well as throughout Chechnya and Ingushetia, where they founded the village. The Yalkhoroians were the most loyal supporters of Dzhokhar Dudayev. Until now, this clan has a cult of militancy and many other purely mountainous values: hospitality, reverence for women. They have a resolute disposition and in their ancestors consider themselves to be people of princely dignity.

Only some Chechen teips have been studied well enough. Their origin is established and confirmed by numerous studies of scientists. Much less is known about the rest, and the information varies in view of the fact that they are collected most often from oral legends and traditions.

Chechen teip Line (Chartoy)

This is an extremely interesting clan, most notable for the fact that the Chartoys almost never fought, but on the contrary, they were peacekeepers and often acted as mediators in any intra-Chechen affairs. He was either on his own or in the tukhum of Nokhchmahkahoy - the information varies.

They had a family village in Chechnya - Chartoy-Yurt, but also lived in a dozen more places in Chechnya and in Georgia. Among the well-known representatives was the naib of Imam Shamil and a colonel in the guards of Alexander the First. According to Chechen teips - only teip Chartoy is of Jewish origin, this explains many differences between this clan and others.

Belgatoy, Beltoy (Biltoy) and Cherma

Quite large and well-known throughout Chechnya, the Belgatoy teip once existed as part of the Beltoy teip. The legend of origin is very beautiful. Once upon a time, it happened that an epidemic wiped out almost the entire Belgata, but a few survivors multiplied again and made their family even more successful than it was before. This is confirmed by the name itself: bel - "to die", gatto - "to resurrect". Among Chechens, Belgatoys are considered to be very energetic and efficient people.

Beltoy (or Biltoy) is also a numerous and well-known clan. From here came the politician Beybulat Taimiev, a contemporary of Pushkin, about whom the poet wrote during his trip to Arzrum. The people of Beltoy are settled everywhere, and in the old days they lived in the Nozhayyurt district, in the east of Chechnya. A well-known clan that the whole Teips knows, it is inhabited by various, but here is the most prominent political figure and the oilman Tapa Chermoev left from here. They settled mainly in the Mekhkets and near the Chermoy-Lam ancestral mountain, and in ancient times, as the legends say, all Chermoy people lived deep in the mountains.

Chechen teip Alleroy (Aleroy)

The name of this teip was kept on the legendary bronze cauldron brought by the ancestors to Nakhsh. It was here, in a settlement scattered throughout the country, but rooted in Eastern Chechnya, it was in this clan that the ex-president, who became a bandit, was born. This teip is clean, along with others written on a bronze cauldron, it is included in nakhchmakhkahoy. Settled in Nozhai-Yurt and Shali districts.

The story of the Alleroi has been around since the fifteenth century, after the invasion of Khan Timur, who killed many local residents and left his deputies in Chechnya from the Kabardian princes, Takrov, Nogai, Jai murzas and khans. The Chechens quickly multiplied and began to make daring attacks on the Timur vassals, trying to make a reconquista - to win back their lands. The first Aller founded the aul of the Alleroi, united the compatriots who remained after the invasion of the Tatar-Mongols in order to defend their lands. Alleroy is divided internally into five more teips, since the genus has become numerous, and it is still considered pure.

Benoy

It must be the most numerous of the teips in Chechnya, at least in second place in terms of numbers. Benoy billionaire Malik Saidullaev claims that out of the million remaining Chechens, three hundred and sixty thousand belong to the Benoy teip. They are settled throughout the republic, divided into nine genera. In all wars they took an active part, where they won unfading glory. For example, Baysangur Benoevsky did not leave Shamil until the very end, despite the military success that turned away from the hero.

A huge number of Benoyites live in the diasporas of Western Asia, from where terrorism is spreading throughout the world. And in Chechnya, on the contrary, the Benoyites are considered clumsy and cunning in a rural way. However, even here they are fearless, true to their word and duty. Many centuries ago, they formed the backbone of the peasant strata of the people, who overthrew the power of the Dagestan and Kabardian rulers. These are the fathers of mountain democracy, which became the foundation of the ethnic mentality. Among the clans of teip Benoy there are both Russian and Georgian blood.

Gendargenoy

The teip is also extremely numerous and famous, moreover - the center one, from the historical Nokhchiymokhk, widely settled in Chechnya. Diplomat and politician Doku Zavgaev is from here. Here is a granary for Chechnya, and for Dagestan, and much more remote places. It was here that the pre-Islamic Nashkha existed as a cultural, political, ritual and religious center.

The Council of the country (Mekhk khelov) was based here, from where pure Chechen teips appeared, among which, of course, Gendargenoy, whose representatives in the entire history of the country occupied one of the most prominent places. The Soviet government allowed the Gendargenoi to study, which they did with greater success than members of other clans. That is why this teip gave the country many leaders, party members and business executives.

Kharachoy and Deshni

This teip is famous for its representatives - who lived in different centuries, but who gained approximately equal fame. Information about this clan got into written Russian documents very early, and the Chechens say that it was the Kharachoevs who were the first to marry Russians, which did not prevent Zelimkhan from becoming an outstanding fighter against the royal power when the Caucasus was conquered. Chechnya respects this teip very much, considers it the most intelligent.

Deshni - mountain clan, south-east of the country, belongs to pure teips. Princely families are still preserved here. One of those wearing this many years ago was able to marry a Georgian princess, passing off Mount Deshni-lam, which belongs to the entire teip, as his own. Now Deshni live everywhere, even in Ingushetia.

Nashkhoy and Zurzakhoy

Nashkho, the homeland of pure teips, is the entogenetic center of the Nokhchimatiens of the Middle Ages, which are mentioned by Armenian geographers of the nineteenth century. They lived in the southeast of the country. Some researchers classify the entire population of this area as one teip. Others subdivide.

Zurzakhoy is a teip from the original, even in its name it retained the medieval ethnonym - dzurzuk, as the ancestors of the Chechens and Ingush called themselves. This teip was not included in the tukhums, always occupying an independent position. He was not alone like that, even Sadoy, Peshkhoy, Maista.

The Chechen tukkhum is a kind of military-economic union of a certain group of taips who are not related to each other by blood relationship, but united in a higher association to jointly solve the common tasks of protecting against enemy attacks and economic exchange. Tukkhum occupied a certain territory, which consisted of the area actually inhabited by it, as well as the surrounding area, where the taips that were part of the tukkhum were engaged in hunting, cattle breeding and agriculture. Each tukhum spoke a certain dialect of the same Vainakh language. Some historians believe that there is no difference between tukhum and taip, taken in their historical dynamics, except for the quantitative one, that both tukhum and taip can perform the functions of both clan and phratry in a certain sequence - that is, the union of clans. Although tukkhum means “seed”, “egg” in translation, speaking of its internal structure, it must be emphasized that this organization, in the view of the Chechens, has never been drawn as a group of consanguineous families, but is a union of clans united in a phratry according to its territorial and dialectological unity.... The Chechen tukhum, unlike the clan, did not have an official head, as well as its military commander (byachcha). This shows that the tukkhum was not so much a governing body as a public organization, while the taip represented a necessary and logical stage of progress in the development of the idea of ​​government. The emergence of a union of taips (tukhums) was also an undoubted progress taking place on the same territory, as a steady process leading to the emergence of a nation, although the tendency to local division by clan continued to exist. The advisory body of the tukkhum was the council of elders, which consisted of representatives of all taips that were part of this tukkhum on equal terms in position and honor. The Tukhum Council was convened, if necessary, to resolve intertype disputes and disagreements, to protect the interests of both individual types and the entire tukhum. The Tukhum Council had the right to declare war and make peace, negotiate with the help of its own and foreign ambassadors, conclude alliances and break them. That is why it is still necessary to assume that the concepts of "tukhum" and "taip" are far from being identical... . This is a union of several types of the same tribe, formed for specific purposes. But in Chechnya there are also unions of consanguineous clans, formed by segmenting one initial clan, such as, for example, the Chanty and Terlosets. The Terloevites include such consanguineous groups that call themselves Gars, sometimes clans, such as Beshni (Boshnii), Bavloi (BIavloi), Zherakhoi (Zherakhoi), Kenakhoy (Khenakhoy), Matsarkha (MatsIarkhoy), Nikara (Nikara), Oshny (Oshny ), Sanakhoy (Sanakhoy), Shuidy (Shundy), Eltparkhoy (Eltpkhyarkhoy) and others. Of the one hundred and thirty-five types that made up Chechen society in the middle of the 19th century, three-quarters were united in nine phratries (unions) as follows. Akkiy (Akkhii) tukkhum included such taipas as Barchakhoy (Barchakhoy), Zhevoy (Zhevoy), Zogoy (31ogoy), Nokkoy (Nokkhoy), Pkharchoy (Pkharchoy), Pkharchakhoy (Pkharchakhoy) and Vyappy (Vyappy), which occupied mainly the area Eastern Chechnya on the border with Dagestan. Myalkhi (Malkhi) included: Byasty (B1ayetiy), Benastkhoy (B1enastkhoy), Italchkhoy (Italchkhoy), Kamalkhoy (Kamalkhoy), Korathoy (Khorathoy), Kegankhoy (K1egankhoy), Meshiy (Meshiy), Sakankhoy (Sakankhoy), Terathoy (Terathoy ), Charkhoy (Ch1arkhoy), Erkhoy (Erkhoy) and Amkhoy (1amkhoy), which occupied the southwestern region of Chechnya on the border with Khevsuretia and Ingushetia. In Nokhchmakhkahoy, such large taipas as Belgatoy (Belg1atoy), Benoy (Benoy), Biltoy (Biltoy), Gendargenoy (Gendargenoy), Gordaloy (G1ordala), Guna (Guna), Zandakoy (Zandakoy), Ikhirkhoy (Ikh1irkhoy), Ishkhoy ( Ishkhoi), Kurshaloy (Kurshala), Sesankhoy (Sesankhoy), Cherma (Chermoy), Tsentaroy (Tsentaray), Charta (Charty), Egashbatoy (Eg1ashbatoy), Enakhalla (Enakhalla), Engana (Engana), Shonoy (Shuonoy), Yalkhoy ( Yalkhoy) and Alira (1alira), which occupied mainly the eastern and northeastern, and partly the central regions of Chechnya. Chebarla (Ch1ebarloy) included: Dai (D1ay), Makazhoy (Makazhoy), Sada (Sada), Sandaha (Sandaha), Sikkaha (Sikkhaha) and Sirha (Sirha). Sharoi included: Kinhoy (Kinhoy), Rigahoy (Rigahoy), Khikhoy (Khikhoy), Khoy (Khoi), Khakmada (Hyakmada) and Shikaroy (Shikaroy). Taipas, which were part of both Ch1ebarloy and Sharoi, occupied the southeastern region of Chechnya along the Shara-Argun River. Shotoi (Shuotoi) included: Varanda, Vashandara, Gatta (G1atta), Kela, Marsha, Nizhalaya, Nihaloi, Pkhamta (Phyamtoi), Syatta (Sattoy) and Khakka (Khyakkoy), who occupied central Chechnya in the valley of the Chanty-Argun River. The taipas entered Ershtkhoy: Galoy, Gandala (G1andaloy), Garchoy (G1archoy), Merzhoy, Muzhakhoy and Tsechoy (Ts1echoy), who lived in the west of Chechnya, in the valley of the Lower Martan (Fortanga) river. And all the other types of Chechens in the area united in consanguineous unions. So, for example, Borzoi, Bugara (Bug1aroy), Khildekhara (Khildekhyara), Derakhoy (Dorrakhoy), Kkhokada (Khuokkhada), Khachara (Khachara) and Tumsa, who lived in the upper reaches of the Chanty-Argun River, united in the Chyantiy (Ch1ayntii) union, and such as Nikaray (Nikaroy), Oshny (Oshny), Shyundy (Shundy), Eltpharkhoy (Eltpkhyarkhoy) and others were part of Terloi (T1erloi). There were also such taipas in Chechnya that were not included in the tukhums and lived independently. Such, for example, as Zurzakhoy (Zurzakkhoy), Maystoy (M1aystoy), Peshkhoy, Sadoy and others. The affairs of the tukkhum, as we have already written, were decided by the council of elders, convened by him as needed. But the tukhum as an organ did not have any management functions that belonged to the taip, although it was vested in the general social system with certain useful powers due to the need for some kind of organization - more than the taip. Thus, having agreed among themselves to resolve mutual disputes peacefully and to help each other in defense and attack on the enemy, taipas united in tukhums primarily on territorial grounds. So, for example, the Nokhchmakhkois occupied the territory of eastern Chechnya (Bena, Sesan, Shela, Gumsi and partly Vedeno). It must be assumed that the Nokhchmakhkois, who formed the main core of the Chechens, were the first to settle in the Aksai and Michig regions along the Terek River. It is characteristic to note here such a detail that the Nokhchmakhkois consider Noshkhoy (a place in the Galanchozh region) their ancient homeland, although they have lived in the territory of their present settlement since time immemorial. Some taipas from this tukkhum, for example, Benoy and Tsentoroy, have grown so much that they have long forgotten about their original blood relationship. Marriage between Benoevites and Tsentoroiites has long been a common occurrence. Having gone beyond the borders of their ancient land, representatives of these taips, at least from the 16th century, began to settle in other regions of modern Chechnya. It is difficult to find in our time a settlement where there would not be a representative, for example, of the Benoites. Thus, as it increased, one or another type, in turn, was divided into several clans, and the Gars of the former clan in this case became independent clans, and the original clan continued to exist already as a tukkhum - a union of clans. We have already written about Ch1antii tukhum. There are also taipas in Chechnya that, due to certain historical circumstances, were not included in any tukhums, lived and developed independently. These taipas were formed both from the natives of this region, and from newcomers. Therefore, the type should be considered the main cell from which any Chechen calculates his initial blood relations and ties on the paternal side. When Chechens want to emphasize the lack of kinship of a person, they usually say: "Tsu stegan taipa a, tukkhum a dats" (This person has neither clan nor tribe). So, what is the Chechen taip and what socio-economic principles does the institution of taipism establish? The famous American researcher of the primitive system, who devoted himself to studying the customs and mores of the ancient Indians, L. Morgan in his work "Ancient" gives the following description of the tribal system among the Indians: "All its (genus. - M.M.) members are free people who are obliged protect each other, they have equal individual rights - neither the sachems nor the war-chiefs claim any privileges, they constitute a brotherhood bound by blood Liberty, equality, brotherhood, although it was never formulated, were the basic principles clan, and the clan, in turn, was a unit of an entire social system, the basis of an organized Indian society. The Chechen taip is also a group of people or families that grew up on the basis of primitive production relations. Its members, enjoying the same personal rights, are related to each other by consanguinity on the paternal side. Freedom, equality and fraternity, although they were not formulated by anyone, here also formed the basis of the taip - the basis of the entire organization of Chechen society. But the Chechen taip of the period we are considering (after the 16th century) was by no means already an archaic clan, as it was among the Iroquois. Not! The taip system of the Chechens of this period is already a product of its own decline, a manifestation of its potential internal contradictions, decomposition of forms that have so far seemed unshakable, arising from the original legal principles of taipism, which previously cemented the taip system and artificially restrained its decomposition. These old forms and taip principles have already come into conflict with those social and property shifts that are growing every day within individual taip cells. The legal shell of taip corporations no longer corresponded to the property structure of society. However, there was a very important reason of an external nature, which kept the "old law" in force and "harmonized" it with the new shifts that had taken place: the small Chechen taipas lived at that time surrounded by stronger neighbors (Georgians, Kabardians, Kumyks and others), the feudal nobility who constantly in one way or another encroached on their liberties. These external conditions, first of all, and the absence of established forms of statehood among the Chechens, strongly influenced the rallying of the taips, and this solidarity in the face of external danger gave the appearance (of course, only the appearance) of equality, brotherhood, and protection of each other's interests. So, taip in the concept of Chechens is a patriarchal exogamous group of people descended from one common ancestor. Four terms are known that served to designate lateral branches, segmented from the taip, and have been used by Chechens since time immemorial to designate large related groups that represent a certain social, territorial, and, above all, consanguineous unity: var (var), gar, nekiy (a certain ), c1a (ca). Only the first of them - var is polysemantic and, along with other terms, denotes a consanguineous group of people, moreover, it more accurately defines the concept of "genus type". The main indigenous Chechen taipas are as follows: Aitkhaloy, Achaloy, Barchakhoy, Belkhoy, Belg1ata, Benoy, Betsakhoy, Biltoy, Bigakhoy, Bug1aroy, Varanda, Vashandara, Vappy, Gala, G1andala, G1archoy, G1atta, Gendargenoy, Gila, G1oy, G1ordaloy, Dattakhoy, D1ay, Dishny, Dorakhoy, Zheva, Zandakoy, 31goy, Zumsoy (aka Bug1aroy), Zurzakyy, Zuyrkhoy, Ishkhoy, Ikh1irkhoy, Italchkhoy, Kamalkhoy, Kay, Kela, Kuloy, Kurshaloy, Kushbukhoy (aka 1alira), Kharta, K1sgankhoy, Lashkara, Makazhoy, Marshall, Merzhoy, Merla, Mazarkhoy, M1aysta, Muzhakhoy, Mulkoy, Nashkhoy, Nizhalaya, Nik1ara, Nihala, Nokkhoy, Peshkhoy, Phyamtoy, Pkharchoy, Rigakhoy, Sada, Sakhanda, Syarbala, Satta, Tulkhay, Turku, Kharachoy, Khersanoy, Hildehyarkhoy, Khoy, Hulandoy, Khurkhoy, Khyakkoy (aka Ts1ogankhoy), Khyakmada, Khyachara, Himoy, Khikhoy, Khurkoy, Tsatsankhoy, Ts1entaray, Ts1echoy, Charta, Charkhoy, Chermay, Ch1arkhoy, Ch1inkhoy, Chungaray, Shara, Shikaroy , Shirdoy, Shuonoy, Shpirdoy, Shundiy, Eg1ashbatoy, Elstanzhkhoy, Enakhalla, Engana, Ersanoy, Erhoy, Yalkh aroy, 1alira, 1amakhoy and others. Taipov in Chechnya in the period we are studying with relative accuracy, there are more than one hundred and thirty-five. Of these, more than twenty are not indigenous, but formed from representatives of other peoples, but have long been firmly integrated into the Chechen society, assimilated at different times and under various conditions: some of them went to the country of the Vainakhs themselves, in search of convenient lands, while others brought here by the prevailing historical circumstances, and they were forced to adopt a foreign language for them, foreign customs. Of course, these people had neither taip mountains, nor communal lands, nor stone crypts (solar graves) for the burial of their dead relatives. But following the example of the natives of this region, they rallied into blood relations, assisted members of their community, declared blood feud for the murder of their relative, and adhered to other socially binding principles of the institution of taipism. This circumstance is also interesting for us because it resolutely rejects the theory of the absolutely pure ethnic origin of the Vainakhs - in particular, the Chechens. As the taip reproduced, it broke up into two or more parts, gars, and each of these gars, over time, formed an independent taip. In order to confirm their belonging to the natives of Chechnya, each Chechen had to remember the names of at least twelve persons from among his direct ancestors ... The elders and leaders of the Chechen types did not always have inaccessible locks, did not decorate their exits with family coats of arms. They didn't prance around in glittering armor or fight in romantic tournaments. Imitating taip democracy in society, they still looked like peaceful peasants: they led flocks of sheep through the mountains, plowed and sowed themselves. But the high concepts of honor, equality and brotherhood among all members of the taip community came to a new stage of taip relations not in the halo of the former purity and nobility, but in a perverted, modernized form, generated by arrogant cruelty and arrogant claims of the strong and rich. In their bulk, the Vainakhs were very wary and sensitive to any attempts and inclinations towards the emergence of feudal power and feudal aristocracy, and by common efforts they nipped them in the bud. This is evidenced by the richest folklore material and the custom of baital vakkhar (dispossession of kulaks), which was common among the Chechens and very rarely found among other peoples. And yet, the process of decomposition of the taip community has been clearly traced among the Chechens since the late Middle Ages (XIII-XIV centuries). Moreover, even then this process does not mark the initial stage, but already the stage that was preceded by earlier steps. The economic basis of the taip was cattle breeding, agriculture and hunting. Cattle was the basis that determined the specific features of the Chechen taip of that period. Fields and estates were also the most important part of the taip property. Chechens have been engaged in agriculture since ancient times, as early as the beginning of the 17th century, the Kachkalyk Chechens had rich vineyards, sowed wheat, millet, barley, and later began to cultivate corn. The Maisty and, in general, the Sredne-Argunsky region of Chechnya of the 17th century were famous for their wise doctors, who healed wounds well, performed amputation of organs and even trepanation of the skull. The Maistins, for example, long before the appearance of the Russians in the Caucasus, were known to be vaccinated against smallpox. They were also famous as skillful builders of military and residential towers. And finally, the Maistins were also famous as experts in adat - taip law. It was here, in Maisty, which, due to its geographical location, was protected from all kinds of attacks by enemies, the elders of the taips gathered for official meetings to discuss adat-taip issues ... Another place where issues of the all-Chechen adat were also discussed was Mount Khetash-Korta , near the village of Tsentoroy

The Chechen tukkhum is an alliance of a certain group of teips, not related by blood, but united in a higher association to jointly solve common problems - protection from enemy attacks and economic exchange. Tukkhum occupied a certain territory, which consisted of the area actually inhabited by it, as well as the surrounding area, where the taipas, which were part of the tukhum, were engaged in hunting, cattle breeding and agriculture. Each tukhum spoke a certain dialect of the Chechen language. The Chechen teip is a community of people related to each other by blood kinship on the paternal side. Each of them had their own communal lands and a teip mountain (from the name of which the name of the teip often came). Teips within themselves are divided into "gars" (branches) and "nekyi" - surnames. Chechen teips are united in nine tukhums, a kind of territorial unions. Blood relations among the Chechens served the goals of economic and military unity. In the middle of the 19th century, the Chechen society consisted of 135 teips. Currently, they are divided into mountainous (about 100 teips) and plains (about 70 teips). Currently, representatives of one teip live dispersed. Large teips are distributed throughout Chechnya. List of tukhums and their teips: Akkiy (Chech. Akkkhii) Akkiy (Chech. Akkhii) Kevoi (Chech. Kevoi) Pulai (Chech. Pula) Zogoi (Chech. Zogoi) Karkhoi (Chech. Kharkhoi) Pkharchoi (Chech. Pkharchoi) Pkharchakhoy (Chech. Pkharchakhoy) Chontoy (Chech. Chontoy) Nokkoy (Chech. Nokkhoy) Ovrshoy (Chech. Ovrshoy) Pordaloy (Chech. Prdaloy) Zhevay (Chech. Zhevoy) Vappy (Chech. Vayppy) Shinaroy (Chech. Shinroy) Melchiy ( Chech. Malkhiy) Amkhoy (Chech. Іamkhoy) Baetiy (Chech. BІaietiy) Bastiy (Chech. BІastiy) Benastkhoy (Chech. BІаnastkhoy) Ikalchkhoy (Chech. Ikalchkhoy) Italchkhoy (Chech. Italchkhoy) Komalkhoy (Chech. Kuomalkhoy) Koratkhoy (Chech. Khuoruottakhoy) Meshikhoy (Chech. Meshiekhoy) Tertkhoy (Chech. TertgІoy) Sakhanakhoy (Chech. Sakhyanakhoy) Zharkhoy (Chech. ZhІarkhoy) Kegankhoy (Chech. KІa'gankhoy) Yuegankhoy (Chech. Yuhegankhoy) Charkhoy (Chech. ChІarkhoy) Erhoy (Chech. Ayrkhoy) Barchakhoy (Chech. Barchkhoy) Nokhchmakhkakhoy (Chech. Nokhchmahkahoy) Allara (Chech. Іallara) Aitkaloy (Chech. Aitkkhalloy) Benoy (Chech. Benoy) Tsentoroy (Chech. TsІontaroy) Gendargenoy (Chech. Gendarganoy) Dettakhoy (Chech. Dattakhoy) Kurcha loy (Chech. Kurchaloy) Guna (Chech. Gunoy) Kharacha (Chech. Khorchoy) Shirdii (Chech. Shirdi) Shuona (Chech. Shonoy) Egishbatoy (Chech. AgІashbatoy) Elistanzhkhoy (Chech. Іallistanjkhoy) Enakala (Chech. Annakhalloy) Engenoy (Chech. Аnganoy) Ersenoy (Chech. Arsana) Tazenkala (Chech. Tezakkhalloy) Biltoy (Chech. Biltoy Ishkhoy (Chech. Ishkhoy Belgatoy (Chech. BellagІatta) Sesana (Chech. Sasana) Cherma (Chech. Charmoy) Zandakoy (Chech. Zondukoy) Yalkhoy (Chech. Yalkhoy) Biitara (Chech. Biytara) Proud) ( Chech. GІordaloy) Ikhirkhoy (Chech. Ikhirkhoy) Singalhoy (Chech. Singalhoy) Charta (Chech. Chartoy) Terla (Chech. Tiairloy) Bavla (Chech. BІavloy) Gemera (Chech. Gimroy) Gezekhay (Chech. Gizkhoy) Kenakhoy (Chech. Khenakhoy) Motzaroy (Chech. Motskaroy) Nikara (Chech. Nik-Aroy) Oshny (Chech. Oshny) Senakhoy (Chech. Sanakhoy) Shundy (Chech. Shundiy) Eldaperoy (Chech. Aldapkhyarkhoy) Meshteroy (Chech. Meshtaroy) Mountain (Chech. Guoroy) Geshiy (Chech. GІeshy) Yurdakhoy (Chech. Yurdakhoy) Tukhoy (Chech. Tokhoy) Idahoy (Chech. Idahoy) Tseltakumoy (Chech. TsІeltukkhumoy) Arstakhoy (Chech. Arstakhoy) Zhelashkhoy (Chech. Zhelashkhoy) Barkhoy (Chech. Barkhoy) Bushnoy (Chech. Boshny) Beshkhoy (Chech. Beshkhoy) Gelashkhoy (Chech. Gilshkhoy) Zherakhoy (Chech. Zherakhoy). (Chech. Khacharoy) Khildeha swarm (Chech. Hildehyaroy) Koktoy (Chech. Kkhokhtoy). Cheberloy (Chech. ChІabarloi) Sirkhoy (Chech. Sirhoy) Achala (Chech. Achaloy) Rigakha (Chech. Rigahoy) Chubehkinara (Chech. Chuba’khkinaroy) Kula (Chech. Kuloi) Artsakhoy (Chech. Artskhoi) Nizheloy (Chech. Nizhla) Begacheroy ( Chech. Bogacharoy) Oskhara (Chech. Oshara) Churinmehkahoy (Chech. Chureynmahkahoy) Makazhoy (Chech. Makazhoy) Kezenoy (Chech. Kazuna) Ihora (Chech. Ihora) Khoy (Chech. Khoi) Harkara (Chech. Khyarkkaroy) Kulinakhoy (Chech. Kulankhoy) Zheloshkhoy (Chech. Zheloshkhoy) Shimeroy (Chech. Shimroy) Tsatsakoy (Chech. Tsatsakoy) Kaukhoy (Chech. Kovkhoy) Khorsukhoy (Chech. Khyorsukhoy) Arsoy (Chech. Orsoy) Buny (Chech. Buny) Tsikaroy (Chech. Tsikaroy) Nokhch-Kieloy (Chech. Nokhch-KІieloy) Khinda (Chech. KhІinda) Baskha (Chech. Bassakhoy) Bossoy (Chech. Buosoy) Tsinda (Chech. TsІinda) Koshtoy (Chech. КІoshtoy) Chuna (Chech. ChІuna) Monk (Chech. Menakhoy) Dai (Chech. DІay) Inzoy (Chech. Inzoy) Selberoy (Chech. Salbyuroy) Leshkaroy (Chech. Lashkaroy) Nuykhoy (Chech. Nuykhoy) Gulatkhoy (Chech. Gulatkhoy) Sikka (Chech. Sikkhoy) Zanasta (Chech. Zanasta) Saloi (Chech. Saloi) Sadoi (Chech. Sadoi) Zurkhoy (Chech. Zuyrkhoy) Tundukoy (Chech. Tundukoy) Shara (Chech. Shara) Shara (Chech. Shara) Shikara (Chech. Shikaroy) Khakmada (Chech. Khyakmada) Hulanda (Chech. Khulandoy) Himoy (Chech. Khimoi) Jogalda (Chech. ZhogIaldoy) Sandukhoy (Chech. Sandukhoy) Kochekhoy (Chech. Kochekhoy) Buttiy (Chech. Buttiy) Kebosoy (Chech. Kebosoy) Kesela (Chech. KІesala) Mazukhoy (Chech. Mozukhoy) Serchikha (Chech. Serchikhoy) Govalda (Chech. Govalda) Dukarhoy ( Chech. Dukarhoy) Khasheldoy (Chech. Khashaldoy) Chekhilda (Chech. Chekhildoy) Zhangulda (Chech. Zhangulda) Barefooted (Chech. Barefoot) Danya (Chech. Dana) Tsesiy (Chech. TsІesy) Ikaroy (Chech. Ikaroy) Khikhoy (Chech. Khikhoy) Kenkhoy (Chech. Khenkhoy) Cheyroy (Chech. Cha-aroy) Kiry (Chech. Kiriy) Shatoy (Chech. Shuotoy) Vashindara (Chech. Vashtarkhoy) Hakkoy (Chech. Khyakkoy) Sana (Chech. Suonoy) Satta (Chech. Sattoy) Pamta (Chech. Phyamtoy) Gatta (Chech. Giattoy) Dehesta (Chech. Dekhasta) Kela (Chech. Kieloy) Muskulkha (Chech. Muskulkhoy) Urgyukhkhoy (Chech. Іurgyukhkhoy) Varanda (Chech. Varanda) Myarsha (Chech. Marshoy) Nihala (Chech. Nikhloy) Tumsa ( Tumsoy) Lashkaroy (Chech. Lashkara) Orstkhoy (Chech. Ershkhoy) Baloy (Chech. Buola) Yalkhoroy (Chech. Yalkhoroy) Vielkhoy (Chech. VielgІoy) Kaloy (Chech. Kjoloy) Galai (Chech. GІalay) Merzhoy (Chech. Merdzhoy) Tsechoy (Chech. TsІechoy) Khaykhara (Chech. Khyavkhyara) Gandala (Chech. GІandala) Terkhoy (Chech. Terkhoy) Muzhakhoy (Chech. Muzhakhoy) Alkha-Neki (Chech. Іalkha-Nekye) Andala (Chech. Iandala) Belkhara ( Chech. Belkharoy) Muzhgakhoy (Chech. Muzhgakhoy) Garchoy (Chech. GІarchoy) Bulguch- Neki (Chech. Bulguch-Nekye) Org-Neki (Chech. Org-Nekye) Perg-Neki (Chech. Perg-Nekye) Boka-Neki (Chech. Boka-Nekye) Vielkha-Neki (Chech. VielgІa-Nekye) Teips not included in Tukkhum Nashkhoy (Chech. Nashkhoy) Peshkhoy (Chech. Peshkhoy) Maistoy (Chech. MІaystoy) Mulkoy (Chech. Mulkoy) Gukhoy (Chech. Guokhoy) Kay (Chech. Kovkhoy) Chinkhoy (Chech. ChІinkhoy) Guchingi (Chech. Guchingi) Bashingi (Chech. . Bashingi) Dzurdzukoy (Chech. Zurzakoy)

Malchist. The historical region of Chechnya, located on the left bank of the Argun, on the border with Georgia, between the channels of the rivers Meshi-khi and Biasta-khi. Malkhista in translation from Chechen means “country of the sun”. This name is probably due to the fact that the sun was considered the totem ancestor of the Chechen tribe that lived here. Although there is another assumption: the fact is that the southern slopes of the Kore-lam ridge, on which most of the villages of Malkhist were located, are illuminated by the sun all year round. Remained in Malkhist and traces of former Christianity. First of all, in toponymy, for example, in the name of the village ZhIare - "Cross", which is located on the right bank of the Meshi-khi, as well as ZhIare-Hjostui - "Cross Spring", located near the village. Can be attributed to the Christian image in the form of a crucifix on the battle tower in TsIoy-pyede, as well as the image of a human figure with a spear, apparently, St. George, who was very revered in the Caucasus and identified with the ancient god of the sun. It was here, according to legend, that the all-Chechen army gathered in the past. As the legend says, in ancient times in Malkhista, at the foot of the highest mountains, in the gorge, where the fast current of the Argun forms a wide delta, Chechen warriors gathered once a year. No matter how far they lived, each of them had to arrive here on the appointed day before the sun rose. The one who arrived last after sunrise was to be executed. Such was the law established by the Supreme Council of the country - Mehk-khel. One day, hurrying to the next gathering, a warrior rode through the gorge, knowing what a severe punishment awaits him if he is late. But, seeing the sun rising over the peaks, and the orderly ranks of warriors, he slowed down his horse. "You're too late, warrior. Following the law, we must execute you,” the elders who were members of the country’s High Council told him. “But first you have to give a reason.” Silence hung over the gorge, only the measured rumble of Argun broke the silence. The warrior did not utter a word, lowering his head and preparing for death. “You must give a reason,” repeated the elder. “I got married yesterday,” the warrior said quietly, “but I found out that my fiancee loves another. And he decided to die so that she would get freedom and could unite with her beloved. But then the sound of hooves was heard, and people saw a rider rushing on a fast horse. "Wait! I arrived last, execute me!" he shouted. And when they asked him the reason why he was late, the warrior replied: “Yesterday the girl I loved got married. Knowing that her fiancé might be late for the gathering, I arrived here early and waited for him, hiding in the gorge. And when he saw him, he immediately went after him. I didn't want his death to darken the life of the girl I loved. I'm ready to die." The elders were surprised, and went to the council. Noon came, evening passed, and only late at night they pronounced their verdict: “As long as there are such noble people among us, nothing threatens the Chechen land. We cancel the harsh law of the ancestors. May never again, for this reason, Chechen blood be shed in the Malkhisty gorge. Malchista was once densely populated. There were up to fourteen villages here. Doza, Banakh, Komalkh, Koratakh, ZhIariye, Bienista, Sakhana, Ikalchu, Tertiye, Meshi - their ruins are scattered along the gorges of Argun and Meshi-khi, mainly along the southern slope of the Kore-lam ridge, gloomy silence emphasizing the frailty of life and the eternity of death and stone. As if the seal of a spell prevails over the towers, in which half a century ago life was seething and human passions were seething. But most of all it amazes with the gloomy splendor of TsIoyn-pyede - the ancient cult center of Malkhista. Tsioyn-pyede is, first of all, a necropolis, a city of the dead, consisting of fifty stone crypts. At the entrance to the city of the dead, two pillar-like structures stand by the path. These are Selings - pagan sanctuaries. Near them, various kinds of cult rituals were performed and animals were sacrificed. In addition, when going on a journey, people put money, rings, earrings and other valuables into special bowls dedicated to the deity, and no one touched them. It was believed that whoever took any of these things would be deprived of reason as a punishment. Immediately behind the sanctuaries are crypts, which are scattered in small groups along the northern slope of the mountain. The crypt, or, in Chechen, malkhan-kash, that is, a sunny grave, is a rectangular building in the form of a house made of stones, on lime mortar. The outer walls of some crypts are smeared with clay-lime mortar. Some crypts consist of two rooms, one of which served as a funeral chamber. There are benches made of stone along the walls and niches for candles. In the memorial chamber, on sacred holidays, relatives drank ritual beer and commemorated the dead. In the front wall of the crypt there is a manhole - a quadrangular hole framed by a stone frame. The old people say that in the old days these holes were closed with special stone slabs. Very often, the stones on the front side of the crypts are decorated with petroglyphs; they guarded the crypt from dark forces. Most often these are swastikas, crosses, spirals. In addition, signs were preserved on some crypts, which, most likely, were original family coats of arms. Above the opening of one of the crypts on the northeastern side of the necropolis, a well-worked round stone, resembling a human skull, is built into the wall. It is almost mirror-smooth, apparently from the constant touch of human hands. Inside the crypts, along the walls, stone shelves were arranged in two or three rows, on which the dead were laid. Weapons and household items were left next to the deceased, which, according to their relatives, they might need in another world. Although most of the crypts were looted after the local residents were evicted in 1944, pottery and wood products, arrows, and women's jewelry still miraculously survived in some of them. The emergence and existence of collective crypt burials dates back to the XII-XIV centuries. Folklore speaks differently about their origin. According to one of the legends, the crypts began to be built during epidemics, when people left their villages, fleeing the pestilence, and there was no one to bury the dead. The sick themselves came to the crypts and died on stone shelves. Information about the terrible epidemic in Malkhist was preserved in the legend about Un-nan and the Melkhins. Un-nana, the goddess of diseases, attended a festival dedicated to the goddess of fertility, Tusholi. But during the ritual procession, she considered that the worshipers offended her with their inattention, and sent contagious diseases on them. A battle tower rises above the crypts. It is equipped with many loopholes, and at the very top - machicolations. Petroglyphs are applied to the stones of the tower - magical signs that were supposed to protect the tower and the soldiers from the enemy. To the south of the "city of the dead" was previously the village of TsIoyn-pyede, separated from the necropolis by a solid stone wall adjacent to the tower. It was a large settlement in terms of mountainous Chechnya. As the old people say, in Tsioin-pyede, sixty warriors rode out of the gate alone on equally gray horses. It was very well fortified. On the north side, it was covered by a combat tower and a high stone wall, from the south - a high, impregnable cliff, from the southeast side, a powerful castle rises above Argun. The village of TsIoyn-pyede was destroyed as a result of an internecine war. According to the legend, the enemies besieged it for three months and could not take it. In Tsioyn-pyed there lived a girl whose lover was in the camp of enemies. Late at night, she climbed the wall and pointed out to the besiegers a safe passage from the side of the abyss. Enemies broke into the village, and it was destroyed to the ground. Due to the remoteness from the plain and good natural fortifications and fortifications built throughout the Argun Gorge, an external enemy rarely reached Malkhista. But internecine wars, blood feuds tormented this land. The old people explained this situation by the curse of Un-nana, the goddess of diseases. Once upon a time, three brothers lived in Tsioyn-pyed - Tsatesh, Matesh, Makhera. They made a wake for their mother and sacrificed livestock. All the eminent Malchs have gathered here. Un-Nana also came there to spread the infection on people. On her shoulders hung saddlebags full of ashes. “If we do not kill Un-Nana, then she will destroy our guests,” the brothers thought, and cut off her head with a blow of a saber. Un-nana's head rolled down the slope and muttered: "May the pestilence not come to Malchista, may the war and enmity among the Malkhs not run out." Indeed, everything in the gorges of Malhista reminds us that the people who lived here were at war with everyone. To the east of the village of Korotakh lie the villages of Komalkha, Banakh - on the left bank of the Argun and Doza - on the right. In the middle between these three auls, a picturesque place has been preserved, which was called Uzum-mette - "The place where songs are performed." In the Middle Ages, during sacred festivities, the priests sang cult songs here, and when the sounds of the song were heard, the inhabitants of the surrounding villages knew about the beginning of religious ceremonies. Up the gorge of the Meshi-khi river, along the Kore-lam ridge, lie the ruins of the villages of Ikalchu, Bienista, Sakhana, Terte, Meshekh. In the village of Terte, a tower complex is well preserved, as well as a necropolis on the southern outskirts. There were only two villages on the right bank of the Meshi-khi River: Kegin and ZhIare. Watchtower ZhIare is visible from Cape TsIoyn-pyede, it hangs over the abyss on a high, steep rock. In the works of ethnographers and archaeologists, Malkhist is usually characterized as a gloomy and gloomy region. In fact, the Malhista gorges are very beautiful at any time of the year. In the spring, wild plums, wild roses, a lot of different flowers bloom here. In winter, even in January, it is warm and sunny. Golden-colored grass and bright green pines look picturesque against the background of gray rocks and snowy peaks. Majestic towers fit perfectly into the landscape, the black stones of which effectively contrast with the gold of the grass. Until 1944, almost all of Malkhist was inhabited, there was even a boarding school in the village of Sakhana. But after the residents were evicted in 1944, most of the military and residential towers were blown up, and the necropolises were plundered.

ARGUN GORGE It is one of the largest gorges in the Caucasus. The gorge stretches for almost one hundred and twenty kilometers: from Khevsureti to the Black Mountains and goes to the Chechen plain. The Argun Gorge is located in the very heart of Chechnya. On the left are the gorges of Nashkha, Kei and Akkkhin-mokhka, on the right are the canyons of Sharoya, the gorges of Cheberloy and the mountain valleys of Ichkeria. It was along the Argun Gorge, along with the Daryal, that the path from Europe to Asia, from Russia to Transcaucasia and Western Asia passed. Russian embassy and trade missions followed this path to Georgia right up to late XVII I century. About its use by the Chechens in the late XIX - early XX century, N.S. Ivanenkov: “Further south, the continuation of this road turns into a pack trail that leads to the boundaries of the Tiflis province. On the same road, having crossed the main ridge of the mountains, one can also reach the capital of Georgia - Tiflis, and the population uses this route when going to Georgia to work. Hordes of nomads repeatedly tried to break through this gorge in Transcaucasia from the north, but they never succeeded. Arab troops in the 9th-10th centuries stormed the towers and tower villages of warlike mountain tribes, who courageously repelled their attempts to pass through this gorge to the north. It should be noted that the road in the mentality of the Chechens is not just a specific concept, but a moral category. Since ancient times, everything related to the road was considered sacred. According to legend, a person who paved a road or built a bridge deserves paradise. It was considered a collective duty of all its inhabitants to monitor the condition of the road passing by the village. In addition, they were morally responsible for all those passing through this section of the road and had to offer hospitality to belated travelers. A strict ban was imposed on everything that could desecrate the road, damage it. It was impossible to take even a stone from the road, to occupy a span of land related to it, and the destruction of the bridge was generally considered a terrible crime. Chechens have developed a special ethics of relations on the road. The concept of "nakyost" (companion, fellow traveler) in the Chechen language also has the meaning "friend, comrade." According to Vainakh mythology, people on the way, especially at night, were guarded by taramas - spirits, doubles of a person. The rituality of everything connected with the road goes back to those distant times when the Chechens had a cult of the road. Chechen towers were subjected to intensive destruction during the Caucasian War. Many towers were destroyed and dismantled during the construction of the military fortifications of the Russian army: Evdokimovsky, Shatoysky, Vozdvizhensky. Stones were used to build fortress walls. In order to build one fortress, dozens of towers in the district were taken apart. According to N.S. Ivanenkov, for the construction of the Evdokimovsky fortification, twelve stone towers were bought and dismantled from local residents. According to A.P. Berger, two towers at the entrance to the Argun Gorge were destroyed during the construction of the Vozdvizhensky fortification (on the site of the village of Chakhkeri). During the construction of a military fortification in Zonakh, a combat tower on the outskirts of the village was also destroyed. Many towers and ancient burial grounds were destroyed during the expansion of the road along the Argun bank. Most found at that time various items from the burial grounds of various eras they were simply taken out. On the western slope of the Bien-Duk ridge, which stretches along the right bank of the Argun, parallel to its flow, not far from the village of Zonakh, there is a cliff “Kho yoI ekha bora” (a cliff where three maidens live). According to legend, three divine maidens lived on the tops of these rocks: Malkh-Azni, Darius-Den-Khokha and Diyka-Dela-YoI. The leader of the Narts, Seska-Solsa, every day, morning and evening, appeared here on his fabulous horse, which made jumps from the Bien-Duk ridge to the Yerdi-Kort mountain, and from Yerdi-Kort jumped to the top of Nokhchiin-barz. The sisters were tired of Seska-Solsa's courtship, and they, together with their mother Sata, moved to the top of Dakoh-Kort, which is located in Miaista, on the border with Khevsureti. The inhabitants of Miaysta had a belief that Diyka, the goddess of goodness and justice, who taught people to distinguish between good and evil, lives on the top of Dakoh-Kort Mountain. For the first time in the ethnographic essay by A. Ippolitov, two combat towers are mentioned at the entrance to the village of Shatoy from the north - on the left bank of the Argun. According to a legend given by many authors, these towers were built by two brothers. According to legend, one of the brothers killed the other in a quarrel that arose because of the captive, he himself left his native places forever. The towers collapsed over time. In fact, most likely, these towers were watchtowers and controlled the road passing nearby. This can be confirmed by the fact that combat towers were almost never used as residential and, in general, were not adapted for this. The combat tower Guchan-Khalle is located on the right bank of the Argun, on a high rocky cape, which forms a small river Guchan-erk, which flows into the Argun. It is laid out of carefully selected, and in some cases well-crafted stones of various sizes, on lime mortar. According to folklore sources, this tower was called Gionat-gala - "winged tower". This name was given to her by the commander of Tamerlane, who could not take the tower and the village by storm. Two towers stood on the right bank of the Argun, not far from the village of Ush-khalloy, at the very base of the rocky mountain Selin-lam. Only the base of one of the towers has survived to our time. It was destroyed during the deportation of Chechens in 1944. The second tower has been preserved almost completely. A legend has been preserved, according to which the Council of Wise Men met in these towers, where mountaineers from all ethnic communities, seeking truth and justice, turned from Phein-Mokhk (Khevsureti), located at the source of the Argun, to the very foothill plain. But, in all likelihood, this is just a legend. In fact, the Ushkkhalloy towers were watchtowers. In former times, the road in this place passed along the right bank of the Argun. Not far from the towers was a wooden hanging bridge, which, if necessary, could be lifted and removed. Next to it there was a stone arch bridge, built without the use of any other materials except stone. The guard, which was in the tower, controlled the road and the bridge and took a fee from passing merchants in the form of gunpowder, lead, wool, cloth, sheep. The tower was built, according to field materials, in the 11th-12th centuries. The village of Eton-khalle lies in a wide basin formed by the flow of the Argun. Its southern part, Phyakoche, is the most ancient. Here, on an elevated place, there used to be a fortification, consisting of several military and residential towers, surrounded by a high stone wall. From here, the road to Georgia and Dagestan, as well as to other regions of Chechnya, was controlled. In our time, the ruins of a battle tower and a complex of rectangular stone buildings remained from the fortification. One of the structures, inside which the remains of stone columns and hiding places, common for religious buildings, have been preserved, is considered by researchers to be an ancient pagan sanctuary. In addition, the ruins of several residential towers remained here. The ruins of a combat tower have also been preserved on the right bank of the Argun, at the entrance to the village from the Ush-khalloy. She, apparently, was a signal tower and was connected by a visual connection with the Bekhaylin complex and Phyakoche castle. The foundation of Eton-khalle is associated with the name of Eton, who came here from the village of Batsoy-mokhk, which was located higher along the Argun. In a wide river valley, in the place where the village is located, Eaton, who hunted in these places, lay down to rest, hanging his bow on a tree. When he woke up, he saw that a bird had made a nest on his weapon. Eaton took this as a good sign and decided to stay here, building a tower. He was hired as a shepherd to the prince of Dishni-ela, the owner of the tower complex on Mount Bekhayla. Subsequently, Eaton had a son, Jelly, who, having matured, married the daughter of the prince. He, like Eaton, shepherded the flock of Dishni-el. Jelly's son refused to work for his grandfather and rebelled against him. The prince decided to destroy Eaton-khalle and kill his son-in-law and grandson. But Jele's wife, Nanag, Dishni-el's daughter, found out about this and decided to warn them of the danger. With a cry, she rushed towards the village, but the prince caught up with her and mortally wounded her. At the request of his daughter, he buried her here, halfway between the towers of her father and husband. As a result of the war between Jelly, who was helped by Prince Dora-ela, and Desni-ela, the latter was defeated. The lonely gravestone of Nanag-Kash reminds of those tragic events.

Ichkeria Ichkeria is the most eastern region Chechnya, located northeast of Cheberloy. Its name is formed, apparently, from the Kumyk "ichi eri" - inner land, region. An interesting interpretation of the name was given by I.V. Popov, the author of the work “Ichkerinians”, who visited this region at the end of the 19th century: “Ichkeria consists of two words: “ich” and “geri”. The mentioned words are translated by the Kumyks as follows: ich - the middle, geri - a flat area among elevated mountains. In addition, the word "geri" both in relation to one person and to the whole people means that he was once rich and strong, but due to various historical circumstances, he lost his meaning and became poor and weak. The territory of Ichkeria was inhabited by Chechens, as well as Cheberla, not earlier than the 15th century. Representatives of the majority of Ichkerian teips consider themselves descendants of immigrants from the western regions of the Caucasus. The main crossing point of this migration and, most likely, the capital of medieval Chechnya was Nashkha. The first settlers from Nashkh to Ichkeria, and then to the Yaryksu and Aktash valleys were representatives of the teips Peshkhoy and Tsiechoy. This is told by a legend that was published in the 19th century: “Somewhere in the direction of Bashlam there are mountains from which the Assa, Fortanga and Gekhi rivers flow. These mountains are called Akkkhin-lam, the ancestors of the Chechens - lam-keristi (i.e. Christians) once lived there. This area is the cradle of the Chechens. Fourteen generations ago, a part of the lamkeristi left there and moved east due to the fact that in their homeland, from the crowd, it became crowded for them to live. They passed by the Argun and Aksai rivers, but they did not like these rivers, and finally, they came to the place where the village of Yurt-Aukh now stands. The first settlers here were the surnames Parchkhoy and Tsiechoy. When they arrived here, there was only one Andi farm in these places. There were no other settlements. Then, according to historical and folklore sources, other Ichkerian teips moved out of Nashkh. Many Cheberloev teips, as well as the societies of the Argun Gorge, consider themselves to be natives of Nashkh. According to one of the genealogical legends, the founder of Ichkeria was Molkh, who first moved from Miaist to Nashkh, and from there, together with his son Tinin Vusu, to Ichkeria. During the resettlement, in order to consolidate their right to this land, the Chechens called it "Nokhchi-Mokhk" - "the land of the Chechens", as is often the case during colonization. In the Late Middle Ages, the Chechen Mekhk-khel gathered here. By the way, I.V. also wrote about this. Popov: “The mound, noticeable on a hill, was made by the efforts of human labor: it was poured by the hands of people, as the legend says. This place, the center of Ichkeria, served as a gathering point for the elders of Ichkeria, whose life, passing the phases of its development, finally demanded more correct social relations... it was inapplicable to the conditions of social life. The only way to resolve litigations, whatever their nature, was the verdict of mediators chosen by both the plaintiff and the defendant. The verdict of these elders did not admit of appeals, and the litigants faithfully carried out their decrees. In the same controversial cases, for which the custom did not yet exist, the Ichkerian elders were sent to Nashkh, from where they always returned satisfied. The purest custom, according to the Chechens and Ichkerians, existed in Nashkh.” According to folklore and historical data, a stone combat tower with a pyramidal roof stood near the village of Khorochoy. During excavations near its ruins, archaeological materials of the 14th-15th centuries were found. In the 19th century, a postcard was issued with her image. According to legend, before the colonists from Nashkh came to Ichkeria, Orstkhois lived here. Some towers in Ichkeria, which are mentioned in ancient legends, are associated with their name. ___________________________________ Maista Maista is an ancient historical region of Chechnya. It is located in the highlands, east of the Chanti-Argun River, along the border with Georgia. This is the most severe and beautiful region of mountainous Chechnya with majestic beauty. Eternal ice, huge rocks, deep abysses, wild mountain rivers are wonderfully combined here with dense beech and pine groves, thickets of wild fruit trees and shrubs, a sea of ​​flowers in the summer. And above all this rise ancient towers - the silent keepers of age-old secrets. "Maista" in translation from Chechen - "alpine, upper, edge." Once this area was very densely populated. Along the Maystoyn-erk river, a tributary of the Chanti-Argun, stretched the villages of Vaserkel, Tsa-kale, Puoga, Tuga. They were located in hard-to-reach, strategically important places, closing the Maista gorges from all sides, standing in the way of the enemy with impregnable castles. In the Middle Ages, Maysta was a kind of capital of mountainous Chechnya. Here, according to legend, lived the legendary Molkh, the ancestor of a part of the Chechens, who then moved to Nashkh. At one time, the Mehk Khel of the Nakh country met in Maysta to resolve pressing issues and develop customary laws. Maista has long remained the cult center of Chechnya, there was a priestly caste with secret knowledge and skills of healers. In the 19th century, the population of Maista suffered from landlessness and poverty, and was forced to periodically migrate to other regions, mainly to Georgia. During this period, the Maistins were engaged in sheep breeding and raided Georgia in order to make money. From the former greatness of Maista, not only the legends and the warlike character of its inhabitants, but also a huge number of stone buildings, which, according to scientists, belong to the XII-XIV centuries, remained. Particularly impressive are the ruins of the medieval tower village of Vaserkel, which lies on a high stone cliff on the right bank of the Maistoyn-erk River. The ruins of stone towers merge with gray rocks, forming a castle of bizarre outlines. At the very top of the cliff there is a combat tower, from which the whole neighborhood is visible, as well as the towers of Tsa-kale and Puog. On the western outskirts - the towers hang over the path that runs along the river. It is impossible not to admire the courage and skill of the tower builders. The village of Vaserkel was located at the crossroads from Dagestan to the Argun Gorge and from Chechnya to Georgia. It was a real medieval fortress, with battle towers, stone walls, almost impregnable for enemies. According to legend, it was destroyed during the wars in the early Middle Ages, and since then no one has lived in it. Not far from the Vaserkel fortress is the largest necropolis in the Caucasus - the "city of the dead", consisting of fifty stone crypts scattered along the slopes. They served as tombs for individual Maistin families. Basically, these are small stone houses with a gable roof made of large slate slabs, with a square hole on the front side. But there are also two-story crypts, testifying to the wealth and power of the family. To the east of Vaserkel, on a gentle slope, is the village of Tsa-Kale, or, translated from the Chechen language, "a settlement dedicated to the deity Tsu." Tsa-Kale is a castle-type defensive complex, consisting of one combat and several residential towers. The combat tower is a classic version of the Vainakh (Chechen-Ingush) tower with a pyramidal roof, which is completed by a cone-shaped stone - tsIurku. It was believed that for the installation of this stone, in addition to the usual payment, the owner of the tower had to give the master a bull. Obviously, this stone originally had a magical, cult significance. The residential towers of Tsa-kale can be classified as semi-combat, they are much higher than usual and have machicolations. The combat and residential towers form a castle, the gaps between them are covered with stone walls. In the courtyard of the castle, a sieling has been well preserved - a pillar-shaped sanctuary, where the Maistins prayed, asked for protection and help in business, and made sacrifices. But sieling in Tsa-Kala has not had a cult significance since ancient times and has been preserved as a tribute to the past. To the north of the village is a Muslim cemetery, where Maystin buried the dead until 1944. The inhabitants of Maista had a deep respect for the past, therefore, having converted to Islam, they did not destroy the former sanctuaries and crypts, so as not to desecrate the memory of their fathers. There are many petroglyphs on the walls of the towers in Tsa-Kala: in the form of spirals, solar signs, figures of people, as well as the image of a hand, which is obligatory on almost all towers. But the most interesting is the inscription in the form of a petroglyphic letter on the wall of a residential tower in Vaserkel, on the edge of a high cliff. This is a kind of document of the ancient writing of the Chechens, which has yet to be deciphered by scientists. To the west of Vaserkel and Tsa-kale, on the left bank of Maystoin-erk, are the tower villages of Puoga and Tuga. Puoga is several tower complexes, each of which forms a powerful castle, consisting of a military and several residential towers. The towers of Puog are very massive and high, and built with a good knowledge of fortification and military art. All four villages in Maista are located in such a way that, if necessary, their inhabitants can exchange danger signals by lighting fires on the towers. The name of the legendary Jokola, a courageous and fair leader of the Maistins, known not only in Chechnya, but also in neighboring Georgia, is associated with the villages of Puoga and Tuga. During the Caucasian War, Maista belonged to those Chechen societies that did not want to obey either the Russian authorities or Imam Shamil and desperately resisted any attempts to subdue them. The Maistins fought especially successfully when they were led by Jokola. Later, at the suggestion of the Georgian princes, Jokola went with his relatives to Georgia and founded several villages there in the Pankisi Gorge. But upon returning to Chechnya, he was deceived by Shamil's murids and executed. The notes of the Russian officer L.A. Zisserman, who visited Maista in the late 40s of the 19th century. He admires the amazing hospitality of the Maistins. During a holiday arranged in honor of the guest, they began to compete in rifle shooting. When the guest missed, none of the Maistins, who at all times were considered excellent shooters and skillful hunters, hit the target so as not to humiliate the dignity of the guest. A ten-year-old boy was entrusted to show his skills, who easily hit the target. Describes L.A. Zisserman and the ritual of fraternization with Jokola, whose very name became his guarantee of safety in these dangerous places for travel. But the inhabitants of the Maistin gorges were not only brave and skillful warriors. They were famous throughout the Caucasus for the art of healing. The Maystinians knew the secrets of many healing herbs, from ancient times they knew how to perform craniotomy and were especially skillful in treating wounds inflicted by cold and firearms. The art of local healers attracted people here not only from Chechnya, but also from Georgia, Ossetia, Kabarda. There were priestly families in Meist who passed down the secrets of magic, the secrets of hypnosis. Perhaps, the very atmosphere of these gorges, where the shadows of the ancient towers merge with the outlines of the rocks, were conducive to mysticism, leaving a strange, unearthly impression in the soul. The inhabitants of Maista enjoyed special authority among the Chechens as experts in Chechen law. Until 1944, there was Maystoin Khel, a kind of Supreme Court of Chechnya, where legal experts for a certain bribe sorted out litigations and disputes not only of Chechens, but also of the Ingush and Georgians. Maistoin khel was contacted if other judicial institutions were at an impasse in the proceedings. The court of the Maistins was considered fair, and its decisions were always carried out. A legend has been preserved about the judicial art of the Maistins: “Once a traveler was walking along a mountain gorge, along a high cliff. Unintentionally, he dropped a heavy staff from his hands, which fell into the abyss with a roar. A shepherd who was sitting nearby, startled by an unexpected noise, fell off a cliff and crashed. The relatives of the deceased demanded a huge fine from the traveler. The latter turned to Maystoin-khel. The elder, considering this matter easy, handed it over to the young man, and he reasoned as follows: three parties are guilty of the death of the shepherd - the traveler, who inadvertently dropped the staff, the staff, which, falling, made a noise that frightened the shepherd, the shepherd, who turned out to be so cowardly that fell into the abyss from random noise. Consequently, the young judge concluded, the perpetrator should pay only a third of the fine. Thus he saved the traveler from an unjust claim. Among other things, the Maistins were also excellent builders. According to folklore sources, they built towers not only in the mountains of Chechnya, but also in Khevsureti and Tusheti. In the late Middle Ages, the same pagan cults existed in Maysta as throughout Chechnya, although there were also local features. For example, the cult of lam-Tishuol, a mountain spirit that lived on the top of the mountain Dakoh-kort (Maistoin-lam) and patronized warriors and hunters. Also, according to the beliefs of the Maystinians, the goddess of justice Dika lived on the top of this mountain, who taught people to distinguish between good and evil. On the northern slope of the Maistinsky ridge, south of the Tug, there is a sacred grove, into which no hunter will enter without first washing himself in the river water, otherwise an evil blizzard will break from the icy peak of Tebulosmt, block the path of the walking one, and then death will inevitably await him. Until recently, there were sacred reserved groves in other regions of mountainous Chechnya. In them, no one dared to pick a flower or break a branch. Wild animals felt safe here, as no hunter dared to hunt in the sacred grove. Previously, even bloodlines could hide in them, not being afraid that revenge could overtake them. According to popular belief, staying in the protected groves for a certain time led to healing from many diseases. The attitude of the Chechens to the tree was very reverent. Since ancient times, they have learned to protect the forest, to use it wisely. Pear tree, walnut were considered sacred, and there was a strict ban on their felling. Until now, there is a belief among Chechens, according to which a person who cuts down a walnut or pear tree will go to hell. Arbitrary logging was forbidden, and cutting down a tree out of mischief was considered a terrible crime along with the murder of a person. It was recommended to harvest deadwood, diseased trees for firewood, but it was impossible to use valuable species for this purpose. The hornbeam was also considered a sacred tree. It was used by the Chechens to make weapons, and therefore its felling was strictly regulated. The cult of the summit was also widespread among the Maistins. They turned to the highest snowy peak of Tebulosmta in this range of mountains with a prayer: “Oh, great Tuloi-lam! O holy Tuloi Lama! We turn to you with a request, and you ask the Great Cause for us. But the prayers of the inhabitants of Maista were in vain. The villages of Tsa-kale, Puoga, Tuga were destroyed in 1944 during the eviction of Chechens by the NKVD troops. The ceilings and roofs of the towers were blown up, and then they were set on fire from the inside. The Maysta gorges are lifeless today. The gloomy shadows of Vaserkel, the stern towers of Puog, the majestic ruins of Tsa-Kale are silent. The sun has set over Maista, plunging this amazing region into silence. But Mount Maystoin-lam stands, sparkling with a snow-white peak, reminding people that sooner or later good will triumph over evil in this world, purity and light will rule the minds of people and justice will reign on earth. ___________________________________________ Sharoy THE HISTORICAL REGION OF SHAROY LIES IN THE UPPER RIVER SHARO-ARGUN, to the east of the Chechen communities of Chanti and Khacharoy, to the west of Cheberloy. Its name, most likely, is associated with the adjective "shera" - smooth, flat, which in mountain dialects sounds like "ball". It can be explained by the fact that the Sharo-Argun current forms wide gorges with gentle banks. Sharoi consisted of several dozen villages, the largest of which were Sharoi, Himoy, Khakmada and Shikara. The well-known Georgian historian I.A. Javakhishvili associated the ethnonym “Sarmat” with the toponyms Sharoi, Sharo-Argun, which, in his opinion, sounded like “Sharmat”. But since there is no “sh” sound in Greek and Latin, it was recorded in ancient sources as “Sarmatian”. The village of Sharoy was a tower settlement, consisting of three military and several residential towers, which were located close to each other, forming an impregnable zak. The gaps between the individual buildings were protected by stone walls. In fact, it was a real medieval fortress. It was located at the crossroads of the most important roads and occupied a hill, which had a strategic position. The inhabitants of Sharoi had the opportunity to control the road from Transcaucasia and Dagestan to the Argun Gorge, as well as to Cheberloy and Ichkeria. Of the three combat towers that survived until the beginning of the 20th century, now only one remains. Bruno Plechke, who visited these mountains in the 1920s, found two military and several residential towers still in relatively good condition. But the residential towers were blown up in 1944, and one of the combat towers was destroyed during the bombing in 1995. If Sharoy was the administrative center of this region, then the village of Himoy, which is located a few kilometers southeast of it, was its cult center. According to field data, on the outskirts of Himoya there was a sundial, which was a circle of huge stones, in the center of which was a tall stone pillar. Apparently, it was not only a watch, but also a kind of observatory for observing the movement of the sun. According to S.-M.Khasiev, in ancient times, at a certain period in the development of the cult of the sun, the Chechens were forbidden to observe the sun. And the priests watched his shadow, considering the shadow to be the hypostasis of the sun. The abundance of petroglyphs on the surviving medieval buildings of the village can serve as confirmation that Himoy was a cult center. These are double helixes, and crosses, and circles. But the most interesting is the classic swastika with rectangular ends. In this form, it is not found anywhere else in the Caucasus, although in various versions it is present on the walls of many Chechen towers, in more ancient times - on Koban ceramics, then in the form of a tamga on the pottery of the Alans. In the Middle Ages, almost all the villages of Sharoi were towers, that is, they consisted of residential and military towers. Many of them, especially the combat towers, were destroyed during the Caucasian War, some during the eviction of Chechens in 1944. Today, the ruins of majestic stone buildings have been preserved in the villages of Sharoy, Himoy, Khakmada, Shikaroy. modern houses With gable roofs seem next to the dilapidated stone tower buildings dwellings of dwarfs.

Akki Akki is a mountainous part of Chechnya, bordering in the south with Kay, in the east with Nashkh, in the west with Yalkhara, in the north with the regions of the Chechen society Orstkhoy. The area was once densely populated. The ruins of the tower villages of Zengali, Bitsi, Kereti, Vougi, Ami, Itir-kale still remind of the harsh past of these mountains. The main occupation of the inhabitants of Akka was cattle breeding and agriculture. In addition, they were famous as excellent hunters and warriors. Akkintsy took an active part in the Caucasian War in the detachments of Imam Shamil. Many fortified villages were besieged by the tsarist troops, many tower buildings were destroyed during the assault and shelling from artillery pieces. M.A. Ivanov, who visited Akki at the beginning of the last century, wrote about this: “On elevated platforms, stone huts of several seniority settlements are scattered. They are grouped in most cases around the ancient towers, which this area is generally rich in, which served in the distant past as an arena of endless strife and civil strife, and in the next era - Shamil's struggle with Russian troops. Fresh memories of these last events among the population are still preserved: they talk about how strong towers were taken by the Russians, how cannon shots thundered and artillery shells smashed the strongholds of the highlanders. Even in the Late Middle Ages, the Akkins occupied territories to the west not only from the sources of the Gekhi, but also to the Fortanga and Assy. The Akkins of the Vappi teip lived in the Dzheyrakh and Daryal gorges, in the villages of Lars and Gvileti. Russian sources of that time mention the owner of the Larsov tavern (village - author's note) Saltan-Murza, who was the brother of Shikh-Murza Okotsky. According to field materials, the Chechen teip Bagachara moved out of the area, which is located at the source of the Sunzha, near the Baguchar mountain range. In those days, this teip belonged to the Akka tukkhum, but even after moving to the right bank of the Sharo-Argun, the Bagacharoys continued to consider themselves part of the Akka tukhum. In the 16th century, part of the Bagacharyans founded the village of Bagachary at the exit from the Argun Gorge, not far from the village of Goyty. In 1825, it was burned down by Russian troops after a three-day battle. This battle was described by Prince Volkonsky in one of his letters to his friend. In the 15th-16th centuries, part of the Akkins migrated to the east, to Ichkeria, as well as to the areas of settlement of the Nakh Ovkhoy tribe (today these are the western regions of Dagestan), which, apparently, are descendants of the ancient tribe of the Aorses mentioned by Strabo. Later, the Orstkhoevs (Tsechoi) from the Tsecha-Akhk Gorge, as well as the Peshkhoy, moved to the same areas. As a result, a Chechen sub-ethnos appeared, which, identifying itself as part of the Chechen ethnos, distinguishes itself in it as "Akki" in contrast to the "Lam-Akki" - mountain Akkins, who today live in almost all regions of Chechnya. After the end of the Caucasian War in the 19th century, many residents of Akka moved to Turkey. Teip Vappi, like some Orstkhoev families, left Chechnya almost completely. Despite the many ancient villages, very few architectural monuments have survived to our time in a more or less intact form. In the village of Zengali, located south of Lake Galanchozh, on the left bank of the Gekhi River, about twenty residential towers of various safety, built of well-worked stone, have been preserved. Separate residential and semi-combat towers have been preserved in the villages of Bitsi, Kereti, Mizirkala. During the last two wars, they were bombed by Russian aircraft. The architectural structures that have survived to this day testify to the high skill of their builders. Akki, like Terloy and Maista, was famous for her craftsmen. There is a legend about one of them - the famous builder of towers Diskhi. On the road to the village of Vougi stands a lone tower. The locals call it Diskhi-bow. It is said that it was built by the master Diskhi. In one of the villages Akki Diskhi betrothed a girl. One spring, when it was easiest to buy or barter sheep's wool, he asked his bride to sew a fur coat for him. She promised, but for some reason she could not finish the work for a long time. Diskhi got angry for the inattentive attitude to his request and told the bride that he would build a tower faster than she would sew a fur coat. He set to work. He erected walls, and when it was necessary to complete the roof, the wooden scaffolding, on which heavy stones lay, could not stand it and collapsed. And Master Dishi perished. The bride heard about this, ran to the tower and, seeing the dead bridegroom, climbed the tower and rushed down. So the tower remained unfinished. And people, in memory of the famous master, called it Diskhi-bou - the tower of Diskhi. One of the most beautiful monuments of residential architecture of the Chechens is the residential tower Mizir-Kala, which is distinguished by the elegance of proportions, sophisticated decor, high construction technique, which is usually more typical for combat towers. Above the left bank of the Akki-khi river, on a high stone cliff, there is the Itir-kale tower built into a rocky niche. It can be called a small fortress. Access to it is impossible, since the wooden walkways thrown from rock to rock have long since collapsed. The walls have almost completely collapsed, leaving only fragments. According to field materials, the owner of the fortress was the local feudal lord Gazh, who was distinguished by a cruel and ferocious disposition. He took a duty in the form of sheep's wool and gunpowder from people passing along this road. According to legend, Gage was killed by rebelling tribesmen. Today Akki gorges are deserted. The silhouettes of ancient towers froze in eternal silence. And no one can say if life will ever return here again. __________________________________________ Ershthoy (Arshthoy, Orstkhoy) Ershthoy (Arshthoy, Orstkhoy) - was located to the west of Lam-Akkha and Yalkhara and included the area adjacent to Lake Galan-Chozh, the gorge of the Fortanga River, as well as Assy in the lower reaches. After Timur's detachments left the Caucasus, the Orstkhoys were among the first to descend into the foothills, and then into the valley between the Sunzha and Assa rivers. Here they encountered the Kabardians, who then led a nomadic lifestyle and grazed their cattle in the territory vacated after the departure of the Mongols. In general, as evidenced by historical and folklore sources, the ethnonym “Orstkha/Arstkha” originally denoted all the Nakh-speaking inhabitants of the foothills. And that part of the Nakhs, which from the 18th century began to be called "Orstkha", in earlier times had the tribal name "Bala", which included both Akkkhi, Peshkhoy, and some other Chechen teips. Apparently, it was a caste of warriors. The etymology of the ethnonym "Orstkhoy" is quite transparent: in Chechen "Arts" is a low ridge, "Arstkhoy" is the inhabitants of the foothills or the Black Mountains. But it is possible that the Chechen "arts" in more ancient times had the meaning of "fortress, ramparts", which is quite possible. In this case, the ancient signal about the danger of the “dovla orts” takes on a specific meaning: “Hide in the fortress” (or behind the ramparts). According to folklore materials, before the arrival of the Chechens from the western regions of the Caucasus, Orstkhs also lived in Ichkeria and Chaberloi, who spoke a language that had some differences from the Chechen language. But today they can hardly be identified with the inhabitants of Ershta. The Orstkhoy were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, and in the mountainous regions, in the villages of Upper and Lower Dattykh, in addition, salt mining. Orstkhoy quite early, in comparison with their neighbors, converted to Islam and actively participated in the Caucasian War in the detachments of Shamil. They constantly raided the villages of the Ingush, who by that time had become subjects of the Russian Tsar. This is evidenced by the numerous complaints of the Ingush foremen, preserved in the Russian archives. When evicting a part Caucasian peoples to Turkey, after the end of the Caucasian War, the Orstkhoy almost completely left their homeland, not wanting to obey the Russian administration. The rest were settled by the tsarist government in the Chechen and Ingush villages, and on their lands the Sunzha Cossack line was formed to separate the Chechens and Ingush. The territory of Ersthoy is very rich in stone tower buildings. Their ruins are preserved in the villages of Bazante, Gandal-basa, Lower and Upper Dattykh, TsIecha-Akhk, Egichozh. Although the region is located in the very west of Chechnya, its architecture in its main parameters gravitates towards the forms of Central Chechnya, that is, the Argun Gorge. The village of TsIecha-Akhk is full of tower buildings of various eras. The oldest settlement TsIecha-Akhk dates back to the 1st millennium BC. e. It consists of cyclopean buildings, which are rectangular structures built of huge uncut stones. The gigantic plans of these dwellings may speak of a certain social structure of the society of that time. Apparently, the population here lived in large family communities, which gradually fragmented in the process of evolution. By the way, this is also confirmed by the fact that additional small rooms were attached to the Cyclopean structures. The buildings of the early Alanian era (I-VII centuries) have also been preserved here. Among them, one can already distinguish combat and residential towers. Residential towers, despite the low level of construction technology, already have structures characteristic of late, classical buildings: the presence of a supporting pillar, arched openings (doors and windows), their expansion from the inside. Late Alanian buildings (this is confirmed here by the abundance of archaeological material) are close to classical in their forms. The powerful castle of the village of TsIecha-Akhk, consisting of one combat and two residential towers, can be attributed to the XV-XVII centuries. The fighting tower has a square base (5 x 5 m), a large number of window openings with round arches, the stones are processed, the masonry is very carefully done, there are decorative elements on the facade of the tower. The residential towers attached to the battle tower do not differ from it in terms of the masonry technique and the level of stone processing, that is, all elements of the castle were built at the same time. The Egi-chozh fortress, which embodies all the best achievements of Nakh architecture, can be attributed to the pinnacle of fortification architecture of the Chechens. ______________________________________ Terloi-mokhk Terloi-mokhk is a historical region in the south of mountainous Chechnya, on the left bank of the Argun. From the south it bordered on Kei-mokhk, from the north - from Dishni, from the west - from Peshkha, its eastern border ran along the left bank of the Argun, where on a high slope stood a majestic complex of three combat towers - KIirda-bIavnash. Three left tributaries of the Argun flowed through its territory: Nikara, BarkhIai, BIavloi, after which the three patronymic groups that made up the Terloi society were named. Magomed Mamakaev included Terloi among the nine Chechen tukhums, although both field materials and legends indicate that it was one of the largest Chechen teips, which had all the classic signs of a teip, including such relic ones as a teip cult. The toponym "Terla", in all likelihood, goes back to the Chechen "tera" - upper, alpine. The inhabitants of the mountainous regions still call Terloi-mokhk "TIera", and its inhabitants "Tierii", that is, the upper ones. TIerloi-mokhk begins with the tower fortification KIirda-bIavnash, which is located on a high cape, formed at the confluence of its left tributary Terloi-akhk into the Argun. According to teptars (family chronicles) kept by the ancestors of Akhmed Suleymanov until February 1944, after the collapse of the Alanian region of Sim-Sim in the war with Timur, the king and his associates retreated to the west with a large caravan loaded with weapons and treasury. They reached the Argun River and on its left bank, on a high cape, laid a powerful tower fortification. The remains of this fortification have survived to this day under the name "Kirda-bavnash". The descendants of the king tried to establish themselves here by appointing their nobles Biyrig Bichu and Eldi Talat as princes, who immediately began an internecine war. The tsar and his son Baira failed to gain a foothold here, to restore their former power, and together with their army went partly to China, partly to Japan. The inhabitants of Tierloi-Mokhk converted to Islam relatively late, in contrast to the population of the eastern regions of Chechnya. Therefore, there are many places and toponyms associated with various pagan cults. According to A. Suleimanov, “on the outskirts of the ancient village of Nikara there was a cult place “Merkan nenie” – the Mother of the Country, where in ancient times there was a temple dedicated to the Mother of the Country. The holiday "Merkan Nana" was celebrated in early spring before the start of spring field work. First, they chose the most beautiful girl, dressed her up, put a wreath of flowers on her head, which the girls wove during moonlight . The girl - "Merkan Nana" was leading a red-colored first-calf heifer with a chain on the neck by the rope. Red ribbons were tied to the horns of the heifers. She was accompanied by the inhabitants of Nikaroy singing hymns, carrying wine, bread and cheese. The procession bypassed the village and passed to the temple. The priest walked around the temple three times, performing magical rites, and then sacrificed a cow to awakening nature. The rite of worship "Merkan Nana" existed in other regions of mountainous Chechnya, in Ingushetia and Georgia. In addition, to the north-east of the village of Zhelashka, on Mount Tierloin-Lam, there are the ruins of the medieval sanctuary of Tierloin-Delhi, which was a rectangular structure made of stones, with a wide doorway in the form of an arch. The building was apparently quite high, if the height of the preserved wall is almost three meters. From the side of the facade, a small stone fence forms a courtyard. According to field materials, twice a year, in spring and autumn, residents (only men) of the Terloevsky and Bavloevsky gorges gathered to pray to him. In addition, in rainy years, people came to the sanctuary to pray for an end to the bad weather, and in dry times they asked for rain. Tierloin Delhi was revered by hunters who left arrowheads, as well as horns and skins of dead animals as a gift to the sanctuary. In former times, Tierloin-mokhk was very densely populated, in its gorges there were villages BarkhIa, Uyata, Ushna, Guro, Bushni, Elda-pkhya, Seni, Motskara, Nikara, Biavla. Many of these villages were towered, and within the boundaries of some of them, such as Motskara, Nikara, there were powerful castles. In the village of Elda-pha there were three battle towers. One tower completely collapsed, only the base remained of it. The other two have been preserved at the level of two floors. The battle towers and the Elda-pha settlement are connected by legend with the name of Eldi Talata, who, according to the Teptars, was the courtier of the Alanian king, as well as Berg Beach, the owner of the KIirda-bIavnash fortification. They were in a state of constant hostility, which ended only after the death of both. The village of Motskara consists of a dozen residential towers and two powerful castles. The first castle includes two residential towers attached to each other, and the second - three residential and one combat tower, surrounded by a stone wall more than two meters high. There are petroglyphs on the wall of one of the towers: a spiral and a cross in a circle. On the outskirts of Motskara, next to the cemetery, consisting of ground crypt burial grounds and late Muslim burials, a pagan pillar-shaped sanctuary has been preserved. The walls of the sanctuary are made of gray flagstone on lime mortar, plastered and whitewashed with yellowish lime. The roof is pyramid-shaped. The height of the sanctuary is more than two meters. From the side of the facade there is a lancet niche. Nikara, apparently, was one of the oldest settlements of TIerloin-mokhk, a cult center and a kind of capital of tIerloi. This can also be evidenced by the ruins of cyclopean buildings, the oldest of which date back to the 2nd-1st millennium BC. e. In Nikara, about a dozen residential towers have been preserved, which have three or four floors, one five-story semi-combat tower, a combat tower with a pyramidal-stepped roof. Buildings, descending down the slope in steps, form a powerful castle in the complex. Not far from Nikara is the village of Bushni, in which the ruins of residential towers built of huge stones, apparently of cyclopean origin, have been preserved.

CHEBERLOY CHEBERLOY IS A HISTORICAL REGION LOCATED IN THE SOUTH-EAST OF CHECHNYA. The boundaries of this mountainous region are not precisely defined, the most common is the opinion that only the Makazhoy region, Lake Kezenoy-Am, the villages of Khoy and Harkaroy belong to Cheberloi. More reliable is the information about the boundaries of the Cheberloy society of the famous Chechen ethnographer and folklorist Akhmad Suleymanov, who is based on the testimonies of the old people who lived here before the eviction. In his opinion, Cheberloy in the north borders on the lands of the society of Nizhaloy and Ichkeria, in the west - with the society of Sharo (Nokhchkela, Bossi), in the south and east - with Dagestan. This is the most remote and inaccessible region of Chechnya, which had practically no contact with the outside world. This is probably why the Cheberloev dialect of the Chechen language retained archaic features (the absence of labialized vowels, the preservation of ancient forms of pronouns, etc.), which bring it closer to the Western Vainakh dialects, especially the Ingush language. The toponym "Cheberloy" goes back to the Chechen "cheba are" - a flat place, a hollow, and "loy" is a toponymic suffix. Cheberloy began to be settled by Chechens, who migrated from the western regions of the Caucasus, relatively late, not earlier than the 15th century. Some teips living in the Cheberloi region have preserved legends about their origin from the western regions of Chechnya. So, according to the legend of teip Makazhoy, their ancestor was Turach, who moved to these places from Nashkh. The inhabitants of the village of Kezenoy are descended from the descendants of a poor widow who survived after the death of the village, which stood on the site of the lake. In the historical sources of the 19th century, some Russian authors, based on the characteristics of the Cheberloev dialect, as well as anthropological features (blond hair, green eyes), tried to attribute Slavic origin to the Cheberloevs. In fact, the inhabitants of Cheberloy itself (for example, make-up) are distinguished by black hair and swarthy skin. So, for example, the Russian origin of the teip "Orsoi" was assumed in consonance with the Chechen word "Orsi" - Russian. But this word in the Chechen language is borrowed and could not appear in the Chechen language earlier than the 17th century, and the name of the teip and the village of Orsoi is of more ancient origin. Here, a rapprochement with the “Aorses”, the tribes that lived in Ciscaucasia in the first centuries of our era, seems more likely. In ancient historical writings, such as Pliny, the Sod tribes are mentioned, which are correlated with the Chechen teip garden. But it is unlikely that at that time the Nakh tribes could live in the Cheberloi region. Moreover, they themselves consider themselves as gardeners from Nashkh, where they had a share in the family cauldron of indigenous Chechen teips. In general, gardens, according to the folklore material collected by A. Suleymanov, considered themselves privileged, “ali”, that is, of princely origin, and waged constant wars with the Cheberloys, trying to subdue them, while not considering themselves belonging to the Cheberloy society. In Russian sources, for the first time, Cheberloy is mentioned in documents of the 16th-17th centuries as "Chabril", and the inhabitants of this region are called "Shibutians, Shubuts", just like their neighbors in Sharo- and Chanti-Argun. Features of the material culture of these areas testify to the existence of a pre-Chechen substrate in this territory. In all likelihood, until the end of the 15th century, other tribes lived on the territory of Ichkeria and Cheberloi, which were then mostly driven out, and partially assimilated by the Chechens in their movement from west to east. The older layers of the archaeological culture of these territories can serve as proof of this. The territory of Cheberloy is included in the area of ​​culture, which archaeologists call Kayakent-Kharachoev. At the same time, the so-called Koban culture existed in the habitat of the ancient Nakhs. But, probably, this migration was long, since the legends of local residents say that before the settlement of their ancestors, the Orstkhoi people lived in these places. So, according to the field materials recorded here by V. Kobychev, “the first inhabitants in Cheberloi were the Erstkhoys, then came arrows from a bow-crossbow (Iad kam). Archers, according to legend, came from under the Nashakha Mountain, located in the upper reaches of the Roshni-Chu River. At first, the Nasakhoi sent three people as scouts, but the locals killed them. Then, for revenge, a whole detachment arrived, which built a fortification on the site of the current village of Khoi. Since then, the Nakhokhois have firmly taken possession of Cheberloi. According to legend, the legendary Aldam-Gezi was sent from Nashkh as the ruler of Cheberloi, who chose the village of Kezenoy as his residence, where he built a heavily fortified castle. Its ruins have survived to this day. Cheberloy is a land of amazing beauty: rocky mountain canyons, turbulent rivers, waterfalls, dense forests and the majestic lake Kezenoy-Am. Lake Kezenoy is located at an altitude of 1869 meters. According to legend, there was once an ancient village on the site of this lake. The people in it lived freely and gracefully, knowing neither adversity nor deprivation. Once a beggar came to this village - a white-bearded old man. He knocked on many doors, but no one opened it for him, no one gave him even a piece of bread. And only a poor widow, who lived on the outskirts of the village in a dilapidated hut, let him in for the night and shared her meager dinner with him. In the morning the elder said to the poor widow: “I am not a beggar, but an angel. The inhabitants of this village will be punished for greed and non-compliance with the custom of hospitality - the village will perish. You must go with your children and climb the mountainside.” With these words, the old man disappeared. And before the widow had time to climb the mountain, a stormy stream of water from the mountain slopes hit the village, and it disappeared in the waves. And the descendants of the poor widow founded a new village near the lake and called it Kezenoy. According to another legend, the village was founded by the Orstkhoy Kezen with his sons. But Aldam, who came from Nashkh (Western Chechnya), defeated Kezen and became the owner of this area. The village of Kezenoi is located south of the lake, a few kilometers away. Its main attraction is the fortress towering above the village - this is the fortress of Aldam-Gezi (Giezi-Aldamankov), the ruins of which are still visible on a high cliff. The fortress consists of a citadel, a group of dilapidated buildings and a residential tower, known as the "Daud tower". The tower is rectangular, almost square, the height of its surviving walls is about seven meters. In the center of the tower are the remains of a supporting pillar, one of the corner stones that connect the walls. To the south of the Daud tower is a mosque, under the door threshold of which there is a tombstone. This gravestone, according to local residents, belongs to the Chechen hero Surkho, the son of Ada. Surkho, according to historical legends, defeated the Kabardian prince Musost in the war and divided his lands among the poor. In honor of his victory, the village of Surkhokhi (in Ingushetia) was named and a heroic song, illi, was composed. Religious events and holidays in Kezenoy were accompanied by public brewing: barley was pounded in a cup stone in a room next to the mosque for ritual beer. A similar stone can be seen next to a residential tower in the village of Tuga, in Maysta. Aldam-Gezi Fortress is located on a high rocky platform and surrounded by a stone wall. Inside the citadel, the foundation of the combat tower has been preserved. The complex, in all likelihood, was built in the 16th century, and the mosque - in later times. This is also confirmed by the peculiarities of the architectural style of the buildings. If the residential tower was built in a purely Vainakh style: the central support post , corner stones linking the walls, the use of mortar, then the architecture of the mosque is purely Dagestan. It, in all likelihood, was built after the 17th century, that is, after the spread of Islam in Cheberloi. The inhabitants of Cheberloy were among the first Chechens to accept Islam. And, probably, that is why, unlike other regions of Chechnya, crypt burials have not been preserved here. But the fact that there are a lot of crypt tombstones here suggests that they were common at one time in this territory. There are also crypt-shaped tombstones near the village of Puoga in Maista. Their appearance here is due to the fact that the Maistins, having converted to Islam, stopped building collective crypts, but in the tombstones of individual graves they preserved their architectural forms, albeit in a reduced form. During the time of Imamate Shamil, the Cheberloys put up fierce resistance to the imam's attempts to introduce Sharia in their societies. In response, Shamil brought troops into Cheberloi, consisting of Avars and Andians, and the uprising was drowned in blood. Many villages of Cheberloy were destroyed and burned, including many battle towers destroyed by Shamil's order. To the west of the lake there is a group of villages, the largest of which is Makazhoy, which the Cheberloevs have long considered their capital. According to A. Suleymanov, the toponym Makazhoy and, accordingly, the name of the teip Makazhy is associated with the ancient military term "makazh" - a wedge-shaped formation of spear-bearing warriors during an attack by enemy troops. Such a wedge moved ahead of the attacking troops, was the first to cut through enemy chains, going behind enemy lines, encircling him and destroying him. Makeup included the most desperate and physically hardy warriors. Almost no architectural monuments have been preserved in Makazhoy. Its only attraction can be considered a residential tower, rebuilt into a mosque. The mosque, the minaret of which was built in the form of a battle tower, is also in the village of Etkali, and in some other villages in central Chechnya. Not far from Kezenoy is the village of Khoi. This toponym is translated from Chechen as "guards". This is probably due to the fact that the village was border and its inhabitants carried out guard duty. This, by the way, is also reminded by "Khoin-gIala - the tower of the guards" - the only battle tower left from the fortification. The tower was erected on a rocky foundation of well-worked stone, masonry on a clay-lime mortar. Although both the architectural methods and the masonry technique show that the tower was built by a Chechen master, it differs from the classical Vainakh towers. It is lower and squat, besides, it has machicolations, which are not quite usual for Vainakh battle towers, encircling it with a solid square. In terms of its proportions, the Cheberloy towers are closer to the Ossetian ones. The combat tower in the village of Khoi is decorated with many petroglyphs: these are crosshairs with circles, circles with herringbone and wavy patterns, and a T-shaped sign, that is, symbols that are characteristic only for Vainakh towers. To the east of Makazhoy is the village of Harkaroy. On the rocky slopes, among the medieval ruins, there is a battle tower - the only surviving medieval building. There are many loopholes in the walls of the tower, machicols completed the tower, only one of them has survived to our time. A stone depicting the master's hand is mounted in the southeastern wall of the tower. Smaller medieval settlements are scattered around the village of Makazhoy: Dzhalkh, Tundukhoy, Orsoy. However, only ruins remained from them, on the stones of which a lot of petroglyphs were preserved. In the village of Orsoy, the ruins of cyclopean buildings have also been preserved. Nashkh This is a historical region in the west of Chechnya at the source of the Gikhi River. In the west, it borders on Akkhiin-mokhk, in the south - on the society of Tierla, in the east - on Peshkha. According to Chechen legends, the ancient capital of the Chechens was located in Nashkh. The legendary hero of Chechnya, Turpal Nakhcho, was born here. From here all the indigenous Chechen teips came out and settled to the east and north, from Ichkeria to the banks of the Sunzha and the Terek. In an old Chechen song, it is sung: As sparks fall from the impact of a checker on flint, So we crumbled from Turpalo Nakhcho. We were born at night when the she-wolf was whelping. We were given a name in the morning, when the leopard woke up the neighborhood with its roar. Here we are, the descendants of Turpal Nakhcho. When the rain stops - the sky becomes clear, When the heart beats freely in the chest - the eyes do not shed tears. So let's trust God. Without it, there is no victory. Let's not disgrace the glory of our Turpal Nakhcho! A huge copper cauldron was kept in Nashkh almost until the middle of the 19th century. It was decorated with longitudinal plates on which the names of the indigenous Chechen teips were engraved. The cauldron was sawn into plates by order of Imam Shamil, who always sought to destroy everything connected with ancient history Chechens, be it towers or old letters and manuscripts. In Nashkh, according to legend, the national chronicle - "Kyoman teptar", which tells about the origin of the indigenous Chechen teips, and the national seal - kyoman muhar were kept. Mekhk-khel, the Council of the country, which included representatives of free Nakh societies, gathered in Nashkh for many years. Nashkh was probably a kind of transit point for the Chechen tribes during their migration from west to east. The fact that the Nakh tribes in ancient times occupied the western regions of the Caucasus is evidenced by the toponymy of these places, this is also confirmed by some historical sources, for example, “Armenian Geography of the 7th century” by Anania Shirakatsi, as well as the works of ancient authors. Apparently, Nashkh until the 14th-17th centuries (the period of mass migration of Chechens from west to east and from south to north) meant either a larger territory, or, according to the ethnographer S.-M. Khasiev, the capital of the Nakh country. According to Professor Yu.D. Desheriev, the Chechens as an ethnic group developed in the territory to the west of the Argun Gorge. It was here that they realized themselves as a single people - "kyam" and the unity of the country - "mohk". Moving in search of new lands to the east and north, the Chechens did not forget about their origins. Even in our time, quite recently, old people, asking a person a question about his origin, asked: “Does your teip come from Nashkh?” That is, whether he is ancient, noble. In the Galonchozh basin, many places of worship with which various legends are associated, such as the Muiti cliff, have been preserved. According to legend, this was the stone on which Elder Muyta sat, presiding over the meetings of the Chechen Mekhk-Khel. Lake Galain-chIozh was considered sacred, oaths were sealed by mentioning its spirits, and its surroundings were once a cult center for Chechens. In addition to other common Chechen cults, the cult of the deity of fertility Tusholi was especially revered here. A stone statue of this deity has been preserved near the village of Viilakh. According to historical sources of the 18th century, Galain-chIozh was at one time the center for the spread of Christianity among the Chechens. According to the testimonies of travelers, Christian churches were preserved here at the end of the 18th century, which, however, had already lost their cult significance by that time. At the end of the 17th century, the Chechen teips Akkkhii, Nashkhoy, Peshkhoy, Tsiechoy, Galai, Merzhoy, Yalkhara lived in and around the Galanchozh basin, which, according to legend, in ancient times were united by one tribal name "Baloy". Approximately from the beginning of the 18th century, Nashkha itself began to be called the territory in the upper reaches of the Gikhi River, which included the villages of Motskara, Charmakh, Khaibakh, Testara, Khiilah, MogIusta, Khizhigkho. According to legend, they were founded by six brothers. In the village of Khaibakh, a structure has been preserved, which is a classic type of Vainakh tower with a pyramidal roof. It was built in the 17th century and has now been restored. There are many petroglyphs on the walls of the tower, and the pyramidal roof is completed by a white cone-shaped stone - tsIurku. To the north of the combat tower, there are the ruins of a complex consisting of a combat and residential tower, only part of the walls and individual details remained of it. To the west of the village of Motskara, on the steep wall of the Nashkhoin-lam mountain, a tower shelter has been preserved. It is located at a height of more than ten meters from the slope and consists of rock niches in three tiers, laid with stones, with door and window openings . In former times, in such shelters, shepherds and travelers hid from random attacks, or bloodlines could live, hiding from the revenge of enemies. According to legend, to the north of the village of MogIusta, there was once a road hotel - khashatsIe. Such hotels were usually built near springs and were a small house with a fireplace or hearth, in which two or three people could spend the night. They were intended for wanderers, hunters and shepherds. Usually, those who spent the night or stopped here to rest, leaving, left part of their food, and the hunters - skins, deer and antlers - as a gift to the saints who patronize travelers. In Testara, several residential towers have been preserved, in which people lived until the eviction in 1944. Only the ruins of the towers remained from the village of Charmakh. Not far from the village, on the outskirts of the ancient cemetery, there is a cruciform stele, which is associated with an old legend. It reads: “In ancient times, a beautiful girl lived here, who was very proud and wayward. Many wooed her, but she did not give preference to anyone. And then one young man decided at all costs to marry her. He gathered a squad to capture her by force. But, having learned that they were approaching her village, the girl cast a spell, and they all turned into stones. These stones can still be seen on the slope of the mountain near the village of Charmakh. The villages of Motskara, Khijigkho, and Khiilah lie in ruins. Those combat and residential towers that people did not destroy were not spared by time. Their ruins look lifelessly and impassively at the surrounding world. ________________________________________________________ All Chechen taipas were part of larger socio-economic and military-political formations, which was called tukhum. There were nine Tukkhums: Akkkhy, Malkhy, Nokhchmakhkhoy, T1erloy, Ch1anty, Ch1ebarly, Shara, Shuota, Ershtoy. Together they make up the Chechen people. G1alg1ai (Ingush) also belonged to such tukhums, but later spun off as a separate people. The Chechen tukkhum is an alliance of a certain group of taips, not related by blood, but united in a higher association to jointly solve common problems - protection from enemy attacks and economic exchange. Tukkhum occupied a certain territory, which consisted of the area actually inhabited by it, as well as the surrounding area, where the taips that were part of the tukkhum were engaged in hunting, cattle breeding and agriculture. Each tukhum spoke a certain dialect of the same Vainakh language. The Chechen tukhum, unlike the taip, did not have an official head, nor did it have its own commander (byach). Thus, the tukkhum was not so much a governing body as a public organization, while the teip was a necessary and logical stage of progress in the development of the idea of ​​government. But the emergence of a union of teips (tukhums) was also an undoubted progress taking place on the same territory as a steady process of the emergence of a nation. The advisory body of the tukkhum was the Council of Elders, which consisted of representatives of all taips that were part of this tukkhum, on equal terms. The Tukhum Council was convened, if necessary, to resolve intertype disputes and disagreements, to protect the interests of both individual types and their own tukhum. Then followed the Council of the Country, in which, together with the tribal nobility, the servants of the deities - the priests, also set the tone. The Tukhum Council had the right to declare war, make peace, negotiate with the help of its own and foreign ambassadors, conclude alliances and break them. Tukhum, as the term itself shows, is not a consanguineous union, but just a brotherhood. It is a natural formation that has grown out of the tribal organization. This is a union and (or) association of several teips of the same tribe, formed for specific purposes. But in Chechnya there are also unions of consanguineous clans, formed by segmenting one initial clan, such as the Chanty or Terloev. The composition of the Teloiites includes such consanguineous groups that call themselves Gars or clans, such as Boshni, B1avly, Zherakhoy, Khenakhoy, Mats1arkhoy, Oshny, Sanakhoy, Shundiy, Eltpkhairkhoy, Nik1aroy. Of the one hundred and 135 taips that made up Chechen society in the middle of the 19th century, three-quarters were united in nine phratries (unions) as follows. The Akkhii tukhum included such taipas as Barchakhoy, Zhevoy, Z1ogoy, Nokkhoy, Pkharchoy, Pkharchakhoy and Va'piy, who occupied mainly the region of eastern Chechnya on the border with Dagestan. Malchiy included: B1astiy, B1enastkhoy, Italchkhoy, Kamalkhoy, Khorathoy. K1egankhoy. Meshiy, Sakankhoy, Teratkhoy, Ch1arkhoy, Erkhoy and Amloy, who occupied the southwestern region of Chechnya on the border with Ingushetia. In Nokhchmakhkhoy, such large taipas as Belgtoy united. Benoy, Biltoy, Gendergnoy, G1ordaloy, Guna, Zandakkhoy, Ikh1ira, Ishkhoy, Kurchala, Sesankhoy, Cherma, Tsentara, Charta, Eg1ashbatoy, Enakhaloy, Engana, Shuonoy, Yalkhoy and 1ilara, occupying mainly the eastern and northeastern, and partially and the central regions of Chechnya. Ch1ebarloy included: Dai, Makazhoy, Sadoy. Sandah, Sikkha and Sirha. Sharoy included: Kinkhoy, Rigahoy, Khikhoy. Khoy, Hyakmada, Shikara. Taipas, which were part of Ch1eberloi and Shara, occupied southeastern Chechnya along the Shara-Argun River. Shuotoi included: Varanda, Vashandara, G1atta, Kela, Marsha, Nizhalaya, Nikhaloi, Phyamta, Saytta, Khyakkoy, who occupied central Chechnya in the valley of the Chanty-Argun River. Taipas entered Ershthay: Galoi, G1andaloy, G1archoy. Merzhoy. Muzhakhoy and Ts1echoy, who lived in the west of Chechnya, in the valley of the Lower Martan (Fortanga) river. And all the other taipas of the Chechens in this area united in consanguineous unions. So, for example, Borzoi, Bug1aroy. Hildehyaroy, Dorakhoy, Khuokkhadoy, Khyarachoy and Tumsoy, who lived in the upper reaches of the Chanty-Argun River, united in the Ch1anty union, and such as Nikaroy, Oshny, Shundiy, Eltpkhyarkhoy and others were part of Terloi. There were also taipas in Chechnya that were not part of the tukhums and lived independently, such as Zurzakkhoy, M1aystoy, Peshkhoy, Sadoy. Having agreed among themselves to resolve the emerging contradictions in a peaceful way and help each other in defense against the enemy, the taipas united in tukhums, primarily on territorial grounds. Separate taipas, such as, for example, Benoy, Tsentaroy, have grown so much that they even forgot about their original blood relationship. Marriages between the Benoites and the Tsentaroyites have long been commonplace. As it increased, this or that taip was divided into several clans, and the Gars of the former clan in this case became independent clans, and the original clan continued to exist already as a tukkhum - a union of clans. Taip is considered the main cell from which any Chechen calculates his initial blood relations and ties on the paternal side. When Chechens want to emphasize the lack of kinship of a person, they usually say: “Tsu stegan taip a, tukkhum a dats” (This person has no clan or tribe). The Chechen taip is also a group of people or families that grew up on the basis of industrial relations. Its members, enjoying the same personal rights, are related to each other by consanguinity on the paternal side. Freedom, equality and fraternity, although they were not formulated by anyone, here also constituted the main principle of the taip, the basis of the entire organization of Chechen society. But the Chechen taip after the 16th century was no longer an archaic genus. This period was the period of its decline, the manifestation of its internal contradictions, the decomposition of forms that seemed so far unshakable, arising from the original legal principles of taipism, which previously cemented the taip system and artificially restrained its decomposition. The old forms and taip principles came into conflict with those social and property shifts that increased within individual taip cells. There was an important reason of an external nature, which kept the "old law" in force and "harmonized" it with the new developments. Namely: the small Chechen taipas lived surrounded by stronger neighbors (Georgians, Kabardians, Kumyks), whose feudal nobility constantly encroached on their freedom. This external factor and the lack of established forms of statehood among the Chechens strongly influenced the rallying of the taips in the face of external danger. So, taip in the concept of Chechens is a patriarchal, exogamous group of people descended from one common ancestor. Four terms are known that served to designate lateral branches, segmented from the taip, and used by the Chechens from time immemorial to designate large related groups that represent a certain social, territorial and, above all, consanguineous unity: var, gar, certain, ts1a. Only the first of them - var - is ambiguous, and, along with other terms, means a consanguineous group of people, and more accurately defines the concept of genus - taip. As noted above, there were about 135 taips in Chechnya. Of these, more than 20 were not indigenous, formed from representatives of other peoples, but they have long and firmly entered the Chechen society. Some of them went to the country of the Vainakhs themselves, in search of convenient lands, while others were brought here by the prevailing historical circumstances. They were forced to adopt a foreign language, customs and beliefs and, of course, they had neither taip mountains, nor communal lands, nor stone crypts. But, following the example of the natives of this region, they rallied into blood relationships, helped each other, declared blood feud for the murder of their own. It should be noted that the reverse process also took place. For example, such Ingush surnames as the Akhrievs, Lyanovs, Borovs come from the Chechen family of the Dyshnins. The Dartsygovs, Buzurtanovs and Khautievs are from the Terloites. In the 17th century, the taip was a collection of related groups descended from one ancestor and subordinated to each other in accordance with the division into direct and lateral lines of kinship. The Chechen Gar is a group of families, large or small, formed as a result of the growth and segmentation of the patriarchal-taip community, preserving economic, social and ideological unity in one form or another and bearing a common name formed from the own name of the head of the divided family. As it decomposed, the taip broke up into two or more parts - gars, and each of these gars formed an independent taip over time. To confirm their belonging to the natives of Chechnya, each Chechen had to remember the names of at least 12 names of his direct ancestors. But, having called the mythical name of his first ancestor (the ancestor of the taip) Ch1inho or T1erlo, he involuntarily omitted the unknown set of names of the persons following him and called his real closest ancestor, who in best case was the head of a certain Elders and leaders did not always have inaccessible castles, did not decorate their trips with family coats of arms. They did not prance in shining armor, did not fight in romantic tournaments. Imitating taip democracy in society, they were no different from peaceful peasants: they led flocks of sheep through the mountains, plowed and sowed themselves. But the lofty concepts of honor, equality and brotherhood between all members of the taip community have moved into a new stage on the halo of the former purity and nobility in a modernized form. Formally, even now the elders continued to praise the high honor and nobility, to repeat about equality and brotherhood. In general, the Vainakhs were very wary and sensitive to any attempts to encroach on the emergence of feudal power and, by common efforts, nipped them in the bud. This is evidenced by the richest folklore material and the custom of baital vaikhar (dispossession of kulaks), which was common among the Chechens and very rarely found among other peoples. Nevertheless, the process of decomposition of the taip community can be clearly traced since the late Middle Ages (XIII-XIV centuries). The economic basis of the taip was agriculture, cattle breeding, and hunting. Cattle was the basis that determined the specific features of the Chechen teip of that period. Fields and estates were also an important part of the taip property. Chechens have been engaged in agriculture since ancient times. Even at the beginning of the 17th century, the Kachkalyk Chechens had rich vineyards, sowed wheat, millet, barley, and later began to cultivate corn. Maisty, and in general the Sredne-Argunsky region of Chechnya, was famous for its excellent healers, who not only healed wounds well, but also performed amputation of organs and even craniotomy. Long before the appearance of Russians in the Caucasus, they were aware of smallpox vaccinations. The Maistins were also famous as skillful builders of residential and military towers. In addition, they were also famous as experts in adat - taip law. It was here, in Maisty, which, due to its geographical location, was well protected from enemy attacks, the elders of the taips gathered for meetings to discuss adato-taip issues. The Chechen ethnographer Umalat Laudaev wrote about this in the 19th century: “... The elders of all the surrounding families began to gather for a meeting on ending the unrest in the country. At the council, they determined what retribution should be for various crimes. The old people returned home, orally passed on the decrees and forced them to swear, to fulfill them sacredly. From such definitions, at such councils, adat was formed among the Chechens - right. The place where the issues of the all-Chechen adat were still discussed was the Khetash-Korta mountain, near the village of Tsentaroy. But that was much later. Adat is a customary law created on the basis of the economy and life of settled agricultural and pastoral tribes. Adat touches on issues that are directly related to everyday life. This includes criminal, family and inheritance matters. Thus, the taip is characterized by the rights, privileges and obligations granted and assigned to its members and corresponding in the aggregate to the legal institution of taipism. The main socially binding principles established by the legal institution of taipism for their relatives and societies are 23: 1. The unity and inviolability of taip relations for each taip relative; 2. The right to communal land tenure; 3. Declaring blood feud by the whole taip to another taip for the murder and public discrediting of members of this taip; 4. Unconditional prohibition of marriage between members of the same type; 5. Collective mutual assistance; 6. General mourning; 7. Election of the leader of the taip; 8. United Council of Elders; 9. Choice of leader (byachi) in case of war; 10. Election of the Council of Elders, regardless of the property qualification; 11. Openness of the meetings of the Council of Elders; 12. Equal rights for all members of the Council of Elders; 13. The right of the taip to remove its representatives; 14. Women's rights were protected by their male relatives; 15. Right to adopt outsiders- acceptance into the taip; 16. Transfer of property of the deceased to members of the taip; 17. Each type has its own specific name, coming from the ancestor; 18. Taip has its own defined territory and its own ancestral mountain; 19. Taipu owns an ancestral tower or another natural or artificial structure convenient for defense, such as a fortress, a cave or an impregnable rock; 20. Taip in the past had its own deity; 21. Taip had its own specific holidays, its own peculiarities in rituals, customs and habits; 22. Taip had a separate family cemetery; 23. Typ hospitality was obligatory. The institution of taipism underwent fundamental changes in Soviet times. It was not only purposeful efforts to combat directly taipism under the slogans of combating the remnants of the past that had an effect, but also the changed socio-economic conditions. Industrial enterprises appear in the republic, cities appear - Grozny, Gudermes, Argun, Malgobek, Urus-Martan, Shali, large workers' settlements - Karabulak, Chiri-Yurt, Novogrozny, Garagorsk, etc. The inhabitants are a mixed population, and there are no taip differences there was no question here. The taip affiliation was remembered here as exotic, as long and irretrievably gone. Taip affiliations were remembered only after the collapse of the USSR and the establishment of lawlessness in the republic, when everyone tried to defend himself. Since 1990, in the Chechen Republic, representatives of many taips began to convene their own congresses, create informal public management structures, and create tribal (taip) funds. Such a division of the people had extremely Negative consequences for the formation of republican authorities, because the nomination was not based on the principle of competence and business qualities, but by type affiliation. Only a strong central government is capable of restoring law and order in the republic, and ensuring that the people are adequately represented in various government bodies.

Alera. A rather numerous teip originating from Eastern Chechnya, but settled throughout the country. Aslan Alievich Maskhadov belongs to this teip. According to legend, the name of this teip was on the legendary bronze cauldron, which was brought by the ancestors to Nashkh.

Together with Alera, the teips of Bena, Sontora, Belgata, Nihala, Terla, Varanda, Peshkha, Guna and other so-called "clean" teips were indicated there. According to the Chechen legend, representatives of non-native, secondary teips melted this cauldron.

Belgatoy. A large and well-known teip in Chechnya. Once it was a subdivision of the Beltoy teip. The legend about the origin of the Belgatoi says that the Belgatoi people almost died out as a result of an epidemic that once happened, but then they multiplied again, as evidenced by the etymology of the name ("bel" - to die, "gatto" - to resurrect). They are considered very energetic people.

Beltoy (Biltoy). Big and famous teip. From him came the famous politician Beibulat Taimiev, who was mentioned by A.S. Pushkin in the description of his journey to Erzerum. Now the Beltoi are settled everywhere, but their original region is located in the East of Chechnya (Nozhayyurtovsky district).

Benoy. One of the most numerous Chechen teips, perhaps the largest of them. One of the most famous Chechen businessmen, Malik Saidullaev, himself a Benoite and doing a lot of business for his teip, claims that out of 1 million Chechens, Benoevs number 360,000. distributed throughout the republic. Benoevtsy are subdivided into 9 clans-gars: Jobi-nekye, Wonzhbi-nekye, Asti-nekye, Ati-nekye, Chupal-nekye, Ochi-nekye, Devshi-nekye, Edi-nekye and Gurzh-makhkahoy. They took an active part in the Caucasian war of the last century. From among them comes the national hero Baysangur Benoyevsky, who did not leave Shamil until his capture and did not surrender after Shamil surrendered to the tsarist troops.

Many Benoites are in the diaspora in the countries of Western Asia. The Benoites are the heroes of many comic stories in which they make fun of the clumsy figure or the village cunning of the Benoevs. At the same time, they are known for their fearlessness, loyalty to the given word.

Apparently, the Benoyites formed the backbone of the democratic peasant strata, who several centuries ago threw off their own aristocratic institutions in Chechnya and the power of the Kabardian and Dagestan rulers. These strata gave rise to that same mountain democracy, which became the social basis of the ethnic mentality of the Chechens.

On the example of Benoy, we will illustrate the appearance of a foreigner in a teip. In the original area of ​​the Benoevs on the Aksai River there is a tract called Gurzhiyn mokhk (Georgian place, possession). A. Suleimanov reports the following legend: "During the raid on neighboring Georgia, the Benoev squad brought a Georgian boy. Growing up, the little prisoner gained great fame among his peers and adults for his strength, resourcefulness, dexterity, beauty. He became an equal member of society, they gave him a wife beauty, allocated land and helped build a house, gave working oxen, a cow, a horse. Later, when the Georgian family grew, settlements stood out, a farm grew. Then the Benoevites called this place Gurzhiin mokhk "(See: 2nd ed. Grozny, 1998. P. 317]).

Varanda. One of the famous mountain teips. The author of the last century, the first Chechen ethnographer Umalat Laudaev claims that the varanda is of "alien origin". In Chechnya, I had to hear the statement that they are of "Russian origin." Most likely, this only speaks of the acceptance by them of fugitive Russian soldiers of the era of the Caucasian War of the last century. The term varanda itself is known in historical documents of the 1st millennium. Another underlying reason for the judgment of "Russian origin" may be related to the fact that the Varandoi people did not accept the Muslim faith for a long time and went to the mountains in order to protect the ancient beliefs. Be that as it may, the Varandoy people still retain some ancient customs (such as female circumcision) and unique Chechen folklore.

Gendargenoy. Teip, to which Doku Gapurovich Zavgaev belongs. It is considered one of the most numerous teips and is therefore settled quite widely in Chechnya. Teip Gendargenoy came out of the historical center of Chechnya Nokhchiymokhk (Nokhchamakhk, "Country of Chechens"). This "Country of the Chechens", located in the basins of the Aksai and Michig rivers and on the lands along the Terek, has always been the breadbasket not only of Chechnya, but also of Dagestan and even more distant countries. Economic and military strength determined the existence of the cultural-political and ritual-religious pre-Islamic center of Nashkh in Nokhchimokhk. This center housed one of the early Mehk Khel ("Council of the Country"). From there, according to legend, all the "clean" teips of the Chechens came out. Among these teips is Gendargenoy.

Nokhchiymokhk actually coincides with the formation, which is known under the Turkic name of Ichkeria. This part of Chechnya was hardly occupied by the tsarist troops in 1852. Only this event began to be considered in the historiography of the last century as the beginning of the end of the Caucasian War. Obviously, the adoption by the government of D.M. Dudaev's name of Ichkeria as an official one should have meant both an introduction to the source of the Chechen ethnogenesis, and to the glorious page of the resistance of the last century.

Gendargenites in the history of Chechnya have always occupied a prominent place.

AT Soviet years many leaders of the economic and party level came out of its members. In the "peaceful" 1991-1994. in Chechnya, one could hear complaints from the Gendargenoyites about the dominance of new, Dudayev, personnel, mainly of "mountainous" origin. Teip meetings that took place in those years by some persons from the government of D.M. Dudayev were interpreted as an attempt to find support among the masses from the old Soviet party nomenklatura.

Deshni. Mountain Chechen teip, settled in the southeast of Chechnya. Refers to the well-known "pure teips" with their own mountain, the teip of Desni - Desni-lam. Some of Deshni live in Ingushetia. Deshni are known for the fact that by 1917 they had preserved surnames that were considered princely. In Chechnya, a story is told with humor how one of the representatives of such a family married a Georgian princess, passing off a teip mountain as his own.

Zurzakhoy. This teip is considered one of the original ones, because in its name it retained the ethnonym Dzurzuks, which in the Middle Ages the Georgians gave to the ancestors of the Chechens and Ingush. According to M. Mamakaev, the teip zurzakhoy was not included in the tukhums, occupying an independent position, as well as the teips Maystoy, Peshkhoy and Sadoy.

Zumsoy (Dzumsoy). Mountain Chechen teip, bearing either a totemic ("zu" - a hedgehog; in Chechen symbolism, it is the bearer of wisdom), or a professional name (zoom - a mountain cart). He has always been one of the politically active Chechen teips. The Zumsoevites suffered extremely from the Soviet regime.

Guna. A well-known Chechen teip, settled in the northeast of Chechnya. The Gunoevtsy directly coexist with the Terek Cossacks, with whom they have family ties. It is believed that much later than other Chechen teips converted to Islam.

Kalhoy (Kaloi). Mountain Chechen teip, to which Zelimkhan Yandarbiev belongs. The surname Kaloev is known among the Ingush, as well as among the Ossetians.

Mulka. A small Chechen teip settled in the mountains (Shatoevsky district). Known for their resistance to Shamil's autocratic rule.

Nashkhoy. Nashkho is an area considered to be the birthplace of "pure teips". This is the ethnogenetic center of the medieval Nokhchimatiens, who, according to Armenian historical sources, inhabited the southeast of Chechnya. (Armenian geography VII according to R.H. St. Petersburg, 1877. P.36). Sometimes the entire population of Nashkho is assigned to one teip.

Sadoy. It is believed that this teip emerged from Bilta (together with Belgata and Ustrada). All of them are from Nashkho (tukhum Nokhchimokhoy).

Along with this, it is necessary to refer to the opinion of Akhmad Suleymanov that Sadoy was considered an aristocratic teip and princes (eli) came from him. A. Suleymanov (oral communication), voicing ali, derived this term from the ancient Caucasian socio-ethnic term Alans. At the same time, he believed that Sadoy is related to the teip Orsoy, since there is a merged term that refers to both groups: Sada-Orsi. In Orsy, Orsoy, this author sees the descendants of the Greeks. Let us pay attention to the fact that the Sadoi were not included in any of the tukhums, which, perhaps, indicates their foreign origin. At the same time, the aristocratic tradition of Sadoy is prestigious: it is an honor to give a name that indicates this teip.

Let us recall Sado Misirbiev, a true friend of the young Leo Tolstoy. The ethnonym Ors - Aors can take us to the ethnogenetic layers of deep antiquity, associated, perhaps, with the Roksolani tribe, the possible ancestors of the Russians. The modern name for Russian Chechens sounds Orsi. It is noteworthy that A. Aidamirov's "Chronology of the History of Checheno-Ingushetia" (p. 6) begins with an indication of the 1st century AD, when there was a union of gargareys and isadaks, consisting of gardens and hamkhits (there is an obvious typo in the text of the book - hashkit. It should be read Hamekites or Khamkhites Discussion about the origin of this ethnonym from the river Khamkhi in the book by E. L. Krupnov "Medieval Ingushetia" (Moscow, 1971, p. 28).

Turloy. It is believed that the Terloi teip settled from the mountain tower complex of Kirda. An ancestor is a man named Terloy. According to some sources, Terloi was an independent tukhum in the 16th-17th centuries. In contrast to the non-blood kinship of all teips, Terloy (according to M. Mamakaev) together with Chanti were once a consanguineous association. Now Terloevtsy inhabit the territory along the upper reaches of the Argun. A complex of legends about their possession of special closed non-Muslim knowledge is associated with teip Terla. It is possible that Terloi were a caste of fire-worshipping priests (Assumption by S.A. Khasiev, expressed orally).

Turkhoy(Turks from Gashan-chu). In the Vedeno region there is a small group that considers itself to be a "Turkish" teip. They also live in Roshni-chu.

Kharachoy. Teip of the famous Zelimkhan Kharachoevsky. This is also the teip of Ruslan Imranovich Khasbulatov. This teip found its way onto the pages of written Russian documents early on. But in the ethnographic reality of our days, the population of eastern Chechnya has a memory that "Kharachoevites began to marry Russians earlier than others."

The close ties of the Kharachoevites with Russia did not prevent them from nominating at the beginning of this century one of the most prominent fighters against the injustices of tsarism - abrek Zelimkhan Kharachoevsky.

In Chechnya, they treat the Kharachoev teip with great respect and believe that its representatives are endowed with a special mind. True, they are reproached for speaking loudly. Perhaps there is not a single teip about which something like this would not be said. But this is the realm of Chechen humor, valued, by the way, once by Shamil.

Hindhoy. A small Chechen teip, settled in the mountains in the Galanchozh region. The Hindkhoevs by origin belong to the branch of the Orstkhoevs (Karabulaks), who became part of the Chechens. Another branch joined the Ingush. The Orstkhoys, who live on the plain, suffered the greatest losses as a result of the Caucasian War of the last century. Part of the remaining Orstkhoy settled in the countries of Western Asia, part went to the mountains, like Hindkhoy.

Tsontoroy (Tsentoroy). This is one of the most numerous teips. (In terms of numbers, only the Benoites compete with him). They are divided into Roots-Nekyo, Oki-Nekyo, and other groups claiming independence. The etymology of Tsontoroy goes back, perhaps, to the designation of the priestly profession. Apparently, this was reflected in the wary attitude of the Tsontoroyites towards Shamil and his supporters. There is evidence in the literature that Shamil took revenge on the Tsontoroi for the murder of one of his associates. They are considered people of a restless energetic disposition. Settled mainly in the eastern part of Chechnya.

Chartoy. A very interesting teip, known for the fact that the Chartoys did not fight, but were always peacekeepers and mediators in intra-Chechen affairs. There is an opinion among representatives of other teips that it is a “Chartoy of Jewish origin”.

Cherma. One of the famous Chechen teips, to which the famous oilman and politician Tapa Chermoev belonged. The main settlement center of the Chermoevites is the village of Mekhkety. They have an ancestral mountain Chermoy-lam. But before, according to legend, they lived in the mountainous area of ​​​​Maista.

Elistanzhi. This teip comes from the Vedeno district of the village of Khattuni. From there he moved to Aldy near present-day Grozny. This teip is famous for the fact that Sheikh Mansur (Ushurma) descended from it, who was apparently born in 1765.

Engenoy. Settled throughout Chechnya. It is considered a teip from which come Muslim preachers and religious heads - sheikhs. Indeed, many sheikhs came out of Engenoy.

Ersenoy. Teip, located in eastern Chechnya in the historical region of Nokhchimokh (Shalinsky, Gudermes district). After the campaigns of Tamerlane, this is one of the first teips who settled again on the plain. These teips were considered aristocratic. Now their representatives are credited with high spiritual qualities. In the etymology of "Ersenoy", a native speaker feels a connection with the masculine principle (Compare: er bukh = uncastrated bull, Russian bull).

Yalhoroy. From this teip comes the surname of Dzhokhar Dudayev. There is the village of Yalkhoroy, named after the teip. According to some versions, dependent people belonged to this teip, according to others, on the contrary, it is a teip that had hired workers. Most likely, the origin of this teip is associated with a professional caste organization and Yalhora were warriors who received payment from other teips for guarding the borders. In the research of M. Mamakaev about the Chechen teips, Yalkhoroi are listed among the indigenous Chechen teips. Obviously, Yalkhoroi belongs to the Orstkhoy component in the ethnogenesis of the Chechens, which we will discuss in more detail below. In Ingushetia, I recorded a legend that some surnames are related to the surname of D.M. Dudayev. For example, the surname of the Dakiyevs, who, according to legend, have common relatives with the Dudayevs in the sixth generation. According to this version, the first Dakiyevs, together with the Aushevs and Musolgovs, founded the village of Surkhokhi in Ingushetia. The Ingush branch of the Dudaevs also lives in Ingushetia.

Special attention should be paid to the Orstkhoy origin of Yalkhoroy, if only because the local group of Orstkhoys - the Myalkhists - are considered in Chechnya to be the most devoted supporters of D.M. Dudayev. It is the Myalkhists that make up the main population of the village of Bamut. My work among the Myalhists convinced me that they are, indeed, the descendants of the militarily strongest unit of the Vainakh ethnic group, the Orstkhoys (Karabulaks). Since ancient times, they inhabited the North Caucasian plain. Deep in the mountains, in Myalkhist, between the upper reaches of the Argun and Meshekhi, they probably ended up during the devastating campaigns of Tamerlane in the North Caucasus, and here they included the original mountain Vainakh population. The memory of the obscure division into indigenous and newcomers is still traceable among the Myalchists.

In the mountains, the Myalkhists did not lose their warlike disposition and waged periodic wars with Georgia. (Their territory borders on Khevsureti). The Myalkhists, on the other hand, hid Ordzhonikidze from capture by the tsarist secret police. The cult of militancy, along with other mountain values ​​such as honoring a woman, hospitality, according to the Myalkhists themselves, distinguishes them from other Chechens. Some of them consider themselves people of princely dignity. Other Chechens are afraid of the decisive nature of the Myalhists.

In the government bodies of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria under D.M. Dudayev turned out to be a lot of Myalkhists. This caused talk about their dominance in the republic. About the special attitude of D.M. Dudayev nothing is known about this problem. His patronage of the religious brotherhood of the Kadirians, represented by the Myalkhists, does not yet say anything, because this brotherhood is widespread in Chechnya and not only among the mountain population.

L. Ilyasov

Chechen teip

Chechen Republic and Chechens: History and Modernity:

Mater. Vseros. scientific conf. Moscow, April 19-20, 2005. Moscow: Nauka, 2006, p. 176-185

Until recently, the history of the Chechens was presented as the history of a people who spent thousands of years in the conditions of a tribal system, were forced out by enemies into hard-to-reach mountain gorges and had neither a state nor a written language. However, according to the works of ancient authors, one can judge the existence of various state formations among the Nakhs since ancient times.

The upper Aorsi in Strabo's "Geography", which, according to the territory of settlement (and according to the latest linguistic data, and according to the language) can be identified with the ancestors of the Chechens, are described as a powerful people that has a king and is able to put up a huge army, controlling large areas from the mouth of the Don up to coast of the Caspian Sea. The ancient Greek author suggests that the Aorsi are fugitives from the peoples living above, i.e. in the mountains of the Caucasus 1 .

Caucasian Albania was also a monarchy, the main and, probably, the most cultured part of the population of which were the Gargars (cf. Chech. Gyargar -
"close, kindred"), one of the Nakh tribes, placed in the 1st century BC. BC. Strabo in the eastern part of the Caucasus 2 . According to Strabo, in Caucasian Albania "all inhabitants are subordinate to one person, and in ancient times each group with a special language had a special king" 3 .

The active role of the Nakh tribes in the Caucasus is noted in the "Life of the Kartli Kings" by Leonty Mroveli, a Georgian historian of the 11th century. 4 The ancient Armenian version of the source says that the descendants of Torgom "crossed the mountains of the Caucasus and conquered the lands of Khazrats with the hands of the son of Tiret - Dutsuk" 5 ie. Durdzuk (Durdzuk is an ethnonym for mountain Chechens). In the information from the "Life of Vakhtang Gorgasal" the Georgian historian writes: "Then the king gave great gifts to his allies - the Persians and the kings of the Kavkasians..." . It can be assumed that the "kings of the Caucasians" meant rulers who had a certain social status, and whatever meaning this concept has, it implies the presence of social stratification among the Nakh tribes in that historical period.

The ancestors of the Chechens were no less powerful later, during the period of the Arab conquest of Transcaucasia and Dagestan. At this time, "mountainous regions appear as areas of developed agriculture, densely populated, with strong fortifications, areas where persistent ethnopolitical formations were fully formed. Most of them were headed by dynasties of rulers who, by the time of the Arab conquest, already had developed genealogies" 8. According to Arab authors (Ibn Ruste, al-Masudi), beyond Serir, which is identified by historians with modern Avaria, is the state of Al-Lan, very densely populated, with many fortresses and castles, capable of fielding a 30,000-strong army. According to Ibn Ruste, the Alans are divided into four tribes, the most powerful of which is the Dahsas tribe 9 . I'M WITH. Vagapov believed that "dakhsas" in the Varabian sources should be read as "nah-sas", where the second element goes back to the ancient Chechen ethnonym "Sasan" 10 . On the eve of the Mongol-Tatar invasion, in the foothills and plains of the Central and North-Eastern Caucasus, there was a large early feudal state - Alania. The society of this state consisted of a class of feudal lords, a stratum of free community members, dependent peasants, and domestic slaves.
176

Thus, the Chechens, right up to the invasion of Timur, had various state formations with a formalized monarchical form of government and a well-defined social stratification of society. And speaking about the historical experience of state-building among the Chechens, one cannot limit oneself only to teip-tukhum democracy, which some researchers consider the only form of political organization of Chechen society in the past 12 . Teip-tukhum democracy is a traditional form of political organization of the Chechen society from the 14th to the beginning of the 20th century. 13 The supreme body - Mehk-khelili The Council of the country represented in one person the legislative and judicial power. Members of Mehk-khel were elected according to the pyramid system from representatives of various teips.

The teip-tukhum organization in its classical form, in all likelihood, took shape in the period after the invasion of Timur, when the Chechen state with its institutions, ruling dynasties, and the skills of civilization developed by the ancestors of the Chechens over the millennia were destroyed, when the Chechen land plunged into the darkness of troubled times, in which one law rules - the right of the strong. During this period, the Chechens were forced to leave the plains and foothills and move into the mountains 14 .

In order to talk about the role of the teip-tukhum organization in the history of Chechnya, it is necessary to define what we mean by the terms "teip" and "tukhum". This problem is very complex and confusing and has not yet received a more or less clear solution. “The ascertainment and study of clan groupings in the Caucasus is extremely complicated and hampered by the fact that many Caucasian genera sometimes use a number of terms to designate these groupings, both local and borrowed from other languages,” wrote M.A. Indirect 15. Various researchers understood by these terms both the surname, and individual societies, and the genus, and the tribal community. But the Chechen teip in its classical form is neither patronymic nor gender.

The Chechens had the term "var" - a genus (which, by the way, was preserved by the Ingush, but in a different meaning). It is much closer in its structure and content to the concept of genus. Var is a consanguineous organization, all members of which go back to a single ancestor that actually existed. This can be confirmed by a relic concept that has been preserved in the Chechen language so far in idiomatic expressions: "Vari da is the father of the clan, the ancestor", although folk etymology often reinterprets it in "Vorhi da is the father of seven (meaning seven generations)", but it is quite likely that "var" - genus and "vorh / varh" - seven ascend to one root. The definition of teip by M. Mamakaev as "a patriarchal exogamous group of people descended from one common ancestor" is more suitable for the concept of "var" or later "nekyi" 16 .

Teips also had a common ancestor, but legendary, mythological. An objective analysis of the genealogical legends of the indigenous Chechen teips makes it possible to detect their secondary, derivative nature in relation to the already established structures and the territory occupied by them. The legends about the origin of some Chechen teips from noble newcomers from the Near East countries also have no real basis and appeared relatively late, during the period of the adoption of Islam. Almost in the same form, similar genealogies are found among all the Muslim peoples of the Caucasus and are associated with the desire to increase their social status in this way. The genealogical traditions of the Chechens were reflected in family chronicles 17 - "teptars", which, with the adoption of Islam, began to be written in the letter "rajab", created on the basis of Arabic graphics. The "chroniclers" were most often people who had a good Muslim education, and, accordingly, the search for the roots of a mythological ancestor in Asia Minor or the Middle East was a kind of tribute to tradition.
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But nevertheless, quite real historical events can be distinguished in thermal genealogies. In all the pedigrees of the indigenous Chechen teips, one thought sounds - about migration from the western and southern regions of the Caucasus to the east, to Ichkeria, Cheberloy, Aukh. The crossing point of this migration, according to folk legends, as well as family chronicles, was the historical region of Nashkh.

The word "teip" is borrowed from Arabic (where "teifa" means "kind, genus" 18
and could spread among the Chechens no earlier than the 17th century. It is also found among other Caucasian peoples to refer to various social and patronymic groups. The Chechen teip is a classic self-governing territorial community, consisting of one or more villages and delegating part of its powers to higher-level associations. In the conditions of the complete collapse of the state and the destruction of state institutions, the teip began to perform the functions of protecting and protecting the rights of the individual, property, defense, and ensuring the economic conditions of existence. During the formation of the teip as a social structure, it also included consanguineous organizations, the largest of which was "var" - clan. Over time, the term "var" went out of use among the Chechens, probably due to the fact that the broader social functions of "var" were transferred to the teip, and the narrower ones - to small consanguineous organizations: "nekyi" - the union of related patronymics and "tsIin nah" - patronymics 19 .

It would be wrong to deny that some small Chechen teips (although some researchers, and quite rightly, consider them branches - "gar" of large teips) are the result of a quantitative increase in purely consanguineous structures. But the typical process was the formation of teips on a territorial basis, when "vars" or clans that settled nearby and had common economic and political interests united in teips. This can be confirmed by the fact that teips have always accepted not only immigrants from other countries, but also people from other teips. That is, in those days when the teip functioned as a social institution, it was possible for individual families and even entire surnames to move from one teip to another, which is impossible in the conditions of the patronymic organization of society.

Teips arose on the basis of military settlements, as well as military and professional specialization, which is confirmed by the name of many Chechen teips (cf. "Shirda - slingers", "Lash karoy - reserve troops", "bIavloi - builders of towers"). This may be a confirmation that most of the Chechen teips who settled along the southern and eastern border of Chechnya were originally border military settlements. It can be assumed that the craft communities of Alania, when moving to the mountainous regions, also formed compact settlements and became self-governing territorial communities, i.e. teips. Large groups of immigrants from other countries formed their own teips during compact settlement, but this, in all likelihood, was a process characteristic of the period of decomposition of the Chechen teip, cf. "Turks - Turks", "Jugti - Jews", "Chergzi - Circassians", etc.

Thus, there are several ways to form teips.
organizations:
 association of territorial communities (including military settlements, craft communities);
 growth of consanguineous organizations with giving them broader social functions;
 the formation of a teip based on compactly settled groups of foreigners.

Teip, or territorial community, was the only possible model of political organization with a low level of development of productive forces and the absence of class differentiation of society in the conditions of post-war political and economic decline. After all, it was a period when the Chechens
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under the pressure of a stronger and more numerous enemy, they were forced to leave the flowering and fertile valleys and crowd into the wild and harsh gorges of the mountains, where the only purpose of existence was the struggle for survival. Undoubtedly, the landscape also influenced the nature of the social organization of the Chechens at a time when, in the conditions of harsh and inaccessible mountains, rural communities were united into more or less stable social formations precisely on a landscape basis (within the same gorge, one basin, etc.) .

But the teip differs from the classical tribal organization, which was also a primitive social institution, in that it is not the result of the development of patronymy, but a social phenomenon of a qualitatively different nature, which arose due to objective historical circumstances. In the context of the death of the state and state institutions, the loss of social stratification of society as a result of mass migration and death large groups According to E.A. Borchashvili, “the tribal ideology of the population began to be adopted by territorial communities and military alliances. Having arisen on the basis of practical needs, these organizations began to consider their members descended from a common ancestor.”

In this way, the classic Chechen teip can be defined as an institution that performs social organizing functions at the level of the territorial community, and delegates some of its powers to associations of a higher order. A territorial community could consist of one or several villages located within the same landscape zone.

Teip as an institution has a number of fundamental features: the unity of the territory, a common economic, legal and ideological base. The legal basis of the teip organization was traditional law. In scientific practice, the traditional law of the Caucasian peoples is usually called adat. But this is not entirely correct, since adat is a broader concept and includes not only and not so much law as ethical and everyday traditions. historical experience people. The norms of Chechen law, at least since the beginning of the 16th century, were established by the Mekhk-Khel, the Supreme Council of the country. These rules have also been written down. In Chechnya, there were records of legal acts of the late 17th - early 18th centuries, which disappeared after the Chechens were evicted in 1944.

The Russian jurist P.F. Leontovich in the second half of the XIX century. Chechen traditional 20 law provided for almost all the institutions that are mandatory for modern judicial practice, i.e. prosecution, defense, the right of the defendant to apply to another instance. According to folklore materials, the sources of traditional law among the Chechens were not so much the consecrated custom as the establishment of the Mekhk-Khel, in which the precedent also played a significant role.

M. Mamakaev in his work "The Chechen teip in the period of its decomposition" determined23 the principles underlying the teip structure 21 . But in a number of cases, the researcher mechanically transferred the rules characteristic of the classical clan, for example, the Roman 22 , to the teip, which is a social, not a consanguineous structure, and even more so is not a classical tribal organization. Some of these principles are typical for patronymy or for small teips (or rather, for a branch of the teip "gar"), formed due to the growth of patronymy. The ban on marriage between its members, characteristic of the clan, was not mandatory within the Chechen teip. According to adat, marriages were allowed between a man and a woman who were not related to each other in eight generations on the paternal side, in seven - on the maternal side.
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The following features can be considered fundamental for the classic Chechen teip:

1. The crisis of communal land tenure. Communal landownership was characteristic of the classical family 23 . During the teip organization, especially in the late period, there were different forms of land ownership. The land of the teip community was divided as follows: a) common indivisible lands, which include mountain pastures, river banks and pastures; b) common divisibles that make up arable and mowing places since ancient times; c) own by right of first possession through the clearing of forests that belonged to other families or communities 24 . In the bowels of the teip community, the right of private ownership of land or right-of-exclusive ownership arises, when the land can be given to private owners in perpetual pledge, sold or exchanged, although there are still restrictions on the right to dispose of it 25 .

2. The teip had an armed squad or "gIer", which gathered for the duration of the hostilities, since the community could not maintain a permanent army.

3. The military squad was headed by "byachcha" - a military leader who was selected for the duration of the war.

4. The representative body of the teip was the council of elders - teipan khel. His decision was binding on all members of the teip. As one of the authors of the 19th century wrote, "a Chechen, running away from any restriction of his will, like an intolerable bridle, involuntarily submitted to the superiority of his mind and experience and often voluntarily carried out the sentence of the old people who condemned him" 26 .

5. The teip was headed by a leader who led the council of elders, but when making decisions, he had an equal voice with everyone.

6. The teip had the right to accept outsiders into its composition. It could be people from other teips or foreigners.

7. Each teip had its own name, going back to the name of the mythological ancestor. In fact, the names of many Chechen teips are associated, firstly, with the name of a village or locality, for example, Pkhamat - pkhamta, and secondly, with professional specialization (cf. BelgIata - working people; bIavloi - builders of towers), thirdly, with ethnic origin (cf. tsadaharoy - Dargins).

8. Teip occupied a special territory and had its own teip mountain. Only those who have their own mountain are considered indigenous Chechen teips, although there were cases when teips were forced to cede their lands, including mountain peaks, as payment for blood in internecine wars.

9. The teip had a separate, teip cemetery.

But the Chechen classical teip no longer had its own religious cult, unlike the Ingush, which both quantitatively and qualitatively differs from the Chechen one and is a patronymic unit 27 (and the result of segmentation of one Vainakh teip). The Chechen teip was a qualitatively different social organization compared to the classical clan. Even those signs that are considered signs of a tribal organization acquired a qualitatively different character in the teip community. But in the appropriate economic conditions and in the absence of pronounced social differentiation, the territorial community, having united in a teip, could not create another ideology than a common origin from a single ancestor and teip brotherhood.

But in the process of development and complication social life, external expansion, the teip community ceased to cope with the functions assigned to it, and above all with external functions. The process of unification of teips into larger and more complex social organizations - tukhums - became natural. Chechen tukhum, according to M. Mamakaev, " this is a kind of military-economic union of a certain group of teips, not related to each other by blood relationship, but united in a higher association to jointly solve common tasks of protection from enemy attacks and economic exchange"28. The tukhum was headed by a council of elders, which included representatives of all the teips that formed the union.
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According to the classification of M. Mamakaev, in the XVI-XVII centuries. Nine tukhums formed in Chechnya: Akkhii, Malkhii, Nokhchmakhkhoi, Tierloi, ChiantIiy, ChIeberloi, Shara, Shuota and Ershtkhoi 29 . But the number of Chechen tukhums is a subject of discussion, which is probably due to the absence of any other difference between teip and tukhum than just quantitative. Both teip and tukkhum are institutions of the social organization of society. If a teip could form from one to several villages, then several teips were included in the tukhum. At the same time, there were teips in Chechnya that did not belong to any of the tukhums, for example, peshkhoy, maysta.

The next logical step in the evolution of teip-tukhum democracy was the supreme body of the country - Mehk Khel. Representatives of tukhums and individual teips from among the most respected and honored people were elected to it. "The Nakh elders in Mehk Khel established the order of land ownership and land use and agreed on the norms of behavior and penalties for their violation, resolved issues of trade, both internal and external, took measures to ensure the necessary defense of the fortress, built battle towers, created watchtowers. or border settlements, resolved issues of war and peace, collected material resources for public needs and determined various taxes and duties. If individual villages and territorial communities did not obey the decision of the Mehk Khel, they could even be completely destroyed "30.

The classical state appears as a result of the socio-economic development of society at a certain level of its social stratification, as an organization that ensures the balance of the political and economic interests of its various strata and protects them from external expansion. The emergence and strengthening of the state is accompanied by the liquidation of the consanguineous organization, the division of the population into territorial units. A distinctive feature of the state is also the presence of public authority, which does not directly coincide with the population, and state institutions (army, police, bureaucracy), which are supported by taxes regularly collected from the population 31 .

Thus, neither tukhum as a union of teips, nor Mokhk as an association of tukhums united by the idea of ​​ethnic unity, became state entities in the classical sense of the word, since, firstly, there were no socio-economic prerequisites for this in conditions of a low level of development productive forces, and secondly, it contradicted the internal logic of the development of teip-tukhum democracy. Mokhk, or the Association of Territorial Communities of Chechnya, was a state formation of a different order, in which the self-government of individual subjects became almost absolute. The legal life of society was centrally regulated only at the level of establishing uniform norms of traditional law, and taxes were collected not for the maintenance of the state apparatus, but for the construction of roads, fortresses, watchtowers and signal towers. The Supreme Council of the country decided only the most important issues for the association: declarations of war, the formation of a militia, the creation of new colonies, as well as
questions of law and religion.

According to folklore materials, Mehk Khel appointed rulers to various regions of Chechnya, such as Aldama-Gezi in Cheberloy, who eventually became feudal lords, declaring their rights hereditary. This may be a confirmation of folklore materials about the existence in that era of both executive power, which was later denoted by the Arabic term "Iedal", and judicial power in the form of maslaats.
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Based on the foregoing, the social structure of the Chechen society in the period of teip-tukhum democracy can be represented as follows:

mohk- country (Association of tukhums)
↓
Tukkhum- union of teips
↓
teip- territorial community
↓
Gar- Nekyi group united by the idea of ​​legendary kinship
↓
Some- association of related groups (nsh-nah), leading their line from a common ancestor
↓
Shin-nah- a group of closely related families (up to seven generations)
↓
Dozal- a family

In the process of evolution of the teip-tukhum system, contradictions arose already in its bowels, which caused its decomposition. -Historical data, as well as folk legends, testify to the existence in the Chechen society of that period and feudal owners - "el", who had their fortified castles and estates 32 . Chechen folklore is replete with materials about the struggle of rural communities with the "princes". This was the period of a new heyday of the Chechen teip before its decline. The teip communities won this long-term war. But social and property differentiation in the community itself, the emergence of a new nobility from among the leaders and military leaders undermined the internal foundations of the teip organization. The increase in the share of feudal and individual ownership of land contributed to the destruction of the economic foundations of the teip-tukhum organization. And if teip forms of ownership and use of land and livestock still existed, these were already, E.A. Borchashvili, are not remnants of the tribal system, but echoes of "archaic forms of the era of early class relations that arose a second time as a result of the liquidation of the political rights of the aristocratic nobility."

When evicted to the plains and the formation of polygenic (i.e., multi-teip) settlements, as well as in connection with the complication of socio-economic life, Chechen communities began to invite foreign feudal lords from Dagestan and Kabarda to rule. But their power was purely nominal, and there were often cases when they were expelled or destroyed by wayward Chechens. But the very fact of an attempt to organize this kind of management with the payment of maintenance to the invited ruler indicates that the teip-tukhum organization no longer corresponded to the new socio-economic realities.

The decline of the classical Chechen teip is characterized by the aggravation of social contradictions between the rural teip community and feudal lords, both foreign and local, between teips, as well as between patronymic formations within the teip. This process was accompanied by the formation of a new teip nobility from among the elders and military leaders, which contributed to the further decomposition of the teip from the inside. The destruction of the classical teip community and the emergence of a new, multi-teip rural community was facilitated by the return of Chechens from the mountains to the plains and the emergence of polygenic settlements. Although during the creation of these settlements each teip formed its own quarter, they were already social units of a new level with a certain commonality of lifestyle,
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Traditions, psychology. Separate teip groups broke away from the teip community and, accordingly, lost their common economic and political interests. The newly emerging rural community, while formally maintaining the teip division, for objective reasons, acquires common interests, which in specific situations, the patronymic groups that are members of this community, put above the illusory interests of their teip.

From the foregoing, we can conclude that the emergence of teip-tukhum democracy was caused by the need for a socio-political organization of society, which, as a result of a cruel war, was deprived of state-forming institutions, and most importantly, the economic foundations of existence. Teip communities, and then their unions - tukhums, were formed on the basis of rural communities, military settlements, communities of artisans, and later compact settlements of foreigners with the aim of socially organizing the life of society, getting out of the chaos of troubled times generated by the war. But from the very beginning, teip-tukhum democracy was not a classical tribal organization, although it had (in a modified form) some of its external signs. It was a classic teip system, the basis of which was the rural community, which had secondary signs of a tribal organization (but it had no other way, since the socio-economic foundations of the birth of the state were destroyed as a result of the war). However, already in the depths of the teip-tukhum democracy, there were such categories as "kam" - the nation, "Mokhk" - the country, which are fundamentally uncharacteristic of tribal consciousness.

Teipovo-tukhum democracy was not an ideal model of social organization. It is the result of socio-historical circumstances that have developed in a certain way and corresponded to a certain socio-economic structure of Chechen society, but in the process of evolution and changes in the economic foundations of existence, it has become obsolete. By the end of the XIX century. the Chechen teip disappears as a social institution, primarily because the need for its socially organizing functions has disappeared. These functions were taken over by the state. Part of the functions of the teip (which, in general, were previously considered teip nominally) passed to patronymy, part to new rural communities (as noted above, new socio-administrative units were formed, polygenic in structure, which are identified by Chechens as a certain ethno-cultural community, for example, "shelakhoy" - residents of the village of Shali, "martankhoy" - residents of the village of Urus-Martan).

Thus, the following reasons contributed to the decomposition of the teip and its disappearance as a real social category:

 the growth of internal contradictions and the inconsistency of the teip as a social institution with the new socio-economic realities;
 no need for the social organizing functions of the teip due to the emergence of state institutions (Imamat Shamil, the royal administration, etc.);
 violation of the principle of a single teip territory;
 the lack of common economic and political interests among various social and patronymic groups of the teip due to the violation of the principle of the unity of the territory;
 taking over the functions determined by the peculiarities of the national mentality by the patronymy.

The Chechen teip has turned from a socio-political organization into a mythological category, into a category of moral order, and as such, in the view of the Chechens, it becomes the ideal of universal equality and justice. Interest in the teip, in the teip organization has always increased during periods of weakening of the state. This was also characteristic of the early 1990s. in connection with the collapse of the great empire. Congresses of many Chechen teips were held, heads and governing bodies were elected, action programs were developed. But, without real
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Soil, neither socio-economic nor political, this process has gradually faded away. In addition, the Chechen society in this period was still a more or less stable social structure, the elements of which had certain economic and political interests, not burdened with teip ideology.

There was no revival of the teip as a social organization in modern conditions, when after the most severe war the foundations of statehood, the economy were destroyed, the social stratification Chechen society. The instability of modern Chechen society is largely due to the lack of a formalized social structure, strata with stable political and economic interests. But the complex social stratification of society is impossible without a developed economy built on high technologies, without a national idea. Under these conditions, it may seem quite logical that certain political forces strive to use teip stratification as a factor in stabilizing Chechen society and social basis for the construction of a state system, allegedly national in its essence and form. In fact, as we said above, teip was only a certain stage in the development of social institutions for the organization of society, and the level of its institutions, rights, "social relations corresponded to its time, a certain socio-economic structure. Any attempt to artificially transfer either institutions or norms the rights that existed under the teip-tukhum organization to the modern state system will cause enormous damage to the construction of a new Chechen state, will be a return to the distant past, to the "darkness of centuries", a regression in the socio-historical evolution of the Chechen nation.

Universal suffrage is the greatest achievement of human civilization in the field of state building. The desire to reform it, supposedly in relation to specific national conditions and mentality, is in fact either an attempt to usurp power, or to come to power in a roundabout way. And the resuscitation of teip structures in the deteriorating socio-political conditions, with the increasing property differentiation of society, can lead to a further collapse of the state in Chechnya.

Nevertheless, putting aside political speculations around the teip as a social organization, it is necessary to note its great moral significance for the Chechen people. Every Chechen remembers the name of his teip, his genealogy, and this memory can be decisive in his moral position, in his worldview. After all, it was in the depths of teip democracy that the great moral culture of the Chechens developed. In this sense, teip, teip memory can play important role in the education of young people, in the formation of their respect for the past, in the preservation of the best traditions of Chechen culture.

1 Strabo. Geography. M., 1879. S. 516.
2 Trever K.V. Essays on the history and culture of Caucasian Albania M.; L., 1959. S. 48-49.
3 Strabo. Decree. op. S. 512.
4 Mroveli L. Life of Kartli kings. M., 1979. S. 25.
5 Ibid. S. 52.
6 Ibid. S. 85.
7 Gamrekeli V.N. Dvals and Dvaletia in the 1st-XV centuries. AD Tbilisi, 1961. S. 27.
8 Gadlo A.V. Ethnic history of the North Caucasus GU-X centuries. L., 1979. S. 162.
9 Ibid. S. 172,
10 Vagapov Ya.S. Sarmatians and Vainakhs. Grozny, 1990. S. 108.
11 Khizriyeh in H.A. Caucasians against Timur. Grozny, 1992, p. 34.
12 Documents on Russian-Chechen relations in the 16th-17th centuries. do not give a clear picture of the socio-political structure of Chechnya. They mention Chechen feudal lords, including Shikh-Murza Okotsky and his brother Saltan-Murza, the owner of the Larsov tavern (village). But many mountain communities are referred to as jamaats - unions of rural communities, i.e. how about tukhums. See: Russian-Chechen relations (second half of the 16th-17th centuries). M., 1997.
13 It is impossible to exclude the existence of territorial communities of the teip type in the mountainous regions of Chechnya even at an earlier time. At least the names of some Chechen teips have been mentioned by ancient authors since the first centuries AD.
14 According to historical sources, as well as folklore material, before the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars, and then the hordes of Timur, the Nakh tribes occupied territories on the plain, including the left bank of the Terek and the upper reaches of the Kuban, and in more ancient times up to the mouth of the Don and the lower reaches of the Volga (cf. Chechen idiomatic expression "Idal dekha vakh" - literally "to cross the Volga", i.e. to drive out of Chechnya).
15 Kosven M.A. Ethnography and history of the Caucasus. M., 1961. S. 24.
16 Mamakaev M. Chechen teip during its decay. Grozny, 1973, p. 22.
17 Teptar is a kind of family (family) chronicle, in which all ancestors and the most important events in the life of the family and the people were recorded. In more ancient times, teptars were written in the Chechen language in the Georgian alphabet, from the 9th-10th centuries. (with the rapprochement of the Alans with Byzantium) - Greek, and from the 17th century. - in Arabic or Chechen in Arabic script. There is information about Chechen teptars written in cuneiform (zail yoza), as well as about the use of the Georgian and Greek (Byzantine) alphabets by the Chechens. An inscription consisting of two lines and made in Greek on the foundation stone of one of the towers in the village of Kirda in the Argun Gorge is mentioned by N.S. Ivanenkov. According to the Chechen teptars, the fortification of Kirda was built by the Alanian ruler, who went to the mountains with his retinue, fleeing the invasion of Timur's troops. An Alanian inscription was made in the Chechen language on a stone tombstone of the 10th-11th centuries. near the Zelenchuk River in Karachay-Cherkessia. Wooden boards, stone slabs, leather could be used as writing material, and in late time paper. In 1944, during the eviction of the Chechens, all teptars (as well as theological works of the 17th-19th centuries in the Chechen language) were confiscated and destroyed from the local population. Separate copies were taken out by NKVD officers to Russia, several teptars managed to be saved by their owners.
18 By the way, in the Chechen language, in addition to the social term, the word "teip" is also used in the meaning of "view".
19 The social organization of the Hurrians resembled the organization of the Chechen medieval teip communities. They had large family communities, referred to in documents as houses - bitu or towers - dimtu (cf. Chech. TsIa - a house, a group of closely related families). Several family communities formed a village, which was a territorial or territorially related community. The villages were located around the fortified settlement, where the main temple, the dwellings of the ruler and officials of the city-state were located. This is where the council of elders met. popular assembly who actively participated in the management process.
20 V legal science traditional law is considered the next step after customary law.
21 Mamakaev M. Decree. op. pp. 28-33.
22 Engels F. The origin of the family, private property and the state. M., 1980. S.137-150.
23 Ibid. S. 139.
24 Popov I. Ichkerintsy // Collection of information about the Terek region. Issue. 1. S. 263.
25 Ivanenkov N.S. Mountain Chechens // Tersky collection. Issue. 7. Vladikavkaz, 1910. P. 35.
26 Muscovite. 1851. No. 19-20. Book 1-2. S. 179,
27 Kharadze RL. Some aspects of the rural-communal life of the mountain Ingush // Caucasian ethnographic collection. Issue. II. Tbilisi, 1968, pp. 165-198.
28 Mamakaev M. Decree. op. S. 16.
29 Ibid.
30 Saidov I.M. Mehk khel (Council of the country) among the Nakhs in the past // Caucasian ethnographic collection. Issue. II. S. 202.
31 Theory of state and law. M., 1973. S. 50-56.
32 It cannot be ruled out that part of the Alanian feudal lords went under the pressure of the Mongols to the mountainous regions together with their retinues and dependent people, as the Chechen teptars testify to this.

Before the formation of the general concept of “Chechen nation” (around the 18th century), Nakh (Chechen, Ingush and some others) tribal formations, called teips, or taips, lived on the territory of modern Chechnya. They were special military-economic unions that occupied a certain area and initially formed from complex families (parents, children, uncles, aunts and other relatives).

Hence the division of the teip into nekyi and gars, that is, into surnames and branches.

"Russian" teips in Chechnya

The number of teips among Chechens and other peoples of the Caucasus is constantly changing. Some of these tribal formations were formed in the Middle Ages. According to legend, their names were inscribed on the legendary bronze cauldron, which was melted down by "non-native" Nakh teips. Others formed later for a variety of reasons. In the 19th century, in the south of the Russian Empire, there were about 130 Chechen teips alone, several centuries ago they united into larger military alliances - tukhums (9 in number).

In addition, there were several dozen Ingush (about 50), Akkin and other teips. Since, according to Nakh laws, marriages within the same teip are strictly prohibited in order to avoid incest and the birth of sick offspring, brides were taken from unrelated tribal formations. For this reason, there are teips in the structure of Chechen society, which can be conditionally called Russian. So the representatives of the teip Arsaloy often married Russians and adopted part of their culture.

The difference between "Russian" and other teips

The fact that teip Arsaloy is considered Russian does not mean that it consists entirely of Russian citizens by nationality. There are very few of these in the teip. Arsaloy includes Ossetians and descendants of mixed marriages. Also conditionally Russian are the teips Guna and Orsi, Khazar by origin. It is believed that Arsaloy and Orsi were formed with the participation of fugitive Russian soldiers. Representatives of the largest teip Gunoy are considered descendants of the Terek Cossacks.

These tribal formations differ from others by softer intra-tribal laws. In many, remnants of the ancient cult of women and even Orthodoxy can be traced, which, on the whole, did not affect the rather powerless position of women, but saved them from such extremes as female circumcision. Teip Gunoy converted to Islam later than others, having previously been Orthodox.

Relations between the "Russians" and other teips, in general, differ little from the rest of the intertribal relations of the Caucasian peoples. Each teip sacredly preserves its customs and culture, rooted in the deepest antiquity. At the head is a council of elders. The rest of the society members are equal. Assistance to the victim is provided by all fellow tribesmen. Mourning is observed in the same way - by all at once. In the case of the murder of his fellow tribesman, the teip declared blood feud against the murderer. Also, cases of merging of different teips are increasingly observed.

In the "Russian" teips, other Chechen laws adopted in these tribal communities are also observed. At the same time, in recent decades, there has been a general destruction of the teip structure itself, which is explained by strong outside influence: secular contacts with other peoples, education of rich members of the teip in Russia and Europe, etc. From the older generation, the young often receive a certain amount of information, but otherwise perceives the members of his teip as countrymen, which contributes to a faster establishment of contact and the emergence of trust between people.