Durdzuks

The Durdzuks (Georgian: დურძუკები, romanized: durdzuk'ebi), also known as Dzurdzuks, was a medieval exonym of the 9th-18th centuries used mainly in Georgian, Arabic, but also Armenian sources in reference to the Vainakh peoples (Chechens and Ingush).

Durdzuks (Цурцукы) on Vakhushti's map in 1745 located between the Kisti (Кисты) and Gligvi (Глигвы).

"Dourdsoukethi" (Mitcheghi). Atlas of the Caucasus. Dubois de Montpereux F., 1843

Geography

Researchers unanimously identify the Durdzuks as the ancestors of modern Chechens and Ingush and Bats.^[1] Some historians link the Durdzuks to mountainous Ingushetia and identify them with the Ingush people,^[2] others believe that in the period of the Middle Ages, the population of Chechnya was known to the South Caucasian peoples under the name "Durdzuks", or "Dzurdzuks",^[3][4][5] while the population of Ingushetia under the names "Glighvi", "Ghilighvi". In 1745, Georgian geographer Vakhushti of Kartli noted that the country "Durdzuketi consists of Kisti, Durdzuki and Gligvi", placing the first in the vicinity of the Darial Gorge and the latter the more east of the three, bordering Pankisi, Tusheti and Didoeti.^[6]

Georgian historian Vakhtang Gamrekeli claims that "Durdzuk" is definitely and, with all its references, uniformly localized, between Didoeti-Dagestan in the east and the gorge of the Terek River, in the west.^[7] The village Zurzuka^[8] in the Vedensky District of Chechnya has been theorized to be connected to the ethnonym Durdzuk.^[9] Historians often place the "Gate of the Durdzuks" in the Assa Gorge of Ingushetia, which is a path connecting the North and South Caucasus regions.^[10][11]

History

The supposed eponymous progenitor of the Durdzuks is mentioned in The Georgian Chronicles:

ხოლო შვილთა ზედა კავკასისთა იყო უფალ დურძუკ, ძე ტირეთისი.
And as for upon the sons of Caucasus there was a lord Durdzuk, son of Tiretis.^[12]

ხოლო დურძუკ, რომელი უწარჩინებულეს იყო შვილთა შორის კავკასისთა, მივიდა და დაჯდა ნაპრალსა შინა მთისასა, და უწოდა სახელი თჳსი დურძუკეთი.
And as for this Durdzuk, who was one of the most honorable sons of Kavkas, came and set at the mountains, and gave it the name of his as Durdzuketi.^[13]

In the Armenian adaptation of The Georgian Chronicles, the Durdzuks defeated the Scythians and became a significant power in the area in the region in the first millennium BC.^[14]

According to The Georgian Chronicles, the Durdzuks allied themselves with Georgia, and helped the first Georgian king Pharnavaz I of Iberia consolidate his reign against his unruly vassals. The alliance with Georgia was cemented when King Pharnavaz married a Durdzuk girl.^[10]

და მოიყვანა ცოლი დურძუკელთა, ნათესავი კავკასისი.
And married he [Pharnavaz] a Durdzuk wife, a relative of the Caucasus.^[15]

The Durdzuks are said to have raided Kakheti and Bazaleti during the reign of Mirian I, who invaded and ravaged the land of the Durdzuks in retaliation. Later on, the Durdzuks are mentioned fighting the Mongols alongside their Georgian allies .^[16] Durdzuk soldiers are also mentioned fighting alongside Georgians against the troops of Jalal al-Din Mangburni.^[10] Queen Tamar of Georgia was highly esteemed, and the Durdzuks named daughters as well as bridges and other buildings after her.^[17]

The Durdzuks are mentioned in the 7th-century work Geography of Armenia by Anania Shirakatsi as the Dourtsk (Armenian: Դուրծկք).^[10][18]

See also

• Dvals
• Peoples of the Caucasus
• Princedom of Simsim
• Khour II
• Chechen-Kazikumukh war
• Timurid invasions of Simsim
• Mongol invasions of Durdzuketi
• Ghalghaï Koashke

Notes

References

1. Какабадзе 1967, p. 471; Робакидзе 1968, p. 27; Крупнов 1971, p. 34; Волкова 1973, p. 135; Гольдштейн 1977, p. 203; Rapp 2003, p. 276
2. Klaproth 1814, p. 239; Koch 1843, p. 30; Brosset 1847, p. 18; Генко 1930, p. 712; Eremian 1973, p. 270; Волкова 1973, pp. 136–137; Пиотровский & Нарочницкий 1988, p. 152; Сотавов & Мейер 1991, p. 207; Rapp 2003, p. 276
3. Merzbacher Aus den Hochregionen des Kaukasus. Wanderungen, Erlebnisse, Beobachtungen, G. (1901). Aus den Hochregionen des Kaukasus. Wanderungen, Erlebnisse, Beobachtungen.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)^{[page needed]}
4. Markovin, V.I. (1965). In the gorges of Argun and Fortanga.^{[page needed]}
5. Merzbacher, G. (1905). To the ethnography of the inhabitants of the Caucasian Alps.^{[page needed]}
6. Багратиони, Вахушти (1745). Известия грузинских летописей и историков о северном Кавказе и России. М.Г. Джанашвили (1897). p. 65, 77-79.
7. Гамрекели, В. Н. (1961). Двалы и Двалетия в I—XV вв (in Russian). p. 27.
8. "Military topographic map of Caucasus region, 1926". www.etomesto.com. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
9. Nataev, S. A.; Натаев, С. А. (2013). Chechenskie taĭpy : problemy izuchenii︠a︡ prirody, struktury i istoricheskoĭ dinamiki sot︠s︡ialʹnykh institutov chechent︠s︡ev. Makhachkala. p. 413. ISBN 978-5-4242-0117-2. OCLC 842907585.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
10. Anchabadze, George. "The Vainakhs." (2009).
11. Генко 1930, p. 712.
12. Georgian royal annals, Life of Kartli, 2-20
13. Georgian royal annals, Life of Kartli, 2-23
14. Jaimoukha, Amjad (2004-11-10). The Chechens. doi:10.4324/9780203356432. ISBN 9780203356432.
15. Georgian royal annals, Life of Kartli, 3-47
16. Howorth, Henry Hoyle. History of the Mongols, from the 9th to the 19th century. No. 85. Burt Franklin, 1888. Page 11.
17. WAKIZAKA, KEISUKE. "LIVING AS “NORTH CAUCASIANS” IN GEORGIA: IDENTITY AND INTEGRATION IN GEORGIA AMONG THE OSSETIAN AND THE CHECHEN-KIST COMMUNITIES." (2019). Page 78: "According to Kartlis Tskhovreba (History of Georgia) and works of the Georgian historian Leonti Mroveli in the 11th century, these relations began before Christ. In these sources, Vainakhs are called “Nachkhs”, “Ghlighvs”, “Dzurdzuks” and “Durdzuks”. At the turn of the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C., Parnavaz, the king of Iberia, married a woman from a Vainakh tribe in order to get support from the Highlanders.209 They fought alongside the Georgian kings for centuries. Vainakhs loved Queen Tamar and named their daughters, bridges and other constructions after her. In this way, high-level interaction and fusion among Vainakhs, Georgians and many other highlander tribes existed in history .210 In the process of Vainakhs’ settlement in Georgia, they were assimilated into Georgian society. In fact, there are tribes who insist that their origins are based on Chechnya and Ingushetia among Tushs, Khevsurs, Pshavs and Georgians in Kakheti and Mtskheta-Mtianeti. Some tribes in Chechnya and Ingushetia insist that they are Georgian-origin and that they emigrated to Chechnya and Ingushetia afterward..."
18. Eremian 1973, p. 270.

Bibliography

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