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).

1676 map mentioning "Zuirie".
Durdzuks (Цурцукы) on Vakhushti's map in 1745 located between the Kisti (Кисты) and Gligvi (Глигвы).

Ethnonym

Researchers unanimously identify the Durdzuks as the ancestors of modern Chechens and Ingush.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Historians link the Durdzuks to mountainous Ingushetia and identify them with the Ingush people,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] 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" and the population of Ingushetia under the names "Glighvi", "Ghilighvi".[16][17][18] The 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.[19]

The village Zurzakoy[20] in Southern Chechnya has been theorized to share a common origin with the ethnonym Durdzuk.[21][22] The "Gate of the Durdzuks" mentioned in Georgian sources is thought to have been in the Assa Gorge of Ingushetia, which is a path connecting the North and South Caucasus regions.[23][10]

The Ingush scholar Aslambek Kurkiev associated the term "Dzurdzuki" or "Durzuki" with the term "dardza k'ongash" ("Sons of the blizzard") in the Nart legends of the Ingush ("Mother of the blizzard" and "Seven sons of the blizzard").[24]

History
Dzurdzuketia (Michkyz). Atlas of the Caucasus. Dubois de Montpereux F., 1843

According to the Georgian royal annals:

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.[25]

Durdzuk was mentioned by the Chronicles as "the most distinguished among the descendants of Kavkas", who led his people, the Durdzuks, into the mountains, where they would become the ancestors of today's Vainakh peoples.[23] Before his death, Targamos [Togarmah] divided the country amongst his sons, with Kavkasos [Caucas], the eldest and most noble, receiving the Central Caucasus. Kavkasos engendered the Vainakh tribes, and his descendant, Durdzuk, who took residence in a mountainous region, later called "Dzurdzuketia" after him, established a strong state in the fourth and third centuries BC.[26]

French orientalist A. J. Saint-Martin stated: "Dzurdzuk, the most famous of the sons of Kavkazos, retired to a valley in the mountains, which was named after him Dzurdzuketi (now Misjegi)".[27]

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.[28]

In the Armenian adaptation of Georgian Chronicles, the Durdzuks defeated the Scythians and became a significant power in the area in the region in the first millennium BC.[29]

According to 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.[23]

და მოიყვანა ცოლი დურძუკელთა, ნათესავი კავკასისი.
And married he [Pharnavaz] a Durdzuk wife, a relative of the Caucasus.[30]

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 as well as the Ossetians.[31] Durdzuk soldiers are also mentioned fighting alongside Georgians against the troops of Jalal al-Din Mangburni.[23] Queen Tamar of Georgia was highly esteemed, and the Durdzuks named daughters as well as bridges and other buildings after her.[32]

The Durdzuks are mentioned in the 7th-century work Geography of Armenia by Anania Shirakatsi as the Dourtsk (Armenian: Դուրծկք).[23][11]

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.[33]

See also

References
  1. Какабадзе 1967, p. 471.
  2. Робакидзе 1968, p. 27.
  3. Крупнов 1971, p. 34.
  4. Волкова 1973, p. 135.
  5. Гольдштейн 1977, p. 203.
  6. Rapp 2003, p. 276: "See also Kurtsikidze/Chikovani, "Pankisi," pp. 10-12, for the Durdzuks as the modern Vainaxs (Vainakhs), i. e., the ancestors of the Chechens and Ingushes."
  7. Klaproth, Julius Heinrich (1812). Reise in den Kaukasus und nach Georgien unter nommen in den Jahren 1807 and 1808 [Journeys to the Caucasus and Georgia made in 1807 and 1808] (in German). Halle und Berlin: In den Buchhandlungen des Hallischen Waisenhauses. p. 239.
  8. Koch 1843, p. 30.
  9. Brosset, Marie-Félicité (1847). Quelques remarques sur un livre intitulé: Reise durch Russland nach dem kaukasischen Isthmus, in den Jahren 1836, 1837, 1838, von K. Koch, Doctor der Medicin und Philosophie [Some remarks on a book entitled: Voyages through Russia to the Caucasian Isthmus, in the years 1836, 1837, 1838, by K. Koch, doctor of medicine and philosophy] (in French). p. 18.
  10. Генко 1930, p. 712.
  11. Eremian 1973, p. 270.
  12. Волкова 1973, pp. 136–137.
  13. Пиотровский & Нарочницкий 1988, p. 152.
  14. Сотавов & Мейер 1991, p. 207.
  15. Rapp 2003, p. 276: "[...] Hewsen identifies Durdzuks, arm. Durckk', as the ancestors of the modern Ingushes."
  16. 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)
  17. Markovin, V.I. (1965). In the gorges of Argun and Fortanga.
  18. Merzbacher, G. (1905). To the ethnography of the inhabitants of the Caucasian Alps.
  19. Гамрекели, В. Н. (1961). Двалы и Двалетия в I—XV вв (in Russian). p. 27.
  20. "Military topographic map of Caucasus region, 1926". www.etomesto.com. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  21. 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.
  22. "Топонимический словарь Кавказа. Статьи на букву "З"". otpusk-info.ru. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  23. Anchabadze, George. "The Vainakhs." (2009).
  24. Куркиев, А.Б. (2002). История происхождения ингушей. —: Издательский центр "Эль-Фа". Орджоникидзе.
  25. Georgian royal annals, Life of Kartli, 2-20
  26. Jaimoukha, Amjad (2004-11-10). The Chechens. Routledge. p. 31. doi:10.4324/9780203356432. ISBN 978-0-203-35643-2.
  27. Antoine-Jean, Saint-Martin (1818). Mémoires historiques et géographiques sur l'Arménie , 2 vols. — Imprimerie royale. Paris.
  28. Georgian royal annals, Life of Kartli, 2-23
  29. Jaimoukha, Amjad (2004-11-10). The Chechens. doi:10.4324/9780203356432. ISBN 9780203356432.
  30. Georgian royal annals, Life of Kartli, 3-47
  31. Howorth, Henry Hoyle. History of the Mongols, from the 9th to the 19th century. No. 85. Burt Franklin, 1888. Page 11.
  32. 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..."
  33. Багратиони, Вахушти (1745). Известия грузинских летописей и историков о северном Кавказе и России. М.Г. Джанашвили (1897). p. 65, 77-79.

Bibliography
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