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Nakhchivan is a city and historical region in the South Caucasus; it is now the capital of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan. The city lies on the right bank of the Nakhchivan river (Azerbaijani, Naxçıvançay) in the Aras valley in the Transcaucasian highlands. 1. The Name According to a local legend, Nakhchivan was the first city founded after the biblical flood, at the foot of the mountain atop which Noah’s ark landed; Noah himself lived here the rest of his life. The folk etymon of the city’s name is the Armenian nakh-ichevan (the first landing or resting place). Roman…

Karachay-Cherkessia (Karaçay-Cerkesiya, Karacay-Cerkesiya) is a republic in the western Caucasus, a part of the Russian Federation. It is bordered by the Kabardino-Balkar Republic to the east, Georgia and Abkhazia to the south, Stavropol Krai to the north, and Krasondar Krai to the west. Karachay-Cherkessia lies on the northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus, and the highest point of Europe, the inactive volcano Elbrus (5,642 metres), is located in the republic. The main rivers are the Kuban and its tributaries, the Teberda, Bolshoy Zelenchuk, Urup, and Bolshaya Laba. The populati…

The Caucasus, post-900/ 1500, entered a new phase of its history, as the Ottoman-Persian struggle for dominance began. This resulted in a series of wars that lasted until the early nineteenth century. While the Ṣafavid empire took possession of the Caspian region and the Ottoman Empire wielded power over the Black Sea region, the South Caucasus territories were divided several times between the two empires. With the decay of Ṣafavid power many independent states ruled by Turkic dynasties appeared in the Caucasus. Although Armenians and Georgians remained predominantly Christi…

Nagorno Karabakh (Qara Bāgh) is a highland part of the historical and geographical region of Karabakh, in the eastern part of the Armenian plateau. First mentioned in seventh-/thirteenth-century Georgian and Persian sources, the Turkish-Persian term Qara Bāgh means “Black Garden.” “Nagorno” is the Russian term for “upland.” Azeris call the region Dağlıq Qarabağ, while Armenians refer to it as Artsakh, to commemorate the Armenian principality and kingdom of Artsakh, which encompassed the same territory. Excavations at the Azykh cave in Nagorno Karabakh have shown that …

The Laks are an indigenous people of the mountainous part of Dagestan, in the Northern Caucasus. Ancient Greek authors (Herodotus 7.72, Strabo 11.5.1, Plutarch, Pompey, 35) mentioned the Ligyes (Λίγυες), Legaes (Λήγας), and Leges (Λήγες), who are supposed to be the ancestors of Laks as well as of the Lezgis and some other peoples of Dagestan. The capital of Lakia, the historical land of the Laks, is Kumukh (Ar. Ghumīk), so the Laks are known also as Kazi-Kumukhs. In the sixth century C.E., Kumukh was incorporated into the Sāsānid empire. The ruling dynasty became related …

Kumyk (Qumuq) is the original name of the largest Turkic-speaking group in the North Caucasus. 1. Population and origins According to the 2010 Russian census, Kumyks number 503,060. They are commonly known in historical sources also as Caucasian or Dagestan Tatars. Most Kumyks live in Dagestan (Daghestan, 431,736 or 14.8% of the republic’s population), the rest in Chechnya (Gudermessky District), North Ossetia (Mozdoksky District), Tyumen Oblast, Stavropol Krai, and Moscow. Thousands of Kumyks live in other post-S…

The Abkhaz (Abkhāz) are inhabitants of the eastern Black Sea coast, in the Caucasus region. This ethnonym comes from Greek (άβασγοί) through Georgian (აფხაზები); the autonym is “Apswa.” Using primarily linguistic data, the origins of Abkhazians can be traced back to the Abeshla tribe of ancient Anatolia, first mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions of the twelfth century B.C.E. Greek sources of the fifth to first centuries B.C.E. mention the Heniochi as inhabiting the part of Colchis that is present-…

Nikolay Katanov (1862–1922) was a prominent Russian Turkologist of Khakas origin, known for his works in comparative linguistics, ethnography, and folklore. He was born into an Orthodox family, in the steppe region of Khakassia (in Siberia, in the Russian Empire). After finishing his studies at the Krasnoyarsk gymnasium in 1884, he entered the Faculty of Oriental Languages at Saint-Petersburg Imperial University, where he studied the Arabic, Persian, Ottoman, Tatar, Bashkir, Kazakh, and Chagatai languages. In 1889, on the recommendation of the leading Turkologist Vasi…