Peoples of Asiatic Russia by Jochelson Waldemar 1855-1937

Author:Jochelson, Waldemar, 1855-1937.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Published: 1928-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

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4. The Gurians, living chiefly in the Osurghet District of Kutais Province. The population is about 93,000.

5. The Adshar, are according to Marr, Gursinized Megrels. They were converted to the Sunnite faith of Islam. In their religious services they used Arabic, but in ordinary speech Turkic (Azerbaijan) and the Georgian languages. They number about 70,000.

Some Georgian groups have preserved ancient local names which have, however, a geographical rather than an ethnographical meaning, like the Ratcha inhabitants of the Ratcha District or Kakhetins, the inhabitants of Kakhetia.

II. The Megrel or Mingrel living in the western part of the province of Kutais, numbering about 253,000.

III. The Lazes or Chan. The bulk of the stock lives in Turkey, adjacent to Russian territory and on the shores of the Black Sea. Only a small number (about 3,000) live in Batum Province. They are Mohammedans of the Sunnite faith. Their written languages are Holy Arabic (extinct) and literary Osmanic. Their own Chan language is spoken in two dialects and the popular Osman-Turkic.

IV. The Swan or Swanet, numbering about 23,000, live on the banks of the upper course of the Ingur River. Most of them are Greek Catholics, but a small number are Roman Catholics. They use the now extinct Georgian language in their church services, the present literary Georgian in writing, and the Swan dialect in conversation.

The Abkhas-Cherkess Group

The Abkhas, numbering 61,000, living chiefly in the Sukhum District, are called the Coast Pontine group, and consist of three divisions: Samurrakan, Abjui, and Bzyby. Part of them belong to the Greek Catholic Church and part to the Mohammedan (Sunnite doctrine). A Caucasian tribe called Ubykh, which occupied an intermediary ethnographic position between the Abkhas and the Cherkess, immigrated into Turkey and now lives in Ismid, Asia Minor.

The Cherkess, also called Adighe, numbers about 200,000, and is a Japhetic division consisting of many differently named tribes. • After the Russians conquered the Caucasus many Cherkess migrated to Turkey. The Kabardin who live in the former province of Daghestan are the chief Cherkessian tribe. They are Mohammedans of the Sunnite faith. Old Arabic is used as a church and literary language and Adighe in ordinary communication.

THE CAUCASUS

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The Chechen Group The Chechen belong to the North Caucasian Japhetides, number about 305,000, and include a group of tribes speaking different dialects of the Chechen language. The chief and most numerous people are the Chechen proper, or Nakhchi (in the district of Groznyi); the Mountain Chechen (in the former Argun District); the Ingush or Galga (in the districts of Vladikavkaz and Terek); the Kist (to the north of Tiflis); and the Thushi and Khevsur (to the north of the Kist). Among the Thushis there lives a small Chechen tribe called Tsova-Thushi (in

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