Vainakhs, Alans and Adyghes in the 6th–8th Centuries, by Zurab Anchabadze / Achba

Z. V. Anchabadze
Essays on the History of the Peoples of the North Caucasus in the Middle Ages
Part I (6th–8th centuries)
Tbilisi, 1982
(pp. 325–336).

Zurab V. Anchabadze (Achba)
(22 April 1920, Gagra – 14 January 1984, Sukhum)
A distinguished historian and Caucasologist, honoured as a Merited Scholar of the Abkhaz ASSR (1961). He held a Doctorate in History (1960), became Professor in 1963, and was elected Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR in 1980.

Anchabadze graduated from the Faculty of History of the Sukhum State Pedagogical Institute (1941) and completed postgraduate studies at the Ivane Javakhishvili Institute of History (1943), where he later worked as a research fellow (1943–1956). He headed the Department of History at the D. I. Gulia Abkhaz Institute of Language, Literature and History (1956–1958), and subsequently led the Department of the History of the Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Georgia (1958–1973). He later served as Rector of the Sukhum State Pedagogical Institute (1974–1978) and of Abkhaz State University (1979–1984).

His candidate dissertation (1948) examined Mingrelia and Abkhazia in the 17th Century, while his doctoral dissertation (1960) focused on the medieval history of Abkhazia, ethnic development and Georgian–Abkhaz relations. Anchabadze’s main scholarly interests included:

• ancient and medieval history of Abkhazia,
• history of Georgia and the mountain peoples of the Caucasus,
• ethnogenesis of Abkhaz tribes,
• formation of the Abkhaz feudal nationality,
• emergence and development of the early medieval Abkhaz Principality and Abkhaz Kingdom,
• ethnocultural development of Abkhazians in the Middle Ages,
• socio-economic structures of the mountain peoples and the nature of Caucasian feudalism,
• relations between North Caucasian peoples and Russia.

He served as a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Georgian SSR from Abkhazia. His honours included the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, the Badge of Honour, “Excellence in Soviet Education,” and two Honorary Diplomas of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Kabardino-Balkarian ASSR (1957, 1968).

Selected works:

• From the History of Medieval Abkhazia (6th–17th Centuries), Sukhum, 1959
• History and Culture of Ancient Abkhazia, Moscow, 1964
• Essay on the Ethnic History of the Abkhaz People, Sukhum, 1976
• History of Abkhazia (textbook), Sukhum, 1986 (co-author)
• Essays on the History of the Peoples of the North Caucasus, vols. 1–2, Tbilisi, 1969, 1978 (co-author and editor)
• Essays on the History of the Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus, vols. 1–2, Tbilisi, 1969, 1978 (Georgian)
• Selected Works, in two volumes, Sukhum 2010, 2011 (edited by A. E. Kuprava)

Literature:
A. E. Kuprava, Zurab Vianorovich Anchabadze, Sukhum, 2010.
(From G. A. Amichba, Abkhaz Biographical Dictionary, 2015.)

Essays on the History of the Peoples of the North Caucasus in the Middle Ages

Part I (6th–8th centuries)
Tbilisi, 1982
(pp. 325–336).

Vainakhs in the 6th–8th Centuries

The ancestors of the Vainakhs had long inhabited the upper and middle reaches of the Terek (the Vainakh name for which, attested in Georgian sources, is Lomeki) and the lands to its east. In the central part of the Main Caucasus Range lived the Tsanars and the Dvals, presumably also of Vainakh origin.

To the east of the Tsanars, in the high mountain zone of the Central Caucasus, there lived the mountain tribes that appear in the Old Georgian sources under the name Durdzuks. The principal area of their settlement comprised the foothill and mountainous districts of present-day Checheno-Ingushetia. According to A. Genko, the Durdzuks should be understood as the ancestors of the modern Ingush; however, as E.I. Krupnov argues on firmer grounds, this ethnonym represents the ancestors of all Nakh peoples (p. 27). In the anonymous Armenian Geography of the 7th century, there appears only one ethnonym that may be correlated with the Vainakhs, nakhchamatyans. According to some researchers, this term contains the ancient ethnonym of the Nakh community: na-khcho-mokhk, the “land of the Nakhcho” (the legendary progenitor of the Vainakhs).

The sources provide extremely scant information about the Vainakhs for this period. For example, Leontius Mroveli notes that the Durdzuks paid tribute to the Khazars. Admittedly, this information is contaminated, particularly because it is linked with events that belong to the pre-Christian era; nonetheless, there is nothing implausible in it, and most likely it refers to the historical Khazars and should therefore be dated roughly to the 7th century. From this account it follows that, prior to the formation of the Khazar state, the area of settlement of the Nakh (Durdzuk) tribes in Ciscaucasia was considerably wider. Later, under Khazar pressure, they were forced to withdraw into the mountains and settle in “narrow rocky gorges.”

Leontius Mroveli mentions the Durdzuks repeatedly; together with the Osses [осы / оссы] (Alans), the Didoians and the Lekians (Dagestanis), they take an active part in various events occurring in Transcaucasia. Although these episodes are likewise contaminated, one may say of them the same as of Khazar–Nakh relations.

According to certain Georgian (“The Conversion of Kartli”) and Arabic (al-Baladhuri, Ibn al-Faqih) sources, the ancestors of the Vainakhs at a particular stage maintained political relations with Iran, specifically after the Avars and the Türküts penetrated the North Caucasus. One must presume that Khosrow Anushirvan undertook some fortification works in the mountainous regions of Dagestan and Checheno-Ingushetia.

The Vainakhs also maintained very close ties with their neighbours, the Alans. As A. Gadlo rightly observes, the struggle against the Arabs for the mountain passes of the Central Caucasus was a common cause for the Alans, the Durdzuks, and other ethnic groups of this region.

Certain archaeological materials likewise testify to the close cultural contacts between the ancestors of the Vainakhs and the Alans. These indicate that the western part of the Vainakh population, in a certain sense, fell within the sphere of the early medieval “Alan” culture.

Alans in the 6th–8th Centuries

In European sources, information about the Alans appears in the 1st century CE, when they expanded across the steppes of Eastern Europe and, having subdued the local Sarmatian population, undertook campaigns into Transcaucasia. The Alans, like the Sarmatians, consisted of several autonomous tribes and belonged to the Iranian-speaking branch of the Indo-Europeans. Catacomb burials, interments in underground chamber-tombs, are associated with the Alans. They occur particularly frequently in the basins of the Terek and the Kuban, where, evidently, were located the wintering grounds of Alans who spent the rest of the year nomadising in the steppe regions of Ciscaucasia.

Around the middle of the 4th century, the Alans came under pressure from the Huns. According to Ammianus Marcellinus (late 4th century), around 370, the Huns broke the resistance of the Alans, “killed many and plundered them, and incorporated the rest into themselves.” The same writer provides a detailed description of the Huns and the Alans, from which it is clear that both groups represented nomadic pastoral tribes who still preserved strong survivals of clan-tribal relations.

Already in the first half of the 5th century, the Alans inhabited not only the steppe regions of Ciscaucasia but also the mountainous zone, from the Western Caucasus to the “Caspian Gates” (in this case, the Daryal Pass). In any case, by the 6th century they are unequivocally attested there (Procopius and others). Thereafter, the territory of settlement of the Caucasian Alans becomes divided into two zones: Western Alania (which directly bordered Abkhazia and Western Georgia) and Eastern Alania (which bordered Eastern Georgia).

The Alans maintained close economic and political relations with Georgia, particularly during the Byzantine–Iranian war of the 6th century. Whereas the Huns generally supported Iran, the Alans, by contrast, aligned themselves with Georgia and Byzantium.

In the mid–6th century, the Avars invaded the steppe zone between the Azov and the Caspian Seas, where they clashed with the Hun tribes settled there. The Avars found allies among the North Caucasian Alans, who had been pushed into the mountains by the Hun tribes and were in need of partners against these dangerous adversaries. Through the Alan chief Sarosius, the Avars established contact with the Byzantine commander in Lazica and, in 558, dispatched an embassy to Constantinople seeking an alliance with Byzantium.

In the AD 570s, the aforementioned Alan ruler Sarosius, in alliance with the Abazgians and the Laz, took part in the struggle against the Persians in Armenia on the side of Byzantium.

In the second half of the 6th century, the Türküts established themselves in the North Caucasian steppes. Relations between them and the Alans were initially hostile, but later they concluded an alliance, especially with the Türküts’ successors, the Khazars, since both needed to wage a joint struggle against the Arabs, who had appeared in the region from the mid–7th century.

Judging from the extremely sparse sources, Alania maintained full independence until the mid–7th century. According to the anonymous Armenian geography now attributed to Ananias Shirakatsi, 7th-century Alania consisted of two large and relatively autonomous communities, on the basis of which the ethnic branches of the Ossetian people, the Digor and Iron groups, later developed. Western Alania was inhabited by the Ashtigorami, and Eastern Alania by the Alans proper (alan–alon–iron).

In the mid–7th century, the Eastern Alans first encountered the Arabs, who, in the person of Habib ibn Maslama, concluded a treaty with the “inhabitants of al-Lan,” imposing on them the kharaj (tribute). The Alans, however, evidently relying on their old ties with Byzantium, soon broke off relations with the Arabs. Under the year 662/623, Ibn al-Athir mentions an Arab campaign against the Alans and the “Rūm,” which resulted in the defeat of the allies; yet despite their defeat, the Alans continued to resist the Arabs, and Byzantium still counted on them in its struggle against the Arabs in Transcaucasia.

The only Western account relating to Alania and connected with the events of the turn of the 7th–8th centuries is found in Theophanes the Chronicler. It is the story of how the spatharios Leo, the future Byzantine emperor Leo III the Isaurian, resided in Alania.

At this time the Abazgians and Laz had seceded from Byzantium. Seeking to punish them for this “treason,” the Byzantine government decided to use the Alans for this purpose. They sent Leo the Isaurian, renowned as a skilled diplomat, to incite the Alans to carry out devastating incursions into Lazica and, above all, into Abazgia. Theophanes writes: “Justinian sent [Leo the Isaurian] to Alania; he gave him a great sum of money and ordered him to set the Alans against the Abazgians.” Leo the Isaurian arrived in Lazica and made his way to the Alans through Apsilia. However, he hid the money he had brought with him at Phasis (Poti), just in case. Nonetheless, the Alans trusted Leo, “received him with great honour… invaded Abazgia and laid waste to that land.”

The ruling circles of Abazgia sought to secure possession of Leo the Isaurian from Alania and therefore dispatched envoys for this purpose. These envoys told the Alans that Leo was deceiving them, and that the Byzantine emperor had sent him solely in order to destroy them, since he regarded Leo as a rival. The envoys proposed that the Alans surrender Leo to them, promising in return three thousand gold coins. But the Alans did not believe them and replied that they would not betray Byzantium for the sake of money.

The Abazgians then again sent envoys to the Alans, this time offering six thousand coins. The Alan rulers could not resist such temptation and informed the Abazgians that they accepted their proposal. But afterwards they did not dare to break with Byzantium, and they informed Leo that they had agreed with the Abazgians only pretendedly, so as to obtain the opportunity to reconnoitre the territory of Abazgia, promising to attack the Abazgians on the way and to rescue him, which they succeeded in carrying out successfully.

Following this, the Alans (evidently at Leo’s instigation) made a new incursion into the Abkhazian kleisourai (fortified passes) and carried off many captives.

After some time, the Byzantine emperor sent a letter to the ruler of Abazgia, requesting him to save Leo and deliver him unharmed to Byzantium. “For obeying this command,” he wrote, “I shall forgive you all your errors.” By these “errors” of the Abazgians, Justinian presumably meant their defection from Byzantium and their alignment with the Arabs.

According to Theophanes, the Abazgians “heard this proposal of the emperor with joy.” Undoubtedly, however, this “joy” was not motivated by the wish to restore former Byzantine authority, but rather by the desire to use that authority in the struggle against the Arab invaders, who, in a very short time, had shown themselves utterly incapable of acting as a force that might help the peoples of Western Georgia to liberate themselves from foreign domination. On the contrary, the Arabs proved themselves far worse than the earlier Byzantine overlords.

In order to fulfil the emperor’s command, the Abazgians once more sent envoys to the Alans, proposing that they hand over Leo the Isaurian so that he could be sent to Byzantium. But Leo did not trust the Abazgians and flatly refused to return to Byzantium “by the Abkhaz route.” Only after some time did Leo the Isaurian succeed in escaping from Abkhazia with the help of the Apsils, who had risen against the Arabs.

As we have seen, all of Leo the Isaurian’s adventures took place in the vicinity of Abazgia and Apsilia. This indicates that the Alania in question was Western Alania. According to Theophanes, regular trading contacts and movements of merchants existed between the Alans and the Abazgians.

In the early 8th century, the Khazars evidently made a raid into the mountainous regions of the Central Caucasus. In particular, Ibn al-Athir reports that in 721–722, the Khazars attacked the Alans and then attacked the Arabs. The following year, the Arab commander al-Jarrah responded with a campaign deep into Alan territory.

As can be seen, al-Jarrah passed not only through mountainous Alania, but also managed to reach steppe Alania, where, according to the source, he “seized much booty.”

The next campaign into Alania was undertaken by the commander Maslama in 727–728 (al-Ya‘qubi). It occurred against the background of the struggle with the Khazars and the tribes of highland Dagestan. Al-Ya‘qubi writes that Maslama conducted a “campaign against the Turks, seized from them the Gates of the Alans, and confronted the khagan.” Evidently the Khazars had intensified their pressure on the Alans and seized Daryal, which was the most important route leading into the North Caucasian steppe.

In 736–737, under the leadership of Marwān ibn Muḥammad, the Arabs again penetrated the land of the Khazars “from the side of the Alan mountains.” Marwān’s route ran along the Caucasus Range toward the Caspian as far as Semender. Thus the Arab forces once more descended upon the territory of eastern foothill Alania. The Arab campaign led to the destruction of the “towns and fortresses” of the country and to the resettlement of its inhabitants into the mountains.

Despite certain successes, the Arab forces were unable to consolidate their position in the North Caucasus, a result of the liberation struggle of the local population against foreign conquerors. According to al-Balādhurī, the Arabs “subjugated Bāb al-Alān and stationed a garrison there.” Against them rose the local tribe of the Sanars, supported by the Alans and other neighbouring tribes.

+ Questions of Abkhazian history in the book by P. Ingorokva ‘Georgi Merchule - Georgian writer of the 10th century’, by Zurab V. Anchabadze

+ On the Question of the Time and Conditions of the Origin of the Nart Epic, Zurab Anchabadze

+ History and Culture of Ancient Abkhazia, by Zurab V. Anchabadze (Achba)

+ From the History of Abkhazia in the Middle Ages (VI-XVIIth Centuries), by Zurab V. Anchabadze (Achba)

Arab policy in the North Caucasus, in the view of A. Gadlo, had as its principal aim the subjugation or, in any case, the neutralisation of the Khazar Khaganate. It is no coincidence that al-Balādhurī, when recounting the actions of the Arab governor of Transcaucasia, Yazīd ibn Usayd, places in a single sequence three events, the subjugation of Bāb al-Alān, the defeat of the Sanars, and Yazīd’s attempt to contract a marriage alliance with the “king of the Khazars” (660s–early 670s).

The Arab sources give grounds for assuming that, with the intensification of the Arab–Khazar wars in the first half of the 8th century, the unifying forces of the steppe regions of Ciscaucasia and the mountainous areas of the Caucasus became more active. The systematic Arab invasions, followed by their policy of mass resettlement and displacement of large population groups, threatened the very ethnic integrity of the mountain societies. Under these circumstances, it was natural that there should arise a gravitation toward the one power in the region capable of actively resisting the Arabs. That power was the Khazar state (pp. 169–170), which in the 8th century reached the height of its might.

On the territory of present-day Balkaria and Karachay, many traces of Alan settlement from this period have been preserved. Above all, archaeological monuments bear witness to it, particularly the remains of catacomb burials. Alongside these, however, appear older burials contemporary with them. This indicates that in Western Alania lived not only the Alans proper, who evidently penetrated the region after the Hun invasion of the 4th century, but also remnants of aboriginal tribes going back to the period of the Koban culture. In addition, as noted earlier, tribes of Turkic (Bulgar) origin also inhabited the region in this period.

However, the Alans proper were not very numerous here, and therefore they were later assimilated by the Turkic-speaking population, apparently of Kipchak origin. Meanwhile, the modern Karachay–Balkar language has preserved many elements of the Alan language, specifically, about three hundred root words, which entered the language not later than the medieval period from Ossetian, as specialists have demonstrated.

A different picture emerges in the central mountainous Ciscaucasus: here the Alans were more numerous (or the local elements fewer), and thus the Alan–Ossetian element emerged as the ethnic victor. This question will be examined in greater detail in the next section.

Adyghes in the 6th–8th Centuries

In the historical homeland of the Adyghes, the North-Western Caucasus, in the ancient period the ancestors of the Adyghe tribes were known under the collective designation of the Maeotian tribes. In the Middle Ages they occupied approximately the same territories. References to the Maeotians, Sinds, Zikhs, and Kerkets are found among early medieval authors.

Thus, Ammianus Marcellinus (late 4th century) writes: “Around these extreme and remote marshes (the Maeotian marshes) lives a multitude of peoples, differing in language and in the whole manner of life, the Yaksamates, the Maeotians, the Iazyges, the Roxolani, the Alans, the Melanchlaeni, the Geloni, and the Agathyrsi.”

The 5th-century author Hesychius of Alexandria, in his Lexicon, writes: “The Kerkets are a Sind people.” And the Anonymous author of the 5th century observes of this same people: “The Kerkets are a just and good people, and very skilled in seafaring.” This author also mentions the Sinds, Zikhs, and others: “From Hermonassa to the Sind Harbour dwell a people called the Sinds… These Sinds are barbarians, but mild in their customs… The river Akhunt separates the Zikhs from the Sanikhs… Thus, from Old Achaea to Old Lazica and then to the river Akh-sunta, there formerly lived the peoples bearing the names Iniochi, Koraxians, Koliki, Melanchlaeni, Makhelones, Colchians, and Laz, and now live the Zikhs. From the Harbour of Pagra to Old Achaea formerly lived those called the Achaeans, but now live the Zikhs… From the Sind Harbour to the Harbour of Pagra formerly lived the peoples called the Kerkets or Torites, and now dwell the Evdusiani.”

According to Stephanus of Byzantium (c. 500), “the Sinds live to the south of the Maeotian Lake. Some also say that the Sind people are a detached branch of the Maeotian tribe.”

Finally, the 6th-century author Procopius of Caesarea notes that “beyond the territory of the Abazgians, up to the Caucasus Range, live the Brukhs (Ubykhs?), situated between the Abazgians and the Alans. Along the shore of the Pontos Euxeinos dwell the Zeichi (Zikhs)… Beyond them is the tribe of the Sagids.”

Among the authors cited, the most definite information about the settlement of ancient tribes in the western and, in particular, the north-western Caucasus is provided by the Anonymous writer of the 5th century (Aleks., Mater., 222). The Sinds lived from Hermonassa to the Sind Harbour, i.e., from the vicinity of the Taman Peninsula to Anapa. From the Sind Harbour to Pagra, that is, from Anapa to Gelendzhik, where the Kerkets had formerly lived, there appeared a mysterious people, the Evdusiani. From the Harbour of Pagra to the river Akheun, i.e., from Gelendzhik to the river Psezuape (or Shakhe), lived the Zikhs. Their territory of settlement, compared to antiquity, had expanded somewhat southwards, evidently at the expense of smaller tribes that had previously inhabited the area.

The eastern neighbours of the Zikhs and other Adyghe tribes were the Alans, who at that time occupied the territory of the Central Caucasus to the east of the Zelenchuks and the upper Kuban, as Procopius of Caesarea had noted.

Thus, as mentioned above, the descendants of the Sind–Maeotian tribes in the 6th century inhabited approximately the same territories as in the earlier period, the coast of the Black Sea (Pontos Euxeinos) from Taman to Tuapse and the North-Western Caucasus to the banks of the Kuban.

Information on the political history of the Adyghe tribes in the medieval period (up to the 10th century) has practically not survived in written sources. Vague references to clashes between the ancient Adyghes and the Huns, Avars, and Khazars have been preserved in Adyghe historical traditions and songs, which Sh.B. Nogmov records in his book History of the Adyghe People. Thus, one of these songs mentions a struggle between the Adyghes and Attila. Concerning the struggle of the Adyghe tribes, in connection with the events of the second half of the 5th century, with the Georgians, the work of Juangasher, The Life of King Vakhtang Gorgasal, contains an account. It describes how Vakhtang, passing through the Daryal Pass, entered the North Caucasus to wage war against the Osses, on whose side the Zikhs also fought. He captured many Zikhs, whom he later exchanged for Georgian captives.

In the 5th–7th centuries, part of the Adyghe tribes inhabiting the Black Sea littoral, and above all the Zikhs, fell within the sphere of influence of the Byzantine Empire. Byzantium, in particular, strove to implant Christianity among the Zikhs and to subject them to its religious influence. Trade and economic relations likewise existed between the Adyghes and the Zikhs. According to some sources, even the kings of the Zikhs were sometimes appointed by the Byzantine emperors. “In earlier times,” writes Procopius, “the Roman (Byzantine) emperor set over them (the Zikhs) a king.” By the time of Procopius, however, it appears that the practice of appointing Zikh rulers by the emperors no longer existed. That Western Caucasian rulers were appointed by the Byzantine emperors is also reported in the Georgian chronicles.

In the 6th century, the Zikhs adopted Christianity as their official religion, and Byzantium played the decisive role in this. A century earlier, according to Juangasher, Vakhtang Gorgasal had already been implanting Christianity among the Osses and the Adyghes. In the 6th century, on the territory of the North-Western Caucasus, there were four episcopal sees:

• the Phanagorian,
  
  
• the Metrachan (Tamatarkhan),
  
  
• the Zikhopolitanean (possibly located at Cape Kodoi), and
  
  
• the Nikopsian (modern Novo-Mikhailovskoye).
  
  

In the 520s, the bishops of Phanagoria and of Zikhia (Damian) participated in ecumenical councils.

Byzantium and Georgia both sought to implant Christianity among the Adyghes in order to strengthen their political influence there. In the first half of the 7th century, Georgia achieved notable success in this regard. According to the Georgian chronicle, the Seventh Ecumenical Council, convened during the reign of the Georgian king Adarnase (613–639), subordinated Ossetia and Circassia to the Milesian patriarchal see. During the reign of Adarnase’s successor Stepanoz (639–663), the Adyghes also remained under Georgian ecclesiastical authority.

However, in this case it is beyond doubt that the reference concerns not the coastal Adyghes, who in ecclesiastical terms were subordinate to Byzantium, but the Osses and the Zikhs living in the Central and Western Ciscaucasus.

Adyghe historical traditions have preserved memories of military clashes with the Avars. In the aforementioned book of G. Nogmov, there are accounts of the struggle of the Adyghes under the leadership of Prince Lavristan against the Avar ruler Gaikan, who subjected the Adyghe lands to terrible devastation.

The data presented above on the political life of the Adyghes show that very little information has been preserved for the period under consideration. However, some insights into their socio-political history may be gleaned from archaeological materials. In the Trans-Kuban region, several fortified settlements (gorodishcha) of the 4th–9th centuries are known (Aleks., ibid., pp. 228–229), undoubtedly belonging to the Adyghes. Burial grounds (mogylniki) have also been found. Yet, overall, the material culture of the Adyghes of that period is poorly represented in the archaeological record. Nevertheless, something can still be said about their economy and social structure.

First of all, it may be considered established that the Adyghes at that time were sedentary agriculturalists. In the settlements have been found agricultural tools (sickles, hoes, querns), bones of domesticated animals (pigs, sheep, cattle, horses), as well as arrowheads for hunting, fishing hooks, and so forth. All this points to the fact that the Adyghes of that period engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting, and fishing. In addition, the craft objects of various types discovered in settlements and burial grounds indicate the wide development of craft production, metalworking, pottery, and others.

A large place in the economic life of the Adyghes was occupied by trade with Crimea, with the Slavic Dnieper region, with the peoples of the Caucasus (the Alans, Georgians, Abazgians, etc.), as well as with Byzantium and Iran. Archaeological sites contain many items that are clearly of foreign origin, which came to the Adyghes through trade exchange. Byzantine and Arab coins have also been found, although in small quantities. Further archaeological study of Adyghe sites of this period will undoubtedly yield much new material.

As for the social structure of the Adyghes in the 7th–8th centuries, information is almost non-existent. As noted by the Anonymous author of the 5th century and by Procopius, they had “kings,” who, as mentioned above, were sometimes appointed by the Byzantine emperors. According to Alekseeva, these were “evidently tribal chiefs, who were simultaneously the leaders of military campaigns” (p. 229). However, it seems that these were not ordinary clan-tribal chiefs but hereditary dynasts of early class-forming societies, something which may also be inferred from the data of Arrian.

A characteristic feature of the period was military mercenarism. Sources of the time report that Byzantine, Georgian, Persian, and other rulers hired detachments from the North Caucasus for military service. Among these mercenaries appear the Huns, Alano-Osses, and also the Zikhs (the Jiki of the Georgian chronicles).

For their military service, mercenaries received payment in gold and silver, as well as a share of the booty. According to Alekseeva, this explains the relative richness of the Caucasian burial grounds of the 4th–9th centuries (particularly the 5th–7th centuries).

However, alongside rich burials, the same burial grounds contain contemporary poor burials, which testify to property stratification within Adyghe society, into rich and poor. Nevertheless, Alekseeva’s assertion that all were free and that there were no slaves (because even in the poorest male burials there was weaponry), and that in the 4th–9th centuries “the Adyghe tribes were still experiencing the period of military democracy,” in our view cannot be accepted. As noted above, the Adyghes of the period under consideration represented an early class society, in which, alongside other social forms, there existed a primitive slave-owning element, but the slaves in such a society could only be foreigners, who were not buried in the local clan-tribal cemetery, and therefore their burials do not occur in these burial grounds.

In sources of the subsequent period, more detailed information appears concerning the Adyghes–Zikhs.