Kumyks and Their Neighbours: From the History of Interaction

The eminent Soviet orientalist N.I. Konrad wrote: "The history of every people is always bound up with the history of its neighbours; this connection may of course differ in character, in intensity and in scale, but it always exists. Hence the factors at work in the history of peoples are precisely those generated by a shared historical life."¹ These words hold no less true for the peoples of the North Caucasus.

It is well known what role the Kumyk language once played in the North Caucasus. The proceedings of the First Turkish Language Congress (1932) said of the North Caucasus: "In fact, villages (aullar) lying only a few minutes' ride from one another and unable to understand one another can communicate only in Kumuk Turkic. One may say that Kumuk Turkic is in practice the common official language of the North Caucasus."² Writing in parallel with the Turkish scholars, the well-known Russian linguist and Eurasianist N. Trubetskoy made the same point: "Kumyk is an 'international' language for almost the whole of the North Caucasus."³ As a result, all Dagestanis in the Central Caucasus came to be called Kumyks, since Kumyk was their language of interethnic communication.⁴

The Arabist and orientalist A.N. Genko wrote that the number of loanwords arising from Kumyk cultural influence — Kumyk carrying, besides words of its own, words of Arabic and Persian origin — exceeds in Ingush all borrowings from every other source.⁵ The Kumyk yazmaq, "to write", for instance, underlies the Ingush lexical items yazde, "to write", and yoazonkho, "writer".⁶ In Genko's words: "The Kumyks acted above all as bearers of a culture that was superior in material terms." Hence many terms of material culture in Ingush are of Kumyk origin.⁷ The Kumyk qonaq, "guest, friend, sworn brother", most probably underlies the Ingush qonakh, "dzhigit, a real man", a frequent synonym for abrek.⁸

Alevdin Satybalov held that "the peoples of the North Caucasus borrowed the word özden from the Kumyks".⁹

The abundance of Turkisms in Lak was noted by N. Dzhidalaev.¹⁰ The role of the Turkic languages, and of Kumyk in particular, is felt even in the syntax of a great many idioms.¹¹ Kumyk influence has been recorded in the political, construction and household spheres. Especially notable is the use of the word yurt for a dwelling and for a settlement.¹² Kumyk also shaped the political and geographical terminology and the household vocabulary of the Avars and the Dargins.¹³ More broadly, the Turkic languages affected not only the lexicon of the neighbouring Nakh-Dagestanian languages but also their phonetics, producing in them a certain tendency towards vowel harmony. Kumyk likewise influenced the dialects of the Derbent Azerbaijanis.¹⁴

That differences of language were no obstacle to scholarly dialogue is shown by a collection of the works of al-Razi preserved among the descendants of the well-known Dagestani physician Taymaskhan of Chirkey, carrying numerous comments in Avar and Kumyk.¹⁵

Kumyk influence is felt in the material culture of their neighbours as well. The ornament of Khunzakh rugs reveals motifs close to Kumyk ones.¹⁶ One possible explanation is the accession to the Avar throne at the beginning of the 19th century of Sultan-Ahmed-Khan, a native of Nizhny Dzhengutay.

The Karachays know a variety of barley called Kumyk (qumuq arpa-budai).¹⁷ Kumyk potters, too, "according to early-19th-century data, had their own craft colony near Nalchik".¹⁸ Kabardian women are likewise known to have learned silk-rearing from Kumyk mistresses of the craft.¹⁹ The long roots of Circassian–Kumyk guest-friendship (kunachestvo) are attested by the set expression in Kabardian qumyqu blaghe, "Kumyk sworn brother".²⁰

Under Kumyk influence the Cossacks of the stanitsa of Novogladkovskaya took to keeping buffalo.²¹ In a Cossack bylina about Ilya Muromets recorded in 1945 in the stanitsa of Stary Shchedrin, "there proved to be a refrain the reciter had borrowed from Kumyk song culture" — after every two lines of the bylina a slightly altered opening formula of Kumyk heroic songs recurs, in the form: "Ay vananay dysii, ay va nanay".²²

The Germans brought to the Kumyk Plain a hitherto unknown method of irrigation — drawing water from artesian wells. Before that all the fields were watered from ditches, which led to frequent disputes between village communities and between private individuals over their use.²³ Many of the Germans spoke Kumyk fluently.²⁴

All of this is far from a complete list of examples of Kumyk interaction with neighbouring peoples.