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Home | Ethnic Group | Kumyks
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Various explorers see in them descendants of the Khazars. Armin Vambery supposes that they settled in their present quarters during the flourishing period of the Khazar kingdom in the 8th century. During the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries CE the Kumyks had an independent kingdom, based at Tarki, and ruled by a leader called the Shamkhal. The Russians built forts in their territory in 1559 and under Peter I. Having long been viewed by the Russians as well as other Turkic peoples more civilized than the surrounding Caucasian mountaineers (which the Kumyks may very well believe about themselves as well), the Kumyks have always enjoyed some respect among them. The upper terraces of the Kumyk plateau, which the Kumyks occupy, leaving its lower parts to the Nogais, are very fertile. In recent years Kumyk nationalists such as Salau Aliev have agitated for Kumyk dominance within Daghestan, citing Khazar history as their inspiration. This is part of a wider trend in Dagestan of the non-dominant but still major groups (such as Kumyks, Lezgins, Laks, etc.) producing ideological backlashes to the near-institutionalized dominance of Avars, Dargins and Russians in Dagestan (together, Avars, Dargins and Russians form a weak majority of the population, but their dominance is widely resented by others). |
