Chechen History
The Mongol Invasion and
the Golden Horde
XIII century turned out to be a tragedy for most people in Eurasia. A former slave, but a clever and talented leader named Temudjin, or as he was also called Chenghiz Khan, managed to united under his rule disparate tribes in Mongolia and began capturing neighboring peoples and states.
In 1222, an advance detachment of the Mongol troops under the leadership of Chenghiz Khan, Djebe – Noin and Subudei – Bagatur, invaded Georgia and in fierce fighting defeated Czar George IV Lasha’s troops. From there, the Mongol hordes moved north-east, and marching with battles through mountainous Dagestan, arrived in Alania, populated by numerous inhabitants, who had already been informed about them. By guile, the Mongol generals managed to divide Alan and Polovetz forces. In two-day battles the Alans were routed and their land was subjected to barbaric annihilation. Subsequently, the Mongols staged a carnage of the unsuspecting Polovtzi.
The defeats of Alania and Georgia at the hands of the Mongols and the subsequent internecine fighting in the Caucasus weakened the position of those nations and allowed the mountainous tribes of Vainakhs to rid themselves of their cultural and political influence, which was already of symbolic nature at the time.
The Mongol raid badly sapped Alania’s strength but did not crush it. It took the Mongols several more raids to grab full control of the pre-mountainous Northern Caucasus. The first raid occurred in 1238-1239 and lasted for more than 10 months. The raid was led by Baty’s cousins – Meshu, Guyuk and Kadan.
The siege of Alania’s capital – Magas – lasted a month and a half and the city itself was stormed in several days. The Mongols left behind them the city’s name alone and hauled off much loot. They issued orders to sever right ears on the murdered people. They counted 27,000 severed ears. By the providence of the Eternal Heavens, Batu reported to the Khan in Mongolia, we destroyed the city of Meget and subjugated to your righteous rull 11 countries and peoples.
It took the Mongols the spring and summer of 1239 to conquer Avaria, sea-side Dagestan and the Lezgian region of Kura – the capital of the Lakh czardom. In this venture they were aided by detachments of the Avar Khan.
To save their lives from the cruel conquerors, the survivors in battles and raids fled into the mountains, which were already heavily populated. Not only Alanis , but also nomadic Polovtzi, according to medieval scribes, fled into the mountainous valleys. The Vainakhs-Arshkois (plains dwellers) who lived here and who were routed and robbed by the more powerful enemy, had to seek refuge in the upper reaches of Assa and Fartagi.
But even after defeating the Alan Czardom , the Mongols had yet to cope with mountainous tribes, who asserted their independence. In 1254, according to scribes, the tribes residing in the mountains were not yet conquered, so that out of each score of Mongol Khan Sartak’s troops, two had to guard the mountain valleys to prevent the Alans (Caucasians) from leaving their mountains to steal their cattle on the plains. It is clear that the Mongols did not dare move far into the mountains without need and preferred to block all exits from the valleys, as was done by their predecessors.
Italian traveler of the XIII century – Plano Caprini – reported that the Mongols defeated “Komuks”, “Alans or As”, Tarks and “Chirkas”. But among the lands that put up a stiff resistance and still unconquered was part of Alania and Mongols laid a siege on some mountain for 12 years.
By the beginning of the 60s of the XIII century relations between various tribes (ulus) of the Mongol Empire deteriorated. A sharp strife occurred over the pre Caspian lands between the Golden Horde and Ilkhanstvo, located in Iran. In December 1263, a 70,000-strong army of Ilkhan Khulagu moved to southern Terek from the Derbent passage, where it took up positions until February 1264. An almost 3-month occupation of those territories led to the devastation of the plains in what is now modern Chechnya and to the exodus of the remaining population into the mountains.
Nevertheless, the hostilities did not move into the mountains and mountainous Chechnya retained its sovereignty. In order to understand to what extent the mountainous people’s independence was a reality, one needs to regard the events of those years.Chechen tribes conduct their foreign policies without consideration for their neighbors. In the middle of the XII century a squad of fighters for faith from Kara-Kaitag, led by Sheikh Abu-Muslim, conquered Avaria’s capital;
In Khunzak, its ruler Suraka vanished and his sone Bayar fled to Tushetia. Abu-Muslim begins to impose Islam in Avaria and the neighboring areas of Chechnya. Scribes do not mention the Mongols and any other masters of mountainous Chechnya. The very absence in Mongol chronicles of those years any mention of the population in mountainous Chechnya reveals the fact that the Mongols were ignorant of those territories.
In the remaining third of the XIII century, the Golden Horde created on the plains and pre-mountains of modern Chechnya and Dagestan a possession, which reminded of a frontier district. The protection of the frontier was carried out by an elite protection guard – Lashkari-Karaul, led by Chinghizid Tama-Togdai. There is no information about any hostilities by the Mongols against mountainous Vainakhs and most like none took place. The Lashkari-Karaul, preoccupied with the protection of the pre-Caspian passage into the Caucasus, paid scarce attention on the mountainous strip of the North-Easter Caucasus, which was poor, well-protected and inhabited by militant tribes.In 1299 the Mongol troops led by Tama Togdai, leave the Chechen plains and move to the aid of Toktakhan who was engaged in internecine strife with war-lord Nogai.
Thus, considering materials available, one can state with certainty that the Mongol hordes, forced to solve important problems on the space stretching from Azerbaijan to Russia inclusive, were unable to tackle the territory of mountainous Chechnya.
In 1301, the Golden Horde’s troops focused on the plains south of Terek. The proximity of a dangerous neighbor made the mountaineers strengthen their valleys and villages by fortification constructions – combat and living towers which numbers markedly increase. This isolation significantly slows the social and economic development of the region which remained at the level of the early middle ages and relegating it to the epoch of war democracy.
Archeological searches did not reveal any traces of Mongol devastation or any influence of the invaders on the mountainous areas of Chechnya. The mountaineers merely adopted some details of the Mongols’ weapons. All this is quite admissible considering the following facts:
- the Alan city of Dedyakov fell only in 1278;
- the lands of Western Adygis and mountainous Dagestan were never conquered;
- The Golden Horde was preoccupied with wars with the Ilkhan states and was coping with internal Horde’s political crisis.
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Nevertheless, by the early XIV century, the Horde’s people had for some time settled in the steppes of the pre-Caucasus. The Khans’ staff was located on the left bank of the Sunja river, close to the estuary of the Achuluk river. This version is supported by materials of ancient Russian scribes, who point directly to the staff of Mongol Khan Uzbek on the Sunja river close to the modern village of Elkhotovo in the Republic of Northern Ossetia.
The Borgans
The Borgans were another little known but numerous ethnos inhabiting on the plains of Chechnya and Ingushetia. They were also known as Braguns. This tribe of Crimean-Tartar origin, inhabited the pre – Sunja plains some time in the second half of the XIV century during the rule of the Mongol war-lord Mamai. This general, according to Nogai reports, after conquering the Crimea in the 1360s, set about colonization by Tartars of the newly conquered Khanate of the sparsely populated steppes and foothills of the Caucasian mountains.
Among the newcomers were Nogais in large numbers (some Crimean Tartars still call themselves Nogai) who originally moved with their cattle to the plains of modern Chechnya and where the horde’s chief, Borakhan established his residence near the estuary of the Sunja river into the Terek river.
It is known that in the XVII century, Georgian historian Vakhushti called the Sunja river – the Bragun River (Borganis – Zkali). On the Sunja ridge, between the villages of Troitzkaya and Mikhailovaskaya, there is an elevation called mountain Bargonnik in the old maps.
The migration of the then numerous groups of nomads resulted in clashes with Vainakh tribes, who began to populated the Chechen plains and in small-scale local conflicts for possession of the pre-Sunja lands. The Chechen folklore has brought to our days reverberations of those clashes and vague tales of struggle with the warlord – Mamai. The Chechen epic also relates of several folklore themes on the struggle with Nogais. But all those efforts were the last breath of the moribund monster.
In 1395 the Golden Horde was devastated by Tamerlan. Many of its cities and nomadic villages were destroyed and the Turk population of the pre – Caucasus was almost entirely wiped out. Bragun survivors, forced out by Kabardinis, settled closely near the Sunja estuary, where they set up the village of Braguni, which was known to Russians since 1598. Their chief was no longer a Khan, but kozlar, that is warlord Taimas.
Johns Notes:
I have produced this short outline history, as a background to to the actual history of this region and the people ..