# Durdzuks

The Durdzuks (Georgian: დურძუკები, romanized: durdzuk'ebi), also known as Dzurdzuks, was a medieval exonym of the 9th-18th centuries used mainly in Georgian, Arabic, but also Armenian sources in reference to the Vainakh peoples (Chechens and Ingush).

## Geography

Researchers unanimously identify the Durdzuks as the ancestors of modern Chechens and Ingush and Bats. Some historians link the Durdzuks to mountainous Ingushetia and identify them with the Ingush people. Others believe that during the Middle Ages, the population of Chechnya was known to the South Caucasian peoples under the name "Durdzuks", or "Dzurdzuks", while the population of Ingushetia under the names "Glighvi", "Ghilighvi". In 1745, Georgian geographer Vakhushti of Kartli noted that the country "Durdzuketi consists of Kisti, Durdzuki and Gligvi", placing the first in the vicinity of the Darial Gorge and the latter farther east of the three, bordering Pankisi, Tusheti and Didoeti. Russian etnologist A. Genko believes that for the most ancient epoch the name Durdzuk signifies the whole of northern Caucasus. Georgian historian V. Gamrekeli claims that "Durdzuk" is definitively and, with all its references, uniformly localized between Didoeti-Dagestan in the east and the gorge of the Terek River, in the west. The village Zurzuka in the Vedensky District of Chechnya has been theorized to be connected to the ethnonym Durdzuk. Historians often place the "Gate of the Durdzuks" in the Assa Gorge of Ingushetia, which is a path connecting the North and South Caucasus regions.

## History

The supposed eponymous progenitor of the Durdzuks is mentioned in The Georgian Chronicles:
   ხოლო შვილთა ზედა კავკასისთა იყო უფალ დურძუკ, ძე ტირეთისი. And as for upon the sons of Caucasus there was a lord Durdzuk, son of Tiretis.
   ხოლო დურძუკ, რომელი უწარჩინებულეს იყო შვილთა შორის კავკასისთა, მივიდა და დაჯდა ნაპრალსა შინა მთისასა, და უწოდა სახელი თჳსი დურძუკეთი. And as for this Durdzuk, who was one of the most honorable sons of Kavkas, came and set at the mountains, and gave it the name of his as Durdzuketi.
In the Armenian adaptation of The Georgian Chronicles, the Durdzuks defeated the Scythians and became a significant power in the area in the region in the first millennium BC.
According to The Georgian Chronicles, the Durdzuks allied themselves with Georgia, and helped the first Georgian king Pharnavaz I of Iberia consolidate his reign against his unruly vassals. The alliance with Georgia was cemented when King Pharnavaz married a Durdzuk girl.
   და მოიყვანა ცოლი დურძუკელთა, ნათესავი კავკასისი. And married he [Pharnavaz] a Durdzuk wife, a relative of the Caucasus.
The Durdzuks are said to have raided Kakheti and Bazaleti during the reign of Mirian I, who invaded and ravaged the land of the Durdzuks in retaliation. Later on, the Durdzuks are mentioned fighting the Mongols alongside their Georgian allies . Durdzuk soldiers are also mentioned fighting alongside Georgians against the troops of Jalal al-Din Mangburni. Queen Tamar of Georgia was highly esteemed, and the Durdzuks named daughters as well as bridges and other buildings after her.
The Durdzuks are mentioned in the 7th-century work Geography of Armenia by Anania Shirakatsi as the Dourtsk (Armenian: Դուրծկք).