page_title: History of Chechnya
section_title: Medieval
hierarchical_section_title: History of Chechnya / Medieval
caption_attribution_description: English: Queen Tamar's Georgia's map mainly drawn after Levan Asatiani's map (Georgia at the peak of her might 1150-1220) from francademic.com საქართველო – 1150-1220 წწ.
context_page_description: The history of Chechnya may refer to the history of the Chechens, of their land Chechnya, or of the land of Ichkeria.
  Chechen society has traditionally been organized around many autonomous local clans, called taips. The traditional Chechen saying goes that the members of Chechen society, like its taips, are "free and equal like wolves".
  Jaimoukha notes in his book Chechens that sadly, "Vainakh history is perhaps the most poorly studied of the peoples of the North Caucasus. Much research effort was expended upon the Russo-Circassian war, most falsified at that." There was once a library of Chechen history scripts, written in Chechen using Arabic and Georgian script; however, this was destroyed by Stalin and wiped from record.
context_section_description: During the Middle Ages, the majority of the ancestors of the modern Vainakh are thought to have mostly lived along rivers and in between ridges, in their current ethnic territory. All the valleys in the upper reaches of the Argun, Assa, Darial and Fontanga saw the construction of complex stone architectures such as castles, shrines, churches, burial vaults and towers.
  The main body of various Nakh tribes were surrounded by Georgians to the South, Alans to the North and West with Khazars beyond them, and various Dagestani peoples to the East. Those Nakh peoples who were in Georgia assimilated into Georgian society. The Nakh on the Northern side of the Greater Caucasus mountains, ancestors of the Chechens and Ingush, saw some southern tribes adopt Christianity due to Georgian influence in the fifth and sixth centuries, but they remained separate from Georgia. Instead, the areas that now make up Ingushetia and Chechnya were either ruled by Khazars, by Alans, by Dagestani peoples such as Avars or (later) Kumyks, or ruled by independent Nakh states such as Durdzuketia and Simsir.
caption: The Kingdom of Georgia at its greatest extent, with its tributaries and spheres of influence in the reign of Tamar. Durdzuketi is located northeast of Georgia, as a Georgian ally state.
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