Kipchak branch
Kumyks
A Turk people of coastal Dagestan whose language was for centuries the common language of the north-eastern Caucasus.
Qumuqlar / Kumuklar
The Kumyks live on the Kumyk plain and in the foothills of Dagestan, along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, around cities such as Makhachkala, Buynaksk and Khasavyurt. From about the 17th to the early 20th century their language served as a lingua franca for the many peoples of the north-eastern Caucasus, until it was supplanted by Russian.
The Shamkhalate of Tarki, with its capital at Tarki on the slopes above today’s Makhachkala, was the leading Kumyk polity; its rulers, the shamkhals, held a special position among the princes of Dagestan. After Dagestan was incorporated into the Russian Empire in the 19th century, the shamkhalate was abolished in 1867.
The Kumyks are Sunni Muslims. Kumyk literature developed strongly from the 19th century, notably with the poet Yırçı Qazaq, and a Kumyk national theatre was founded in 1930.
- Language
- Kumyk, a Kipchak Turk language written in Cyrillic
- Branch
- Kipchak
- Homeland
- The Kumyk plain and foothills of Dagestan along the Caspian coast, between the Terek and the Ulluchay rivers (Russia)
- Also living in
- Chechnya, North Ossetia, Türkiye and wider diaspora
Key dates
17th – early 20th century
Kumyk serves as a language of inter-ethnic communication across the north-eastern Caucasus.
c. 1830–1879
Life of the poet Yırçı Qazaq, exiled to Siberia, a founding figure of Kumyk poetry.
1867
The Shamkhalate of Tarki is abolished by the Russian administration.
1928 / 1938
Kumyk moves from the Arabic script to the Latin alphabet (1928) and then to Cyrillic (1938).
1930
The Kumyk Music and Drama Theatre is founded.
Heritage
- Tarki, historic seat of the shamkhals
- Heroic epics, seasonal ritual songs, polyphonic male choral singing and the kumuz lute
- Carved woodwork, metalwork, textiles and rug weaving
Sources
- S. Sh. Gadzhieva and A. M. Adzhiev, “Kumyks”, in P. Friedrich and N. Diamond (eds.), Encyclopedia of World Cultures, vol. 6: Russia and Eurasia / China (G. K. Hall, 1994)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Caucasian peoples”