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Caucasus is a name which first attested by Aeschylus in his tragedy Prometheus Bound. That Greek name is derived from Scythian Croucasim (noted by Pliny in his Natural History with meaning "ice-shining" from Eastern Iranic χrohu "ice" and käsi "shine").
North Caucasus is inhabited by many different ethnicities each of whom have their own languages. By geographical, anthropological and cultural differences Caucasus can be divided into three categories:
- Eastern Caucasus (Daghestan).
- Central Caucasus (Chechen republic, Ingushetia, North Ossetia-Alania, Kabarda-Balkaria and Karachay-Circassian republic).
- Western Caucasus (Kuban region and Adygeya).
Daghestan (from Azeri-Turkic Dagh "mountain" and Persian stan "country") is located in Northern Caucasus. Was created in 1864 as Daghestan oblast of Russian empire out from various native principalities, most prominent of whom were Avar, Qaitag, Kumukh and Tarki. After Revolution and Civil war Daghestan became in 1921 an autonomous republic of RSFSR with Makhachkala as capital. Majority of Daghestani population consist is from different ethnicities who belongs to two language families (Nakh-Daghestani and Turkic) and confessed Sunni Islam of Shafi madhhab:
Kumyks speak a Kipchak-Turkic language and racially are mixed group whose main types are Turanid (South-Siberian - descendants of Khazars and Kipchaks), Taurid (Kavkasion - assimilated mountaineers of Chechen, Avar and Darghin descent) and Iranid (Caspian - descendants of Turcoman and Tati immigrants from Azerbaijan). Major Y-DNA haplogroups - J1-M267 (25%), J2-M67 (20%), R1b-L23 (20%) and G2a-P15 (15%).
Images of Kumyks:
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