The Malkhi () were an ancient nation, living in the Western/Central

North Caucasus The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasia, is a subregion in Eastern Europe governed by Russia. It constitutes the northern part of the wider Caucasus region, which separates Europe and Asia. The North Caucasus is bordered by the Sea of Azov and the B ...

, mentioned in classical sources, primarily by ancient Greco-Syrian writer

Lucian Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridi ...

and ancient

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

writer

Claudius Aelianus Claudius Aelianus (; ), commonly Aelian (), born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222. He spoke Greek so fluently that he was called "h ...

Mention in the source

Malkhi are mentioned by ancient Greco-Syrian writer

and ancient

writer

. (referring to ; ; ; ). Despite Lucian's work having a literary and narrative nature, it shows what image the people living in

Bosporan Kingdom The Bosporan Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus (; ), was an ancient Greco-Scythians, Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, centered in the present-day ...

had about the military-political union of the ancient Chechen, which they knew as "Malkhi". As per the tradition, Malkh acted as one of the large state formations of

Southeast Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe is a geographical sub-region of Europe, consisting primarily of the region of the Balkans, as well as adjacent regions and Archipelago, archipelagos. There are overlapping and conflicting definitions of t ...

in the second half of the 1st millennium BC, having connections with Bosporus, as well as competing with it and with the

Scythians The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian noma ...

, the

Colchis In classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Its population, the ...

Identity

Some historians consider them as Maeotian, while others consider them equivalent to the

Durdzuks The Durdzuks ( ka, დურძუკები, tr), 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). ...

, an

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

mentioned primarily in Georgian sources. Some historians consider that the ethnonym was used to designate

Nakh peoples The Nakh peoples are a group of North Caucasian languages, North Caucasian peoples identified by their use of the Nakh languages and other cultural similarities. These are chiefly the ethnic Chechen people, Chechen, Ingush people, Ingush and Ba ...

Mention in the source

Identity

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

English sources

Russian sources