Ahokhiya and Akkin migrations in the XV-XVII centuries

• Published in: Исторический журнал: научные исследования no. 2; pp. 175 - 201
• Main Author: Albogachiev, Magomed Mikhailovich
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.02.2025
• ISSN: 2454-0609; 2454-0609
• DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2025.2.70633

The article examines the issue of migration routes to the upper reaches of the Yamansu and Yaryksu rivers of the Akkin people, an ethnographic group of modern Chechens, who are also known as Aukhovites. In the article lists of Russian embassies to Georgia of the XVI–XVII centuries, the eastern Akkins are mentioned under the names akochane, okoki, akozi, etc. According to a number of researchers, the self-name of the Aukh people of Aikkhiy is derived from their place of origin – the historical region of Akka in the upper reaches of the Gekhi River. The purpose of the article is to show, on the basis of an etymological analysis of the ethnonym ahkkhiy, as well as an analysis of historical, historiographical sources, that the medieval region of Akhokhia, known in the 1360s by mention in the act of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, could be the starting point of the forced gradual migration of the Akkin people to the right bank of the Terek and further to the upper reaches of the Yamansu and Yaryksu rivers. When studying this issue, the work used narrative, historical-genetic, comparative-comparative methods. In the course of the study, the author comes to the conclusion about the migration of the Akkin people from the left bank of the Terek, and the connection of their endoethnonym with the name of the region of Akhokhia. The northern slopes of the Lateral ridge from Mount Kazbek up to the Alagir gorge at the beginning of the XVIII century. Vakhushti Bagrationi calls the "Khokhi Caucasus", which corresponds to the historical and geographical area of Khokhi, known from toponymic, folklore and ethnographic material collected in the XX century in Ossetia. A comprehensive analysis of written sources and ethnographic material conducted by the famous Caucasian scholar N. G. Volkova indicates that the ancestors of some of the modern Ingush lived on the territory of modern Ossetia until the beginning of the XVIII century. Linguistic similarities in the Digor dialect of the Ossetian language and the Vainakh languages, identified by V. I. Abaev, indicate that Nakhon-speaking tribes lived in the Alagir gorge bordering Digoria in the west in the past. The author explains this by the fact that the Iranian immigration to the Central Caucasus, which marked the beginning of the formation of the Ossetian tribe, went in two successive waves; the first – "Digor" and the second – "Iron. The latter were wedged between the Vainakhs and the Digorians. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the author has outlined promising areas for further research on this issue.