{{about, the Nakh people, the Vainakh midwinter festival, Malkh festival
The Malkh were supposedly an ancient nation, living in the Western/Central North Caucasus. They are usually regarded as the westernmost Nakh people,Jaimoukha, Amjad. ''The Chechens: A Handbook''. Routledge Curzon: Oxon, 2005. and their name has a Nakh root (Malkh, the sun, attached to the main God, Deela's name as well, see
Vainakh mythology
The Nakh peoples, also known as ''Vainakh peoples'' (Chechen/Ingush: , apparently derived from Chechen , Ingush "our people"; also Chechen-Ingush), are a group of Caucasian peoples identified by their use of the Nakh languages and other cult ...
Malkhi derives from them, although the existence of the Malkh nation is strongly doubted.
History
Unlike the
Durdzuks
The Durdzuks ( ka, დურძუკები, tr), also known as Dzurdzuks, was a Georgian name from ''The Georgian Chronicles'' used to describe a people in the North Caucasus, the origins of whom is still a matter of debate, but frequently ide ...
, the Malkh seem to have to set up a
monarchy
A monarchy is a government#Forms, form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The legitimacy (political)#monarchy, political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restric ...
(possibly after the escalation of the threat of the
Scythians
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern
* : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
and
Sarmatians
The Sarmatians (; grc, Σαρμαται, Sarmatai; Latin: ) were a large confederation of ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic peoples of classical antiquity who dominated the Pontic steppe from about the 3rd century BC to the 4th cen ...
). The Malkh state had a king, who called himself an "emperor".
By the 5th century BCE, the Nakh nations of the
North Caucasus
The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...
(Malkhs in the West, Dzurdzuks in the East, as well as other Nakh tribes such as the Gligvs, " Kists", Khamekits, and Sadiks, though the boundaries between many of these peoples was fuzzy and unsure) were turning to larger states for assistance against the northern nomadic invaders. While the
Dvals
The Dvals ( ka, დვალები, ''Dvalebi''; os, Туалтæ, ''Twaltæ'') were a ethnographic group of Georgians, their lands lying on both sides of the central Greater Caucasus mountains, somewhere between the Darial and Mamison gorge ...
and Dzurdzuks allied themselves to
Colchis
In Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia.
Its population, the Colchians are generally though ...
and
Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
, the Malkh Kingdom became strong allies of the Greek
Bosporan Kingdom
The Bosporan Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus (, ''Vasíleio toú Kimmerikoú Vospórou''), was an ancient Greco-Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, ...
. In 480 BC, Adermakh, king of the Malkh Kingdom, married a daughter of the Bosporan king.Jaimoukha, Amjad. ''The Chechens: A Handbook''. Page 28 The later history of the Malkh is unknown.