Tukkhum

Tukkhum is a term and system introduced in the 1920s and 1930s, most notably by Soviet Chechen writer Magomed Mamakaev in 1934. This system does not properly apply to the Chechen nation and the social structure of Chechen clans.

Mamakaev proposed that the Chechen tukkhum was a type of military-economic union between certain groups of teips, not through consanguinity but established for specific purposes, such as military alliances and for economic trade; that the tukkhum occupied a specific territory, which was inhabited by the members of the tukkhum. He also stated that each tukkhum spoke a different dialect of the same Vainakh language. Despite this, it is still a relatively important social grouping, as seen through various Chechen authors and scholars using it in their descriptions of the Vainakh social structure, as well as its featuring on the Coat of Arms of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.

Etymology

The term is of foreign origin and some suggest it comes from the old Persian word "tauhma" which meant kin or tribe.
Tukkhum is a term often used by North Caucasians for a tribe or family, and is found among the Dagestani peoples such as Avars, Tabasarans, Kumyks and Lezghins. The term is used to describe different clan structures for different ethnicities, and does not mean the same thing from one ethnicity to the other.

To the Chechens it was introduced by Mamakaev in 1934 and it has been used in Chechen historical studies ever since. It is noted by the Caucasiologist Kharadze in 1968, that Mamakaev is the basis for the Chechen use of tukkhum in order to make the social structure of the Chechens more complex and interesting, despite the meaning of tukkhum not being clear in the Chechen language. The famous 19th century historian Bashir Dalgat who studied extensively the Chechen and Ingush peoples, noted that the term "tukkhum" was completely foreign to most Chechens as it was only used by some societies in the lowlands. According to him, most Chechens only referred to their teip (especially in the highlands) and never knew of or used the term "tukkhum".

Several Chechen historians and Linguists such as A. Tesaev and N. N. Albakov have criticized the term "tukkhum" and its implementation by Mamakaev. Albakov especially considers the term destructive to the Chechen nation:

Proposed tukkhum system

According to Mamakaev there were 9 tukkhums:

However, this has been heavily criticized as some of the tukkhums mentioned were in fact nothing more than large teips, with several "gar" (sub-clans). Teips such as Mälkhi and Terloy for example are traditionally 2 teips, consisting of several "gar". These teips have all the characteristics of a Chechen teip. Mamakaev incorrectly wrote down these large teips as "tukkhum" and their gars as teips under this tukkhum, even though they were never teips, but merely branches of that specific teip.

Dagestani Tukhums

The Tukhum is a prominent social grouping among the Dagestani Highlanders. The etymology is considered to be the same as described above. The Tukhum is found in Avar, Dargin, Lezgin and Lak society, among others. There are, however, differences from group to group in the reach of the term among the different groups.Bennigsen, A., and Wimbush, S.E., 1986. ''Muslims of the Soviet Empire: A Guide''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. In Avar and Dargin society, the Tukhum contains 200-300 members, though Dargin society has the added layer of the Jin, a smaller extended family. Within a Tukhum, endogamy is practiced, vendettas are observed and there is a strong feeling of kinship. These inter-tukhum relations were managed by Adat, customary laws among the various peoples.

As opposed to the Chechen Tukkhum, which is supposed as being superior to the Teip, the Dagestani Tukhum is almost always a subdivision to the village community, known as the Aul, which are made up of one or villages. There are constituent organs to the Aul, namely the Jamaat, or Village Council, and the Council of Elders. These too differ in size from group to group. The Avar village community usually consists of one or two Auls, with more being unusual but not unheard of. The Dargin village community, meanwhile, is almost always one to two Auls with between 200 and 1,000 members.

The Tukhum and the Aul have been the basis for Sufi Tariqa to entrench themselves in Dagestani society - rather than seeking to replace these older systems, the Tariqa exist alongside them and act as a unifying feature. This entrenchment of the tariqa into the system of Tukhums and Auls created a regional variant of Sufism called Tariqatism. In contrast, Salafism and Wahhabism, which have entered the spiritual life of Dagestanis since the fall of the Soviet Union, have gained popularity in that they allow one freedom from this very system and a different sense of belonging.

Lezgin Tukhums

While there is a version of the Tukhum in Lezgin society, it requires elaboration. The Lezgin version of the Tukhum has all but vanished. While the Aul was, like the Avar and Dargin Auls, the basis of Lezgin society in pre-revolutionary times, the Aul and the Jamaat have lost their role. The reasons for this range from their homeland being more open to external influence, culturally from neighbouring Azeris and politically from the USSR, as well as the loss of the Lezgin Tariqa to the USSR's state Atheism and the more recent penetration of Salafists into Lezgin society.{{Cite journal, last1=Matsuzato, first1=Kimitaka, last2=Ibragimov, first2=Magomed-Rasul, date=July 2005, title=Islamic Politics at the Sub-regional Level in Dagestan: Tariqa Brotherhoods, Ethnicities, Localism and the Spiritual Board, url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09668130500126577, journal=Europe-Asia Studies, language=en, volume=57, issue=5, pages=753–779, doi=10.1080/09668130500126577, s2cid=155085242 , issn=0966-8136

See also

*Teip
*Clan
*Ethnic autonomous regions
* Kinship and descent
*Tribe
*Dagestan
*Chechnya
*Nakh peoples

References

Chechen culture
Nakh culture