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The Dvals ( ka, დვალები, ''Dvalebi''; os, Туалтæ, ''Twaltæ'') were a ethnographic group of
Georgians The Georgians, or Kartvelians (; ka, ქართველები, tr, ), are a nation and indigenous Caucasian ethnic group native to Georgia and the South Caucasus. Georgian diaspora communities are also present throughout Russia, Turkey, G ...
, their lands lying on both sides of the central
Greater Caucasus The Greater Caucasus ( az, Böyük Qafqaz, Бөјүк Гафгаз, بيوک قافقاز; ka, დიდი კავკასიონი, ''Didi K’avk’asioni''; russian: Большой Кавказ, ''Bolshoy Kavkaz'', sometimes translat ...
mountains, somewhere between the Darial and
Mamison Mamison Pass ( ka, მამისონის უღელტეხილი, os, Мамысоны æфцæг amysony æfcæg russian: Мамисонский перевал) is a high mountainous pass in the central Greater Caucasus crest, on t ...
gorges. This historic territory mostly covers the north of
Kartli Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role ...
, parts of the
Racha Racha (also Račha, , ''Račʼa'') is a highland area in western Georgia, located in the upper Rioni river valley and hemmed in by the Greater Caucasus mountains. Under Georgia's current subdivision, Racha is included in the Racha-Lechkhumi and ...
and
Khevi Khevi ( ka, ხევი) is a small historical-geographic area in northeastern Georgia. It is included in the modern-day Kazbegi district, Mtskheta-Mtianeti region (mkhare). Located on the northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus mountains, it co ...
regions in Georgia and south of
Ossetia Ossetia ( , ; os, Ирыстон or , or ; russian: Осетия, Osetiya; ka, ოსეთი, translit. ''Oseti'') is an ethnolinguistic region located on both sides of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, largely inhabited by the Ossetians. ...
in
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
.


Etymology

The name of the ''Dvals'' ( ka, დვალნი, ) is found in old Georgian annals. Their land was called
Dvaleti Dvaleti ( ka, დვალეთი; also ''Tvaleti - თვალეთი'') was a historical and ethnographic region in medieval Georgia. Territory in the central part of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, between Mamison Pass and Darial Gorge ...
(დვალეთი. ''Dvalet`i'') after them. The ethnonym survived to modern times as ''"Twal"'' and ''"Urs-Twal"'' ( os, Урстуалтæ meaning "white Twals"). The Georgian surname ''
Dvali Dvali ( ka, დვალი) is a Georgian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Giorgi Dvali (born 1964), Georgian professor of physics and a director at the Max Planck Institute for Physics The Max Planck Institute for Physics ( ...
'' (დვალი), ''
Dvalishvili Dvalishvili ( ka, დვალიშვილი) is a Georgian surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Nadezhda Khnykina-Dvalishvili (born 1933), Soviet track and field athlete *Vladimir Dvalishvili (born 1986), Georgian football player ...
'' (დვალიშვილი), Dvalidze(დვალიძე) and Ossetian ''Tuallagov/Twallægtæ'' also come from the name Dvals.


History

When the
Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...
destroyed the Alanian kingdom in the
Northern 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, ...
in the 13th–14th centuries, the Ossetes migrated across the Caucasus mountains. In a part of Dvaletia they formed their community called Tualläg. The Dvals were pushed southward and, as a result, the process of their assimilation into the Georgians and Ossetes accelerated. By the early 18th century it was complete. The term Dvaleti retained only a geographic meaning, narrowed to refer solely to the area around the Kudaro valley in the west (modern-day
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
district in South Ossetia/
Shida Kartli Shida Kartli ( ka, შიდა ქართლი, , ; "Inner Kartli") is a landlocked administrative region (''Mkhare'') in eastern Georgia. It comprises a central part of the historical-geographic province of Shida Kartli. With an area of , Sh ...
).


Language and origin

There are different theories about the Dvals origins.


Georgian theory

Throughout the history of Georgian statehood, even after its inclusion into the Russian Empire, Dvaleti had always been considered an integral part of
Kartli Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role ...
From the 15th century on Ossetians start to settle in Dvaleti province, located in the Northern part of the main Caucasus Range. This continued throughout the 16th century, while in the 17th century, assimilation of the local Georgian ethnic group of Dvalians draws to its end. Before the settlement of Ossetians in Dvaleti, a major part of the Dvalians had migrated to different parts of Georgia: Shida Kartli, Kvemo Kartli, Imereti, Racha.http://www.nplg.gov.ge/dlibrary/collect/0001/000355/inglisuri%20osebis%20texti.pdf Russia annexed
Kartli-Kakheti The Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti ( ka, ქართლ-კახეთის სამეფო, tr) (1762–1801 ) was created in 1762 by the unification of two eastern Georgian kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti. From the early 16th century, accord ...
in 1801 along with Dvaleti. In 1858 Dvaleti was administratively detached from
Tiflis Governorate The Tiflis Governorate was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire with its administrative center in Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi). In 1897, it constituted 44,607 sq. kilometres in area and had a population ...
, and attached to the Tersky district of Russia. Vakhushti Bagrationi pointed out that “the language they speak is old, Dvalian, but presently they use Ossetian as if it were their native tongue”. V. Gamrekeli regarded Dvalians Vainakhs, Kartvelian Vainakhs to be more exact. V. Gamrekeli believed that the Kartization of the Dvalians occurred in the 7th century, when the Kartlian population, fatigued by the Arab rule, had migrated. The author later changed his views, and in an article published in Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia he recognized the Dvalians as Kartvelian tribes, namely
Zans The Zans ( ka, ზანები, tr) or Chans ( ka, ჭანები, tr) are a subethnic group of Kartvelian people, speaking the Zan languages. * Kartvelian peoples **Georgians **Zans (Mingrelians and Laz people) **Svans See also * Kar ...
. Some scholars point that they were not exactly
Zan Zan or ZAN, may refer to: Geography * Zhan, Kurdistan, Iran, also known as Zān * Zhan, Lorestan, Iran, also known as Žān * Zan, Tehran, a village in Tehran Province, Iran Ethnicity and language * Zans, the Zan People, people who speak the Za ...
but represented one the
Kartvelian languages The Kartvelian languages (; ka, ქართველური ენები, tr; also known as South Caucasian, Kartvelic, and Iberian languagesBoeder (2002), p. 3) are a language family indigenous to the South Caucasus and spoken primari ...
. The last of the Georgian authors to address the issue of Dvalian origins was B. Gamkrelidze, who arrived at the conclusion that “Dvaleti, from ancient times, culturally, and administratively had always been an integral part of the Georgian world″. Another detail to prove their Kartvelian origin is the absence of crypts in Dvaleti. Crypts were encountered only in Chechnya and Ingushetia, while Chechens and Ingush were recognized as skillful builders and used to build the crypts not only in their native lands but in neighbouring Ossetia as well. It is suggested that if the Dvalians had been related to the Vainakhs, the culture of crypt building would have existed among them as well.


Nakh theory

According to a number of historians and linguists, the Dvals probably spoke a
Nakh language The Nakh languages are a group of languages within Northeast Caucasian family, spoken chiefly by the Chechens and Ingush in the North Caucasus. Bats is the endangered language of the Bats people, an ethnic minority in Georgia. The Chechen, In ...
. Gamrekeli (a Georgian historian) provides the typical version of the Nakh theory, stating that the Dvals had a language clearly distinct from that of the Ossetes (who eventually migrated onto their land) and akin (but not equivalent to) to the Vainakh languages. Backing the theory that the Dvals were Nakh are numerous sources. *The people directly to their West (the
Malkh {{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 Ch ...
; in the northern part of their territory in Southern North Ossetia-"Alania"; not the South Caucasian part where the Svans bordered them) are already more or less confirmed to be Nakh in origin. *There is evidence produced by the German Caucasologist, Heinz Fähnrich, of extensive Nakh-Svan contact before the advent of Iranian-speaking invaders. Thus, in order to have extensive contact with the Svans, enough for the strong Nakh influence detected by Fähnrich in Svan, a Nakh people must have lived close to them. However, without the Dvals or at least a people who lived on their territory before them being Nakh, this could not have happened, as the Malkh, the closest people, lived across one of the most difficult parts of the Caucasus, and to this day the modern inhabitants of Malkhia and the Svans have little if any contact with each other. The Georgian historian Melikishvilli argued, using the similarity in name to the old Vainakh clan Dvali, that the Dvals were akin to the Vainakh (i.e. a Nakh people) but distinct and that a remnant of them became absorbed by the Vainakh proper (as was confirmed happened with actually confirmed Nakh peoples, such as the
Malkh {{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 Ch ...
after they declined). * Kuznetsov notes the presence of Nakh placenames in South- and North Ossetia: including ''Tsei'', ''Leah'' and ''Leah-hee'' (''Liakhvi''). * Almost all historians agree that the Dvals were not Alans. If they were really Scythians, it would be unlikely that they would have diverged so sharply in such a small area; especially considering that in the Caucasus, many peoples that no longer formed an ethnic unity and already had been separated for a long period were still considered as one.


Ossetian theory

Another theory is that the Dvals were an Ossetian speaking people. According to this, they were among first Ossetes to settle in the southern Caucasus. Evidence for the Ossetian theory also draws from various elements: *In 1957 an example of text thought by some to be Dval was found in Dvaleti. It was written with a Syrian-nestorian writing system. :Original text, provided by Turchanikov: ::''hcawj acgar ama i a jnn mishnq jtkajin ish kwtwn ljkchh khnkn dan aljka ja ctj (m) mhhh at r k jz azj'' :Translation to english :Modern Ossetic form: ::''Xwycwy agcar amardi a jyn mysinag y tyxa jyn yz kotton ...'' :Translation to english *Much of former Dvaleti is now populated by Ossetes. Although the Dvals were clearly not Alans, similarity could have aided the assimilation of the remainder of the conquered Dvals *Modern day Ossetes living in the old territory of the Dvals (who some believe to be partially descended from the Dvals), are called Tuals in the north and Urs-Tuals in the south, and speak the Tual dialect of the
Ossetic language Ossetian (, , ), commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete (), is an Eastern Iranian language that is spoken predominantly in Ossetia, a region situated on both sides of the Greater Caucasus. It is the native language of the Ossetia ...
.


Accomplishments

The most prominent Dvals were, perhaps, the 11th–13th
calligrapher Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...
s – John, Michael, Stephen, and George – who worked at various
Georgian Orthodox The Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამოციქულო ავტოკეფალური მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესია, tr), commonly ...
monasteries abroad, chiefly in
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
and at the
Mount Athos Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the penins ...
, and created several fine examples of old Georgian manuscripts, e.g. ''The Months'' and ''The Vitae of
St Basil Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great ( grc, Ἅγιος Βασίλειος ὁ Μέγας, ''Hágios Basíleios ho Mégas''; cop, Ⲡⲓⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ Ⲃⲁⲥⲓⲗⲓⲟⲥ; 330 – January 1 or 2, 379), was a bishop of Ca ...
'' (John the Dval, circa 1055), and the so-called ''Labechini
Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
'' (George the Dval, 13th century). Another famous Dval calligrapher was Vola Tliag ( os, Vola Tliag meaning "Vola from Tli") who worked over Kapelle of Nuzal.Kuznetsov V
The light of Christianity in Georgia. Dvaletia (from the book "Christianity in the North Caucasus")
/ref> The Orthodox church venerates also the memory of St Nicholas of Dvaletia, a Dval monk from the Georgian monastery at Jerusalem, who was martyred, on October 19, 1314, at the order of
Amir Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...
Denghiz for having preached Christianity. He was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church.


See also

*
Dvaleti Dvaleti ( ka, დვალეთი; also ''Tvaleti - თვალეთი'') was a historical and ethnographic region in medieval Georgia. Territory in the central part of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, between Mamison Pass and Darial Gorge ...
* History of Georgia


References


Further reading

*Gagloity Y. ''Formation of the southern branch of Ossetian people'' *Gamrekeli V. N., ''The Dvals and Dvaletia in the 1st to 15th centuries AD'', Tbilisi, 1961 (A monograph in Russian) **Vaneev Z. ''To the question on Dvals'' (A criticism of Gamrekrli in Russian) *Tekhov B. V., ''Studies in old history and archaeology of South Ossetia'', Tbilisi, 1971 (A monograph in Russian) *Vaneev Z. ''Selected works on the history of the Ossetian people'', Tskhinvali, 1989 (A monograph in Russian) *Graham Smith, Edward A Allworth, Vivien A Law, Annette Bohr, Andrew Wilson, ''Nation-Building in the Post-Soviet Borderlands: The Politics of National Identities'', Cambridge University Press (September 10, 1998), {{ISBN, 0-521-59968-7, page 60 *Dzatiaty R. ''Role of the towers in the social structure of society'' (in Russian) Peoples of the Caucasus Ossetia Ancient peoples of Georgia (country)