The Caucasus is divided into theNorth Caucasus andSouth Caucasus, although the Western Caucasus also exists as a distinct geographic space within the North Caucasus. The Greater Caucasus mountain range in the north is mostly shared by Russia and Georgia as well as the northernmost parts of Azerbaijan. The Lesser Caucasus mountain range in the south is mostly located on the territory of southern Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
Thus, toward the east, where it rises to a greater height, it is called the Caucasus, due to the whiteness of its snow, for in an eastern language, caucasus means "white," that is, shining white with a very thick snow cover. For the same reason the Scythians, who live next to this mountain range, call it Croacasim, for among them whiteness or snow is called casim. 3. The Taurus range is likewise called the Caucasus by many.[14]
In theTale of Past Years (1113 AD), it is stated thatOld East Slavic Кавкасийскыѣ горы (Kavkasijskyě gory) came fromAncient Greek Καύκασος (Kaúkasos),[15] which, according to M. A. Yuyukin, is a compound word that can be interpreted as the 'mountain of the seagull(s)' (καύ-: καύαξ, καύηξ, -ηκος, κήξ, κηϋξ 'a kind of seagull' + the reconstructed *κάσος 'mountain' or 'rock' richly attested both in place and personal names).[16]
In Georgian tradition, the term Caucasus is derived fromCaucas (Georgian:კავკასოსიḲavḳasosi), the son of the BiblicalTogarmah and legendary forefather of theNakh peoples.[17][18]
According toGermanphilologistsOtto Schrader and Alfons A. Nehring, the Ancient Greek word Καύκασος (Kaukasos) is connected toGothichauhs 'high' as well asLithuaniankaũkas 'hillock' andkaukarà 'hill, top',Russianкуча 'heap'.[15][19] British linguist Adrian Room claims that *kau- also means 'mountain' inPelasgian,[20] though this is speculative given that Pelasgian is so poorly known.
TheTranscaucasus region andDagestan were the furthest points ofParthian and laterSasanian expansions, with areas to the north of theGreater Caucasus range practically impregnable. The mythologicalMount Qaf, the world's highest mountain that ancient Iranian lore shrouded in mystery, was said to be situated in this region. The region is also one of the candidates for the location ofAiryanem Vaejah, the apparent homeland of the Iranians ofZoroaster. InMiddle Persian sources of the Sasanian era, the Caucasus range was referred to asKaf Kof.[23] The term resurfaced in Iranian tradition later on in a variant form whenFerdowsi, in hisShahnameh, referred to the Caucasus mountains asKōh-i Kāf.[23] "Most of the modern names of the Caucasus originate from the GreekKaukasos (Lat.,Caucasus) and the Middle PersianKaf Kof".[23]
"The earliest etymon" of the name Caucasus comes fromKaz-kaz, theHittite designation of the "inhabitants of the southern coast of theBlack Sea".[23]
It was also noted that inNakh Ков гас (Kov gas) means "gateway to steppe".[24]
Contemporary political map of the Caucasus, including disputed territories of Georgia and federal regions of Russia.
The South Caucasus borders the Greater Caucasus range andSouthern Russia to its north, the Black Sea andTurkey to its west, the Caspian Sea to its east, andIran to its south. It contains theLesser Caucasus mountain range and surrounding lowlands. All ofArmenia, Azerbaijan (excluding the northernmost parts), and Georgia (excluding the northernmost parts) are in the South Caucasus.
The watershed along theGreater Caucasus range is considered by some sources to be thedividing line betweenEurope andSouthwest Asia. According to that, the highest peak in the Caucasus,Mount Elbrus (5,642 meters) located in western Ciscaucasus, is considered the highest point in Europe. TheKuma-Manych Depression, the geologic depression that divides theRussian Plain from the North Caucasus foreland is often regarded by classical and non-British sources as the natural and historical boundary between Europe and Asia. Another opinion is that the riversKura andRioni mark this border, or even that of the riverAras.[25]
Two territories in the region claim independence but are recognized as such by only a handful of entities:Abkhazia, andSouth Ossetia. Abkhazia andSouth Ossetia are largely recognized by the world community as part of Georgia.[27][28]
The region has many different languages and language families. There are more than 50 ethnic groups living in the region.[30] No fewer than three language families are unique to the area. In addition, Indo-European languages, such asEast Slavic,Armenian andOssetian, andTurkic languages, such asAzerbaijani,Kumyk language andKarachay–Balkar, are spoken in the area.Russian is used as alingua franca most notably in the North Caucasus.
Located on the peripheries ofTurkey,Iran, andRussia, the region has been an arena for political, military, religious, and cultural rivalries and expansionism for centuries. Throughout its history, the Caucasus was usually incorporated into theIranian world.[31][32] At the beginning of the 19th century, theRussian Empireconquered the territory fromQajar Iran.[31]
The site yields the earliest unequivocal evidence for the presence of early humans outside the African continent;[34] and the Dmanisi skulls are the five oldesthominins ever found outsideAfrica.
Kura–Araxes culture from about 4000 BC until about 2000 BC enveloped a vast area of approximately 1,000 km by 500 km, and mostly encompassed, on modern-day territories, the Southern Caucasus (except western Georgia), northwestern Iran, the northeastern Caucasus, eastern Turkey, and as far as Syria.
UnderAshurbanipal (669–627 BC), the boundaries of theAssyrian Empire reached as far as the Caucasus Mountains. Later ancient kingdoms of the region includedArmenia,Albania,Colchis andIberia, among others. These kingdoms were later incorporated into variousIranian empires, includingMedia, theAchaemenid Empire,Parthia, and theSassanid Empire, who would altogether rule the Caucasus for many hundreds of years. In 95–55 BC, under the reign of the Armenian kingTigranes the Great, theKingdom of Armenia included Kingdom of Armenia, vassals Iberia, Albania, Parthia,Atropatene,Mesopotamia,Cappadocia,Cilicia,Syria,Nabataean kingdom, andJudea. By the time of the first century BC,Zoroastrianism had become the dominant religion of the region; however, the region would go through two other religious transformations. Owing to the strong rivalry between Persia andRome, and laterByzantium. The Romans first arrived in the region in the 1st century BC with the annexation of the kingdom of Colchis, which was later turned into the province ofLazicum.[35] The next 600 years was marked by aconflict between Rome andSassanid Empire for the control of the region. In western Georgia the eastern Roman rule lasted until the Middle Ages.[36]
Kingdom of Armenia at the peak of its might at the beginning of the 1st century B.C.
In the 12th century, the Georgian kingDavid the Builder drove the Muslims out of the Caucasus and made theKingdom of Georgia a strong regional power. In 1194–1204 GeorgianQueen Tamar's armies crushed new Seljuk Turkish invasions from the southeast and south and launched several successful campaigns into Seljuk Turkish-controlled Southern Armenia. The Georgian Kingdom continued military campaigns in the Caucasus region. As a result of her military campaigns and the temporary fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1204, Georgia became the strongest Christian state in the wholeNear East area, encompassing most of the Caucasus stretching from Northern Iran and Northeastern Turkey to the North Caucasus.
The Caucasus region was conquered by theOttomans,Turco-Mongols, local kingdoms and khanates, as well as, once again,Iran.
In the second half of the 19th century, the Russian Empire also conquered the North Caucasus. In the aftermath of theCaucasian Wars, the Russian military perpetrated anethnic cleansing of Circassians, expelling this indigenous population from its homeland.[43][44] Between the 1850s and World War I, about a million North Caucasian Muslims arrived in the Ottoman Empire as refugees.[45]
Having killed and deported most of the Armenians of Western Armenia during theArmenian genocide, the Turks intended to eliminate the Armenian population ofEastern Armenia.[46] During the 1920Turkish–Armenian War, 60,000 to 98,000 Armenian civilians were estimated to have been killed by the Turkish army.[47]
InGreek mythology, the Caucasus was one of the pillars supporting the world.[49] After presenting man with the gift of fire,Prometheus (orAmirani in theGeorgian version) was chained there byZeus, to have his liver eaten daily by an eagle as punishment for defying Zeus's wish to keep the "secret of fire" from humans.
TheRoman poetOvid placed the Caucasus inScythia and depicted it as a cold and stony mountain which was the abode of personified hunger. The Greek heroJason sailed to the west coast of the Caucasus in pursuit of theGolden Fleece, and there metMedea, a daughter ofKing Aeëtes ofColchis.
The Caucasus has a rich folklore tradition.[50] This tradition has been preserved orally—necessitated by the fact that for most of the languages involved, there was no alphabet until the early twentieth century—and only began to be written down in the late nineteenth century.[51] One important tradition is that of theNart sagas, which tell stories of a race of ancient heroes called the Narts. These sagas include such figures asSatanaya, the mother of the Narts,Sosruquo a shape changer and trickster,Tlepsh a blacksmith god, andBatradz, a mighty hero.[50] The folklore of the Caucasus shows ancientIranianZoroastrian influence, involve battles with ancientGoths,Huns andKhazars, and contain many connections with ancientIndian,Norse Scandinavian, and Greek cultures.[52]
Links between Greek mythology and subsequent folklore
Caucasian folklore contains many links with the myths of the ancient Greeks. There are resemblances between the mother goddess Satanaya and the Greek goddess of loveAphrodite.[53] The story of how the trickster Nart Sosruquo, became invulnerable parallels that of the Greek heroAchilles.[54] The ancient GreekAmazons may be connected to a Caucasian "warrior Forest-Mother, Amaz-an";[55] it is also said that the Amazons and theGargareans went to live separately in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, then calledCeraunia, after leavingThemiscyra.[56]
Caucasian legends include stories involving giants similar toHomer'sPolyphemus story.[57] In these stories, the giant is almost always ashepherd,[58] and he is variously a one-eyed rock-throwing cannibal, who lives in a cave (the exit of which is often blocked by a stone), kills the hero's companions, is blinded by a hot stake, and whose flock of animals is stolen by the hero and his men, all motifs which (along with still others) are also found in the Polyphemus story.[59] In one example fromGeorgia, two brothers, who are being held prisoner by a giant one-eyed shepherd called "One-eye", take a spit, heat it up, stab it into the giant's eye, and escape.[60]
There are also links with the ancient Greek myth ofPrometheus.[61] Many legends, widespread in the Caucasus, contain motifs shared with the Prometheus story.[62] These motifs include a giant hero, his conflict with God or gods, the stealing of fire and giving it to men, being chained, and being tormented by a bird who pecks at his liver (or heart).[63] TheAdyge/Circassian Nart Nasran,[64] theGeorgianAmirani,[65] theChechenPkharmat,[66] and theAbkhazianAbrskil,[67] are examples of such Prometheus-like figures.
The region has a high level ofendemism and severalrelict animals and plants, the fact reflecting the presence of refugial forests, which survived theIce Age in the Caucasus Mountains. The Caucasus forest refugium is the largest throughout the Western Asian (near Eastern) region.[73][74] The area has multiple representatives ofdisjunct relict groups of plants with the closest relatives in Eastern Asia, southern Europe, and even North America.[75][76][77] Over 70 species of forest snails of the region are endemic.[78] Some relict species of vertebrates areCaucasian parsley frog,Caucasian salamander,Robert's snow vole, andCaucasian grouse, and there are almost entirely endemic groups of animals such as lizards of genusDarevskia. In general, the species composition of this refugium is quite distinct and differs from that of the other Western Eurasian refugia.[74]
^Shamil Shetekauri et al.,Mountain Flowers and Trees of Caucasia; Pelagic Publishing Limited, 2018,ISBN178427173X.
^John L. Esposito, Abdulaziz Sachedina (2004). "Caucasus".The Islamic World: Past and Present. Volume 1. Oxford University Press USA.ISBN0195165209.p. 86(registration required). Accessed 30 June 2021.
^"Caucasus - region and mountains, Eurasia".Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved26 November 2018.West of the Kura-Aras Lowland rises the Lesser Caucasus range, which is extended southward by the Dzhavakhet Range and the Armenian Highland, the latter extending southwestward into Turkey.
^Kretschmer, Paul (1928). "Weiteres zur Urgeschichte der Inder" [More about the Pre-History of the Indians].Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der indogermanischen Sprachen [Journal of Comparative Linguistic Research into Indo-European Philology] (in German).55:75–103.
^Kretschmer, Paul (1930),Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der indogermanischen Sprachen [Journal of Comparative Linguistic Research into Indo-European Philology], vol. 57, pp. 251–255
^Barney, Lewis, Beach, Berghof, Stephen A., W. J., J. A., Oliver (2006).The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville. New York, United States: Cambridge University Press. pp. 297–298.ISBN978-0-521-83749-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^abVasmer, Max Julius Friedrich (1953–1958). "Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch" [Russian Etymological Dictionary].Indogermanische Bibliothek herausgegeben von Hans Krahe. Reihe 2: Wörterbüche [Indo-European Library Edited by Hans Krahe. Series 2: Dictionaries] (in German). Vol. 1.Heidelberg: Carl Winter.
^Yuyukin, M. A. (18–20 June 2012)."О происхождении названия Кавказ" [On the Origin of the Name of the Caucasus].Индоевропейское языкознание и классическая филология – XVI (материалы чтений, посвященных памяти профессора И. М. Тронского) (in Russian).Saint Petersburg. pp. 893–899 and 919.ISBN978-5-02-038298-5. Retrieved19 March 2017.
^Qoranashvili, G.Questions of Ethnic Identity According to Leonti Mroveli's Historical Chronicles, Studies, Vol. 1. Tbilisi.
^"Caucasus - region and mountains, Eurasia".Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved26 November 2018.Caucasia includes not only the mountain ranges of the Caucasus proper but also the country immediately north and south of them. The land north of the Greater Caucasus is called Ciscaucasia (Predkavkazye, or "Hither Caucasia") and south of it is Transcaucasia (Zakavkazye, or "Farther Caucasia").
^Mikaberidze, Alexander (6 February 2015).Historical Dictionary of Georgia. Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN978-1-4422-4146-6.
^abMultiple Authors."Caucasus and Iran".Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved3 September 2012.
^Rapp, Stephen H. (2020)."Georgia, Georgians, until 1300". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.).Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Brill Online.ISSN1873-9830.While Hodgson astutely perceived Caucasia's cross-cultural condition, subsequent research has exposed the region's long-term participation in the Iranian and wider Persianate world. This multifaceted association began in the Iron Age, survived the intensive Christianization of Caucasia, and continued until the annexation of Caucasian lands by the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century. (...) Above all, pre-modern Caucasia is characterized by its integration into the Iranian and Persianate socio-cultural world, the Iranian commonwealth, which extended from Central Asia to Anatolia and south to the Arabian Peninsula. Caucasia's active membership in this commonwealth began under the first "world empire" of the Achaemenids and survived both Christianization and the demise of the Sāsānian empire.
^Vekua, A., Lordkipanidze, D., Rightmire, G. P., Agusti, J., Ferring, R., Maisuradze, G., et al. (2002). A new skull of early Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia.Science, 297:85–9.
^Theodor Mommsen, William Purdie Dickson, Francis Haverfield.The provinces of the Roman Empire: from Caesar to Diocletian. p. 68.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Allen, W.E.D (1932).A history of the Georgian people. p. 123.
^Hunter, Shireen; et al. (2004).Islam in Russia: The Politics of Identity and Security. M.E. Sharpe. p. 3.(..) It is difficult to establish exactly when Islam first appeared in Russia because the lands that Islam penetrated early in its expansion were not part of Russia at the time, but were later incorporated into the expanding Russian Empire. Islam reached the Caucasus region in the middle of the seventh century as part of the Arabconquest of the Iranian Sassanian Empire.
^Chew, Allen F. (1970).An Atlas of Russian History: Eleven Centuries of Changing Borders. Yale University Press. p. 74.ISBN0300014457.
^Yemelianova, Galina, Islam nationalism and state in the Muslim Caucasus. Caucasus Survey, April 2014. p. 3
^Memoirs of Miliutin, "the plan of action decided upon for 1860 was to cleanse [ochistit'] the mountain zone of its indigenous population", perRichmond, W. (2008).The Northwest Caucasus: Past, Present, and Future. Routledge.ISBN9780415776158.
^When Sosruquo was born burning in flames, the blacksmith god Tlepsh, grabbed Sosruquo and plunged him into water, making him invulnerable except where he was held by tongs, see Rashidvash, pp. 33–34; Colarusso, pp. 52–54 (Circassian Saga 8:Lady Setenaya and the Shepherd: The Birth of Sawseruquo), 185–186 (Abaza Saga 47:How Sosruquo Was Born), 387–394 (Ubykh Saga 86:The Birth of Soseruquo), cf. pp. 323–328 (Abkhaz Saga 75:The Mother of Heroes).
^Colarusso, pp. 158–168 (Circassian Saga 34:How Pataraz Freed Bearded Nasran, Who Was Chained to the High Mountain), 168–169 (Circassian Saga 35:Bound Nasran); Hunt, pp. 355–356; Rashidvash, p. 34.
^Zazanashvili N, Sanadiradze G, Bukhnikashvili A, Kandaurov A, Tarkhnishvili D. 2004. Caucasus. In: Mittermaier RA, Gil PG, Hoffmann M, Pilgrim J, Brooks T, Mittermaier CG, Lamoreux J, da Fonseca GAB, eds. Hotspots revisited, Earth's biologically richest and most endangered terrestrial ecoregions. Sierra Madre: CEMEX/Agrupacion Sierra Madre, 148–153
^Milne, R. I. (2004). "Phylogeny and biogeography ofRhododendron subsectionPontica, a group with a Tertiary relict distribution".Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.33:389–401.doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2004.06.009.
^Kikvidze Z, Ohsawa M. 1999. "Adjara, East Mediterranean refuge of Tertiary vegetation". In: Ohsawa M, Wildpret W, Arco MD, eds.Anaga Cloud Forest, a comparative study on evergreen broad-leaved forests and trees of the Canary Islands and Japan. Chiba: Chiba University Publications, 297–315.
^Denk, T.; et al. (2001). "Vegetational patterns and distribution of relict taxa in humid temperate forests and wetlands of Georgia Transcaucasia".Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.72:287–332.doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2001.tb01318.x.
^Pokryszko, B.; et al. (2011). "Forest snail faunas from Georgian Transcaucasia: patterns of diversity in a Pleistocene refugium".Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.102:239–250.doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2010.01575.x.
Bachvarova, Mary R.,From Hittite to Homer: The Anatolian Background of Ancient Greek Epic, Cambridge University Press, 2016.ISBN978-0521509794.
Coene, Frederick (2009).The Caucasus: An Introduction. Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-48660-6.
Colarusso, John,Nart Sagas from the Caucasus: Myths and Legends from the Circassians, Abazas, Abkhaz, and Ubykhs, Princeton University Press, 2002, 2014.ISBN9781400865284.
Cornell, Susan E.,Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus.
Hunt, David,Legends of the Caucasus, Saqi Books, London, 2012.ISBN978-0863568237.
Mayor, Adrienne (2016), "Introduction to the Paperback Edition" inNart Sagas: Ancient Myths and Legends of the Circassians and Abkhazians, by John Colarusso, Princeton University Press, 2016.ISBN978-0691-16914-9.
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