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Caucasian peoples had levels of social development from clanic or tribal to the 
‘feudal’ in which the division of the population was along the patrilineal lines. 
These patrilineal divisions lie at the basis of the region’s political, social, and 
economic structure.
42
 
At the lowest level of the social fabric, in the North Caucasus, there was an 
extended family whose members shared common property and joint 
responsibilities. Closely related extended families formed a clan, and then, as a 
result of the unification of the clans, the tribes were formed. In general, the North 
Caucasian tribes were named after a real or putative ancestor, or could bear the 
name of the most famous man in a tribe or the toponym of its origin.
43
 
During the late16
th
 and early 17
th
 centuries, only the Kabardians and some 
of the Circassian groups in the western part of the North Caucasus and the Kumuks 
in Dagestan developed stratified social structure in parallel with a developed feudal 
system. 
The Kabardians had the most sophisticated social structure. At the top of 
the pyramid or the social hierarchy, there was a class of prince or pshi. The pshis 
and their families have the highest ranking in the society, which was compared to 
the western barons of the high Middle Ages by Lemercier-Quelquejay.
44
 The 
children of the pshi had the honorific title of mirza or tuma. The clan of pshi did 
not divide into nuclear families and all the members obeyed the eldest member of 
the clan. They had lands and serfs collectively. Moreover, inheritance was 
                                                 
42
 Moshe Gammer, 1995. “Unity, Diversity and Conflict in the Northern Caucasus,” in Yaacov Ro’i 
(ed.), Muslim Eurasia: Conflicting Legacies, London: Frank Cass, 164. Hereafter Unity. 
43
 In addition to Gammer, Unity, see Ufuk Tavkul, 1993. Kafkasya Dağlılarında Hayat ve Kültür, 
İstanbul: Ötüken. 
44
 Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay, ‘Cooptation of the Elites,’ 25. 

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devolved from brother to brother not from father to son. These pshis had their own 
clans’ fortresses and, therefore, had a comparative amount of power. 
Next to the princely family came the uork (verk) or the gentry. These were 
the vassals of the princes. This class of gentry can be subdivided into two ranks: 
the most noble (tlakotle) and the less noble (dezhenugo). These nobles, most of the 
time, had a social privilege of establishing ties with a princely family. This social 
cohesion was secured by a custom of atalik, whereby children of princes were 
given to these nobles to be instructed by them in the military art. In this way, 
children of the vassals became foster brothers of pshis’ sons and later, when adults, 
their brothers in arms. 
In the middle of the pyramid there was the most populous class of free 
peasants or tlofoqotle  (Tfekotl) grouped in jama’ats. Next came to the peasants, 
called  og and loganapit, obliged to perform various chores, and then the slaves, 
Pshitli.
45
 
 
The other Circassian tribes were more primitive and divided compared to 
the Kabardians. These included the tribes of plains, Bzhedug, Janey, Kemirgoy, 
Abaza, and Besleney, which had a closer, but less rigid social structure to the 
Kabardians.
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 At the top of the social pyramid there was a prince (pshi). Then 
nobles, free peasants, serfs and slaves were placed in the social fabric. In contrast, 
the Circassian groups that were living in the mountain regions, the Abadzekhs and 
                                                 
45
 For the social structure and ‘classes’ in the Circassian tribes see Jabağhi Baj, 1999. Çerkezler: 
Kökleri, Sosyal Yaşamları, Gelenekleri, Ankara: İtalik, 96-113. Leonti Lyulye, 1998. Çerkesya, 
Tarihi-Etnografik Makaleler 1857-1862-1866, trnsl. by. Murat Papşu, İstanbul: Çiviyazıları. 
46
 See Uchenye Zapiski: Istoriia i etnografiia, (vol. IV), 1965. Krasnodar: Krasnodarskoe Knizhnoe 
Izdatel’stvo. 

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Hatukays, had no feudal hierarchy and no gentry but consisted of free peasants, 
equal in rights, grouped in jama’ats. 
On the other hand, the other kin of the Circassian groups, the Abazas, had 
reached a fairly advanced stage of feudal development comparable to the 
Kabardians.
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 At the top the social pyramid, there was the prince or rather the 
clan’s chief called apsha or akha. Next to him, there was the class of the great 
nobles (amistadi or tawad) and then the small nobles, vassals of the former 
aamista. Then the free peasants called ankhayua, akavi or tefakashau came. Lower 
down the social ladder were the freed serfs forced to perform certain chores called 
azat-lig and the serfs (lig), and finally comes the slaves (unavi).
48
 
 
In the central parts of the North Caucasus, there were the Vaynakh tribes, 
Chechens and the Ingush. The name Chechen is derived from village Chechen on 
the Argun River, and those people call themselves Nokhche or Vaynakh, the 
Chechen word for people or person. The Ingush received their name from the 
village of Angushta or Ingusht in the Terek valley, and they call themselves as 
Galgay or Lamur.
49
 Within these communities there were no aristocracy. Instead, 
they were made up of large undivided families and clans whose members 
considered themselves free, noble, and equal to each other.
50
 
The other people of the central North Caucasus, the Osetians compared to 
the Kabardians had an established stratified social structure although less rigid. At 
                                                 
47
 Sh. D. Inal-Ipa, “Ob Abkhazo-Adygskikh Etnograficheskikh Paralleliakh,” in Uchenye Zapiski: 
Istoriia i etnografiia, (vol. IV), 1965. Krasnodar: Krasnodarskoe Knizhnoe Izdatel’stvo, 222-246. 
48
 Valeri Beygua, 1990. Abhazya Tarihi, transl. Papapha Mahinur Tuna, İstanbul: Asyayın, 49-54. 
49
 R. Traho, 1957 “Literature on Checheno-Ingushes and Karachay-Balkars,” Caucasian Review, 
(Munich), 5: 76. 

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