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the top of the stratification there were the nobles called aldar and badilat, and then 
free peasants, (farsalag), serfs (kavsadar), and slaves. 
 
In the eastern part of the North Caucasus, or the Dagestan, the social 
structure was widely diversified. Among the peoples of Dagestan only the Kumuks 
had achieved a very complex society, almost as complicated as that of the 
Kabardians, represented by a rigid pyramid of social classes upheld by adat, the 
customary law. At the top of the pyramid there was the princely clan; the princes, 
the khans and their relatives who were called mirza,  beg or bey and all those 
comprised the Shamkhal. Then came the middle class, the chanka, which 
comprised the children of members of the princely clan and women, who belonged 
to the nobility of inferior rank (chanka or uzden). The third rank called uzden, 
consisted of free noble agricultural workers, vassals of the Shamkal. Below the 
uzden there was a large group of subordinates who were subdivided into several 
groups. Free, but not noble agricultural workers who made up the mass of the 
population assembled into the jama’ats or communities. The group of serfs, called 
cagar or rayat, whose duty to perform certain chores; and finally, at the bottom of 
the social ladder slaves called yasir or qul, in most cases Russian and Georgian 
former prisoners of war, or else purchased in the slave markets. 
The other peoples of Dagestan, especially the tribes of the high mountains, 
had not yet reached the level of development of the peoples of the plains, (mainly 
the Kumuks in the 17
th
 century). In almost all of these tribes, members of the 
community were considered as free and equal members in principle. Generally, 
                                                                                                                                        
50
 Şamil Mansur, 1995. Çeçenler, Ankara: Sam Yayınları, 33-36. 

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they were grouped into the communities or jama’ats ruled by the elders of the 
community. 
 
5-The Political Make up: 
As pointed out above, the tribe was the main source of identification, and 
the settled agricultural and pastoral North Caucasian tribes were still living mainly 
in villages, called aul in mountainous regions and yurt in the lowlands. In 15
th
 and 
16
th
 centuries, the most widespread form of settlement was a village that comprised 
mainly of one tribe. Later, in time, because of the economic and legal relationships, 
and of security concerns, settlements or rural communes comprised of several 
tribes named jama’at in Dagestan and tuqum among the Vaynakhs, began to form. 
These rural communes, in late 18
th
 and early 19
th
 centuries became socio-political 
and territorial entities united by common economic and defence aims, rather than a 
purely tribal one. In the late 18
th
 century, (especially in Dagestan) there were about 
60 communities or principalities with a constantly changing social structure. 
Moreover, within the same period, from these jama’ats began to form loose 
confederations in case of external threat, mainly from Russian. 
By the beginning of the 19
th
 century these jama’ats began to develop 
permanent central political formations. The most powerful among them included 
the Shamkalat, the Avar Khanate, the Khanate of Ghazi-Kumuk and the 
principalities of Kaytak and Tabasaran.
51
 
                                                 
51
 For these principalities see Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay, “Cooptation of the Elites,” 31-7 and 
Anna Zelkina, 2000. In Quest for God and Freedom: A Sufi Response to the Russian Advance in the 
North Caucasus, New York: New York University Press, 16-20. Hereafter God and Freedom. 

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In almost all jama’ats the ultimate authority was vested in the council of 
elders, which was made up of representatives of each clan and tribe in the 
commune. Over time, with the expansion of these associations, ruling dynasties 
came into being. The way in which these dynasties came into being and the titles 
they used varied from one jama’at to another. While in some parts they took the 
name Khan or Sultan, in others they used the titles of Maysum, Ustmi, Shamkhal or 
Qadi. These central rulers, in parallel with the establishment of their authority, 
began to remove local rulers by appointing their own agents as governors, mostly 
named naib or bek, to the jama’ats under their authority, and in turn they formed 
the local gentry. 
 
The most powerful of these confederation-like structures was the 
Shamkhalat that controlled the northern and norteastern parts of Dagestan 
including the capital of the aul of Ghazi-Kumuk initially, and then Tarku. The 
Shamkhalat population consisted mainly of Kumuks, with a minority of Laks in the 
mountainous regions, and some Chechen, Avar and Nogay free jama’ats, and 
clans. Nevertheless, as in the case of most North Caucasian confederations, the 
Shamkhalat was divided into smaller parts in the 17
th
 century ruled by sultans. 
The Avar Khanate, which was made up of the Avars and small Andi and 
Dido tribes, placed in the high valleys of the Dagestan with its capital in the aul of 
Khunzakh. The rulers of the Khanate had the title of nutsal and were chosen from 
the members of the princely clan and elected by an assembly of elders and gentry. 
At the end of the 17
th
 century the dignity of nutsal became hereditary and with the  
 

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