The Kumyks are a Turkic-speaking people, living in the northern Caucasus region of southwestern Russia, mostly in the lowlands of northeastern Dagestan near the Caspian Sea and to the north in Chechniya. others live in Turkey, Iran, and Syria. The Kumyks consider themselves indigenous to the region. The first historical mention of them occurred in the second century c. e. Yet they acknowledge ancestry and influences from other peoples as well, such as the Khazars and Kipchaks, fellow Turkics who lived among them in the fourth to 12th centuries; their speech has elements from the languages of those peoples. They also count Huns among their ancestors.
The Kumyks adopted islam in the 11th century. From the 15 th century to 1867 they were united in the Shamkhalat khanate (shamkhal is their word for a prince), after which they were under Russian administration. The Kumyk language was the lingua franca of the region for some three centuries.
After the Russian Revolution in 1917 the Kumyks joined other North Caucasian peoples in the struggle for a North Caucasian Democratic Republic; Dagestan was created in 1920 as a Soviet republic, and cultural identities were suppressed. In 1989 during the First Congress of Kumyk People the Kumyk People’s Movement known as Tengelik was founded to preserve cultural traditions and develop the economy In 1991 Dagestan, consisting of 19 different ethnic groups, became a republic within Russia and subsequently a member of the Russian Federation.
The Kumyks are traditionally an agricultural people who in the 20th and 21st centuries have worked increasingly in industry, especially in port cities. Traditional Kumyk clothing includes tunic-shaped shirts and pants and quilted coats, often decorated with gold and silver trim. They perform songs and dances accompanied by stringed instruments called kumuzes, wind instruments, and accordions.
See also Russians: nationality.
Kuns See CUMANS; Kipchaks.
Kurs See CURONIANS.
World History
