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Krasnodar and Stavropol Krais, where the mainland Russia can be said to begin in 
the north. For the southern borders of the North Caucasus, it is very difficult to 
determine the exact demarcation line. While, the Transcaucasian Republics 
constituted an administrative border, historically and ethnically, the areas along the 
southern slopes of the Great Caucasus mountain chain inhabited by the Abkhaz, 
South Osetians (currently in Georgia), Tats and Lezgins (currently in Azerbaijan) 
are also included. 
 
1-The North Caucasian Geography:
2
 
The Caucasus is essentially a mountain region and the meaning of the term 
itself reflects this. According to the Encyclopedia of Islam the word Caucasus or 
‘kabk’ may be derived from the Middle Persian word ‘kāfkāh’ which means ‘the 
mountain of ‘Kāf’ (or Qaf). In Firdawsi we find the Caucasus called ‘kūh-i kāf’. 
The Turks, of the same origin, called the region the ‘Kavkaz’ or ‘Kafkas’.
3
 
Similarly, according to Karl Menges, this name is not of Caucasian origin. The 
region, which was known to the ancient Greeks and thus to the entire West by the 
name ‘Kaukasos’, from which comes the Latin Caucasus, adopted by all other 
                                                 
2
 For a detailed description of the geography of the Caucasus in general, and the North Caucasus in 
specific see Karl H. Meyers, “Geographical Setting” in Tibor Halasi-Kun and et al., 1956. The 
Caucasus, New Haven: Columbia University Language and Research Center, 17-263. T. Halasi-
Kun, “The Caucasus: An Ethno-Historical Survey,” 1963. Studia Caucasica, 1, The Hague: Mouton 
& Co. Ronald Wixman, 1980. Language Aspects of Ethnic Patterns and Processes in the North 
Caucasus, Chichago: The University of Chichago, Department of Geography, 45-56. W.E.D. Allen 
and Paul Muratoff, 1953. Caucasian Battlefields: A History of the Wars on The Turco-Caucasian 
Border, 1828-1921, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 3-21; John F. Baddeley, 1999. The 
Russian Conquest of the Caucasus, Surrey: Curzon Press, xxi-xxxviii. 
3
 See E. van Donzel and et al., 1978The Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. IV, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 341-
352. Also see Meyers, 20. 

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European languages. This word, he pointed out, may well be derived from the 
ancient Persian ‘Krau-kasis’ which means ‘ice-covered’ or ‘ice-resplendent’. 
“The seafaring traveller from the West sees these mountains slowly 
emerging from the sea, their white peaks rising the skies, as the ship 
advances to the East until it drops anchor in one of the ports of Colchis.”
 4
 
 
The topographic, climatic and soil characteristics have all been influential 
in the establishment of the present complex ethnographic and demographic 
structure of the North Caucasus. The inhabitants of the region, without any 
hesitation, voluntarily acquired the name of the Mountaineers to refer to 
themselves.
5
 As Baddeley put it, “it may be said without exaggeration that the 
mountains made the men; and the men in return fought with passionate courage and 
energy in defence of their beloved mountains, in whose fastness, indeed, they were 
wellnigh unconquerable.”
 6
 
In geographical terms within the North Caucasus three types of landscape 
can be distinguished: 
1)  The low coastlines along the Black and the Caspian seas. 
2)  The fertile plains and the low hills. 
3) High Mountains. 
In the north, the slopes of the main chain of the Caucasian Mountains 
descend to the North Caucasian steppe. The Stavropol plateau divides this fertile 
plain and the low hills into two somewhat vaguely definable sectors: the western 
                                                 
4
 Meyers, 19. 
5
 The natives of the North Caucasus called as Mountaineers. This was derived from their living area, 
that is Dagestan and the mountainous parts of the North Caucasus. Dag means mountain in Turkish, 
moreover some other ethno-linguistic groups also called themselves Daglı or Tavlı, the 
Mountaineers, as such Avars called themselves as Maarulal, literally means mountain dwellers. 
Then the Russians inspired from it named those peoples as Gortsy, Mountaineers. 
6
 Baddeley, xxi-xxii. 

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and eastern sectors. The western sector has been called as the Kuban, traditionally, 
after the Kuban River. The eastern sector is called as the Nogay steppe, after the 
Nogay nomads who inhabited the region.
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The Kuban region, because of its geographic situation, is influenced by the 
moist climate of the Black Sea basin. It experiences heavy rain and snowfall, and 
therefore has subhumid to humid climatic conditions. In contrast, the eastern sector 
is drier and climatically more continental. Because of this agriculture is not 
possible in much of the Nogay steppes without irrigation, although the western 
sector has rich grasslands and rich and fertile agricultural potential. In general, 
there is extensive agricultural activity in the North Caucasian coastlines, plains and 
low hills. Wheat, corn, sunflowers, sugar beet, tobacco, rice, fruit and vegetables 
flourish and, even some sub-tropical plants, such as cotton, can be grown. 
Vineyards and orchards abound in the foothills, while animal husbandry, raising 
cattle and fine horses, is another important activity in the region. 
 
A high wall-like barrier, the Caucasian Mountain chain stretches from the 
Black Sea to the Caspian varying from 32 to 180 kilometres in width.
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The Caucasus is the highest mountain range in the European continent, and 
the highest peaks in Europe are to be found there: Elbrus (5633 meters), Diktav 
(5203 meters), Koştan Tav (5150 meters), and Kazbek (5047 meters) are all higher 
                                                 
7
 Wixman, 46. 
8
 Related with the width of the Caucasian Mountain chain there were diversified figures. This 
above-mentioned figures are quoted from Moshe Gammer, 1994. Muslim Resistance to the Tsar: 
Shamil and the Conquest of Chechnia and Daghestan, London: Frank Cass, 11. Hereafter, Muslim 
Resistance. 

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