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19 
 
In the Caucasus, the Armenians were the first nation to embrace 
Christianity officially in the 4
th
 century.
32
 Then the Byzantines spread it among the 
Georgians in the 5
th
 century. From Georgia, Christianity extended into the North 
Caucasus, to Abkhazia, and the Adyge territories in the 6
th
 and 7
th
 centuries.
33
 
While the Georgians began to spread Christianity throughout the area of current 
day Georgia and into the central Caucasus, (roughly contemporary Osetia) the 
Armenians introduced it into the southeastern Dagestan and among the Udi and 
Tats of Azerbaijan. 
Nevertheless, the Christological controversy divided the Christians in the 
5
th
 century. Those who were under strong Byzantine influence followed Byzantium 
and became Chalcedonic Eastern Orthodox Christians
34
, whereas the Armenians 
and the peoples converted by them became Monophysite (Armeno-Gregorian) 
Christians.
35
 Thus, in Dagestan, the autocephalous Albanian Monophysite church 
was established, to which the southeastern Dagestanis, the Udi, and the Christian 
Tats were attached. However, partly, because of the geographical conditions, which 
isolated communities and prevented the infiltration of external elements, and partly 
                                                 
32
 For the history of Christianity in Armenia see “Armenia, Christianity in,” in F. L. Cross (ed.), 
1974. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford Un. Press: New York: 106. 
33
 Michel Tarran, 1991. “The Orthodox Mission in the North Caucasus –End of the 18
th
 – Beginning 
of the 19
th
 Century,” Central Asian Survey, 10(1/2): 103. 
34
 The Fourth Oecumenical Council held in the city of Chalcedeon in Asia Minor, nearly opposite 
Byzantium. At the first meeting, held on 8 Oct. 451, some 500-600 bishops were present, all of 
them Easterns except two bishops. The Council then drew up a statement of faith, the so-called 
Chalcedonian Definition, which was accepted by the Oriental Orthodox Churches. According to the 
Definition the Incarnate Christ is one Person in two Natures and caused the emergence of split 
within the Christian world. For a detailed information see The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian 
Church: 315. 
35
 Monophysitism, in contrast to the Definition of Chalcedeon, is a doctrine that in the Incarnate 
Christ there is only one nature, not two. See The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church: 1104-
1105. 

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20 
 
because of the power of Islam, Christianity could not be effective and spread 
among the peoples of the North Caucasus.
36
 
The Russians initiated the last attempt, which aimed at the Christianisation 
of the Mountaineers in the second half of the 18
th
 century. In this activity, the 
Russian’s main agents were the Osetians. Through the ‘Osetian Commission’, 
which was established in Mozdok in 1745, Russians achieved limited success. 
Following it, during the second half of the 19
th
 century, these activities were 
assumed by ‘the Society for the Restoration of Orthodox Christianity’ in the 
Caucasus, but the Russian administration did not succeed in converting a large 
number of Mountaineers to Christianity.
37
 
 
The other religion that attracted attention in the region is Judaism. 
Interestingly, there is a small number of Jews, called Tats or Mountain Jews.
38
 
These people who were escaping from the assaults of the Sassanian kings of Persia, 
quite probably established a Jewish military colony just south of the present day 
city of Derbent. They spoke a southwest Iranian language, Tat, as did the 
Zoroastrian and Armeno-Gregorian Tats. In addition to these groups, the upper 
classes of the Khazars, who had arrived in Dagestan in 6-7
th
 centuries also adopted 
Judaism. 
 
                                                 
36
 Wixman, 67-69. 
37
 In addition to Michel Tarran, see Austin Jersild, October 2000. “Faith, Custom, and Ritual in the 
Borderlands: Orthodoxy, Islam, and the ‘Small Peoples’ of the Middle Volga and the North 
Caucasus,” The Russian Review, 59: 512-529. 
38
 For a detailed study on Mountain Jews see Laurent Mallet, 1996. “Bir Kafkas “Tuhaflığı”: Dağ 
Yahudileri ve Tatlar,’ Toplumsal Tarih 6(36): 21-27. 

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21 
 
In brief, despite the existence of several religions from animism to Judaism, 
Islam is the most comprehensive and deep-rooted religion in the region. It 
preserved its dynamic position, as the main feature of the North Caucasian identity 
among the autochthonous peoples of the North Caucasus and strengthened the 
notion of unity with the help of the tariqats. 
 
4-The Social Structure:
39
 
The social structure of the North Caucasian society was based on the clan or 
tribal system. Although most of the peoples of the North Caucasus have already 
passed the early stages of the social development, the tribal bonds were influential 
in the daily life of some peoples of the North Caucasus, at least until the mid-20
th
 
century. It was particularly strong among the Vaynakhs, whose the tribal bonds still 
have a role in determining the social and political relations.
40
 
The first concrete information related to the social structure of the North 
Caucasus went back to the early 15
th
 and 16
th
 centuries which based on Russian and 
Ottoman documents, and the travellers’ books.
41
 In that period, the North 
                                                 
39
 M. O. Kosven, Etnografiia. I. Kh. Kalmykov, 1974. Cherkesy: Istoriko-etnograficheskii Ocherk, 
Cherkessk: n.p. Mekulov, D. H. (eds.), 1991. Cherkesiia v XIX Veke: Materialy 1 Kashekhabl’skogo 
Foruma «Istoriya-Dostoianie Naroda» Maikop: Adygeisski Ordena Znak Pocheta, hereafter 
Cherkesiia. Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay, “Cooptation of the Elites of Kabarda and Daghestan in 
the sixteenth century,” in Marie Bennigsen Broxup and et al. (eds.), 18-44. Hereafter “Cooptation of 
the Elites,”. 
40
 Jane Ormrod, 1997. “The North Caucasus: Confederation in Conflict,” in Ian Bremmer and Roy 
Taras (eds.), New States New Politics: Building the Post-Soviet Nations, Cambridge: Cambridge 
University Press, 96. 
41
 Julius von Klaproth, 1814. Travels in The Caucasus and Georgia Performed in The Years 1807 
and 1808, London: Henry Colburn. George Leighton Ditson, 1850. Circassia or A Tour the 
Caucasus, London: T. C. Newby. Xavier Hommaire De Hell, 1847. Travels in The Steppes of The 
Caucasus, London: Chapman and Hall.Taitbout De Marigny, 1837. Three Voyages in The Black Sea 
to The Coast of Circassia, London: John Murray. John Longworth, 1996. A Year Among 
Circassians (1837-1838), for its Turkish translation Kafkas Halklarının Özgürlük Savaşı (1837-
1838), trans. by Sedat Özden, Kayseri: rey Yayıncılık. 

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