.... What religions are practised in Chechnya?
The Vainakh ancestors of the Chechens and Ingushes were originally pagan. Paganism reigned all over the Caucasus from the 3rd to the first millennium B.C. during the times of Hurrian and Urartu states. Christianity came to the North Caucasus from Georgia somewhere around the 10th century.
Not only legends and traditions testify to the Christian past of Chechens, but also numerous ancient and medieval monuments and artifacts discovered by archaeologists. Historically speaking, the period of Christianity in Chechnya did not last for long.
The 13th - 15th centuries were marked by aggressive Muslim penetration, and the majority of Chechens had embraced Islam by the 15th and 16th centuries.
Sufism began to be propagated in Chechnya in the mid-19th century, with its religious tolerance and a penchant for metaphysical idealism and asceticism. Islam retained its influence in Chechnya even in the Soviet years when worship was not encouraged. Preachers from various Arab countries brought Wahhabism to Chechnya in the latter half of the 1990s. Followers of wahhabism, which has a strong political tinge based on subjective interpretation of Islamic precepts, seek to spread Islam worldwide and establish a united Muslim state, the caliphate. When Wahhabites preach jihad, or holy war, they mean a fight not only against infidels, but non-Wahhabite Muslims as well.
Why have the Chechens failed to create their own state?
Vainakh tribes, which populated modern-day Chechnya, and related Caucasian nations attempted to establish a state of their own even in the earlymiddle ages.
Thus, the Serir kingdom existed in the Chechen and Dagestani mountains from the 4th century to the 12th, while Alanian multiethnic early feudal state was formed in the North Caucasian plains and foothills. Mongol invaders forced Chechens into the mountains in the 13th and 14th centuries. The hosts of Tamerlane wiped the Semsim state off the face of the map at the end of the 14th century ending to a long period of decline.
As the Golden Horde disintegrated, Chechens began venturing down from the mountains to re-populate gradually the plains. The traditional mode of life was restored in the greater part of Chechnya, with the adat, unwritten common code of law, alone limiting personal freedom. At the same time, belonging to the tribal and feudal nobility did not guarantee hereditary rule . The Vainakh held freedom sacred.
Their bellicose individualism was so strong that at a certain stage of development it proved to be an obstacle to the emergence of a nation. Indicatively, as Chechen communities became embroiled in internecine strife, they invited princelings of their highland neighbours to rule them, because they feared the rise of anyone of their own. Local feudal rulers could only rule small localities. The Vainakh never had a king, so unity was always a topical problem with them.
The Chechen community was alien to statehood, and customs were the main thing they would bow to.
With mountain communities, the interests of the family and the clan usually prevailed over the national ones.
That was why it was difficult to establish a lasting state there.
Full text here: http://www.rian.ru/rian/chechnya/en/
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