Ingush people

According to Leonti Mroveli, Caucas (Kavkasos) is the legendary ancestor of the Ingush. Vakhtang VI of Kartli, as well as his son Vakhushti of the Bagrationi dynasty, refer to them as Dzurdzuks.[8][9]
Many Georgian, Greek and German authors also use the term Kists or Ghlighvi.[10][11] The ancient Greek historian Strabo wrote about the Gelai,[12], living in Northern slopes of the Caucasus in the vicinity of the Mermadalis river, commonly known as Terek. American cartographer Joseph Hutchins Colton also labeled the people as Gelians.[13]

The Ingush never had a feudal system.[14] They were always governerned by highly esteemed selected elders among the Ingush clans. In 1770, the elders of 24 Ingush tribes signed a treaty with Russia,[15] but are commonly considered under Russian rule from 1810. The Ingush, however, considered themselves independent, and were unwilling to conform to Russian laws, which led to various skirmishes with Russian forces in Ingushetia.[16] Under Soviet rule during World War II the Ingush, along with the Chechens were falsely accused of collaborating with the Nazis and thus, the entire population was deported to the Kazakh and Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republics. The Ingush were rehabilitated in the 1950s, after the death of Joseph Stalin, and allowed to return home in 1957, though by that time western Ingush lands had been ceded to North Ossetia.

The Caucasian type (Latin: Varietas Caucasia) is a North Caucasian variant of the Caucasian race, present among the peoples living in Central Caucasus on the territory of the Koban archaeological culture (mid II - end of the 1st millennium BC) and the settlement of the Alans (I-XV).
Anthropologist V.V. Bunak stated:

«Among the Ingush, this Caucasian type was preserved more than any of the other North Caucasian peoples.»

The famous Soviet archaeologist and historian, professor E.I. Krupnov described the Ingush towers in his work «Medieval Ingushetia»[17]:

«Ingush battle towers are in the true sense the pinnacle of the architectural and constructional mastery of the ancient population of the region. Striking in their simplicity of form, monumentality and strict grace. For their time, the Ingush towers were a true miracle of human genius.»

The Ingush possess a varied culture of traditions, legends, epics, tales, songs, proverbs, and sayings. Music, songs and dance are particularly highly regarded. Popular musical instruments include the dachick-panderr (a kind of balalaika), kekhat ponder (accordion, generally played by girls), mirz ponder (a three-stringed violin), zurna (a type of oboe), tambourine, and drums.

The Ingush are predominantly Sunni Muslims of the Shāfi‘ī Madh'hab, with a Sufi background.[18]

The Caucasus populations exhibit, on average, less variability than other populations for the eight Alu insertion poly-morphisms analysed here. The average heterozygosity is less than that for any other region of the world, with the exception of Sahul. Within the Caucasus, Ingushians have much lower levels of variability than any of the other populations. The Ingushians also showed unusual patterns of mtDNA variation when compared with other Caucasus populations (Nasidze and Stoneking, submitted), which indicates that some feature of the Ingushian population history, or of this particular sample of Ingushians, must be responsible for their different patterns of genetic variation at both mtDNA and the Alu insertion loci.[19][20]

— European Journal of Human Genetics, 2001

According to one test by Nasidze in 2003 (analyzed further in 2004), the Y-chromosome structure of the Ingush greatly resembled that of neighboring Caucasian populations (especially Chechens, their linguistic and cultural brethren).[21][22]

There has been only one notable study on the Ingush Y chromosome. These following statistics should not be regarded as final, as Nasidze's test had a notably low sample data for the Ingush. However, they do give an idea of the main haplogroups of the Ingush.

• J2 – 89% of Ingush have the highest reported frequency of J2 which is associated with the Fertile Crescent.[23]
• F* – (11% of Ingush)[22] This haplogroup was called "F*" by Nasidze. It may have actually been any haplogroup under F that was not under G, I, J2, or K; however, it is probably consists of haplotypes that are either under J1 (typical of the region, with very high frequencies in parts of Dagestan, as well as Arabia, albeit in a different subclade) or F3.
• G – (27% of Ingush)[22] Typical of the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Caucasus. The highest values were found among Georgians, Circassians and Ossetes. There was a noticeable difference in G between Ingush and Chechens (in J2 and F*, Ingush and Chechens have similar levels), possibly attributable to low samples that were all from the same town.

In the mtDNA, the Ingush formed a more clearly distinct population, with distance from other populations. The closest in an analysis by Nasidze were Chechens, Kabardins and Adyghe (Circassians), but these were all much closer to other populations than they were to the Ingush.[22]

• List of Ingush people
• Vainakhia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ingush people.

• News and History of Ingushetia
• The Ingush people