Prince Inal

Prince Inal (Circassian: Инал, Yinal), called Inal the Great by Georgian sources, was a medieval Circassian prince of the Kabarday tribe who took the sovereign power, or authority in the Kabardia region of Circassia in the 15th century and had taken as his goal to unify all of the Circassians who were divided into several tribes into one state. Each Circassian tribe maintained a distinct region in Circassia and had a ruling class of their own. The Circassian princes, more specifically the Kabarday princes called themselves the sons of Inal and boasted their descent from him and regarded him as their patriarch, or hypothetical father and their progenitor. Prince Inal, surnamed Nexw (and Nef in the western regions of Circassia), which in the Circassian language means the "bright", the one who casts light. He was considered by the Kabarday princes as their common ancestor and described him as a mighty khan. Before his death in the year 1453,[1] Prince Inal, the valiant and the prudent had succeeded in uniting all of Circassia as well as Abkhazia into one state, but split up again into separate feudal principalities after his death.

Inal's name is also present in geographical names in Caucasus. There is mount Inal (2990 m) between Baksan River and Tyzyl valleys.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Shora Nogma has 1427 (per Richmond, Northwest Caucasus, kindle@610). In a later book (Circassian Genocide kindle @47) Richmond reports the legend that Inal reunited the tribes after they were driven into the mountains by the Mongols. In a footnote (@2271) he says that Inal was a royal title among the Oguz Turks
  2. ↑ Pawel Krawczyk (2009). "Horse Farm at 2500 meters high". Kabardians.com. Retrieved 2015-01-24.
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