The legends of taipa, which are often those of a village, generally belong to oral tradition. It should be noted that, unlike strictly family genealogies that everyone knows (the custom requires each Chechen or Ingush to know how to list, at least, eight generations of the family lineage) these legends are not known to everyone. In a village, there is always someone who can tell them, but the others know nothing about them (Ivanenkov, 1910, p. 10).
There we find genealogies, part of an epic tradition, which may have no connection with the Arab-Muslim past. Some refer, for example, to the Nartes. Thus, at the end of the 19th centurye century, many Ingush families claimed to be their descendants; one of the observers of the time knew an old man who was able to list the twenty generations that separated him from a Narte (Dumézil, 1930, p. 14-15).
At the same time, we find genealogies that go back to the most prestigious Arab ancestors. It may be Abū Muslim (Abu Buslo in a local pronunciation), a semi-legendary character to whom the spread of Islam is attributed. Dagestan and which several Dagestani feudal dynasties claim (Istoria Dagestana, 1967, p. 158). Very often, among the founders are nationals of Shām (Syria). The great connoisseur of mountain Chechens, N. Ivanenkov, cites some interesting examples, all of which date from the beginning of the 20th century.e century.
Thus, the inhabitants of two neighboring villages in the Argun river basin, Nakhtchi-Keloï and Tchebah-Keloï, are linked to Hasan and Husayn, descendants of a Syrian national. There legend relates that a certain Syrian king or prince decided to introduce a new law prohibiting vendetta and punishing any murderer with death. Unfortunately, the prince's son, Nasho, must suffer this fate first. His mother then intervenes to save him: “I too have rights over my son; let the judges pronounce their verdict! »Condemned to exile, Nasho leaves the country; finally, he finds himself in Nashkha (plateau in the south of Chechnya, legendary home of all Chechen tribes). There, he became the father of seven sons; from one of them came Hasan and Husayn, founders of the above-named villages (Ivanenkov, 1910, p. 10). Residents of other villages in the same locality report similar stories about the “brothers from Shām”. Such as the village of Zumsoj, some of the inhabitants of which claim to be descendants of Shāmil Khān, one of the five brothers “from the house of the Prophet”, who are said to have emigrated to flee the anger of the Syrian sovereign (Ivanenkov, 1910, p. 11-12).
The taipa from Ersanoj, in Itchkeria (southeast of the Chechen country), traces its history to Qulāb, a resident of the town of Shām in Turkey. According to legend, Qulāb retired to Bukhara with his son Kusay, where the latter kidnapped Huzeymat, engaged to a certain Ahmat. With her, he took refuge in Nashkha, where she gave him a son, Mulku. Ahmat finds his offender in Nashkha and kills him; Huzeymat returns to Bukhara with Mulku, to his brothers. At the age of fifteen, Mulku, who when still very young showed extraordinary strength and endurance, becomes a bold and insolent teenager. The Bukhariot old men persuade Huzeymat to leave the city. This is how Mulku found himself in Ichkeria and built his stone house, just opposite the village of Ersanoj (Popov, 1870, p. 9-10). We can notice the absence of any indication on the Islam of the founder, who could, in principle, be pagan; in any case, the Ersenoj are bearers of a particular tradition, according to which they owe their conversion to Islam to a certain Bersan, a Dagestani who came to them in the eighth generation from the arrival of Mulku (Popov, 1870, p. 13).
