The question of the origin of the Meskhi Meskhetians and their settlement in what is now southern Georgia is poorly understood. However, there is no doubt that the history of the formation of Meskhs as the Turkish-speaking population of Meskheti-Javakheti is closely connected with the history of Georgia and Turkey, as well as Iran.

Throughout their long history, the Meskhetian Turks have been in intensive relations with Georgians, Armenians, Kurds, Persians, and Arabs. Such contacts left a deep impression on the language, culture, and anthropological type of this ethnic group in Meskheti.

Each wave of conquerors of Meskheti-Javakheti left their traces and memories on this historical land, however, there is no reason to consider them the ancestors of the current Meskhetian Turks. Thus, I do not agree with Arif Yunusov1 that the Huns, Saragurs, Sabirs, Abdals, Hephthalites, Bulgarians, Avars, Tolos, Tubo and others are the historical ancestors of the Meskhetian Turks. After all, neither in memory, nor in vocabulary, nor in culture and everyday life of the Meskhetian Turks does the memory of these ethnic groups live.

The modern people, known as Meskhi, are direct descendants of the ancient population of the Caucasus. The philologically exact coincidence of the ethnonym of the Pontic Meskhs of ancient authors (and possibly of the Georgian-speaking Moskhs) and the name of the eastern and western Mushks of the Near-Asian sources is most easily explained by the fact that we are talking about a people who lived on the border of the (eastern) Mushksky and Kartvelsky areas ^.2

K. Tsereteli believes that the late Greek Mosh (oi) is a variant of the ancient Greek "moskhi" ³ . Since the names of flies (meskhs) are also associated with the north-eastern edge of Asia Minor according to later sources, it can be assumed that the flies (meskhs) that appeared in northern Mesopotamia moved towards Meskhetia4 .

It is true that from the first centuries AD, Turkic-speaking peoples appear in the South Caucasus and Turkic languages begin to penetrate the local Meskhic population of Southern Georgia. The Turkic ethnic component became stronger in the XI-XV centuries, and in the XIII-XIV centuries the local rulers of Meskheti became known by the Turkic title atabek. In 1469, the ruler of Meskheti (then called Samtskhe), Atabek Sarkis II, declared his independence from Tbilisi and his state became known in Georgian sources as Samtskhe-Saatabago, i.e. Atabek Samtskhe ⁵ .

The entry of Meskheti into the Ottoman Empire (1639-1829) was crucial for the consolidation and final formation of the Meskhian population into a single ethnic group with a common (Turkish in its core)one language and culture.

The current independent Meskhov Turkish language was formed on the basis of the Anatolian Turkish dialect6 . The script was created on the basis of Arabic graphics. The vocabulary and grammatical structure are basically Turkish, including many Persian, Arabic and Georgian elements.

The Iranian influence on the Meskhov language, which dates back to the Achaemenid era, intensified during the entry of Meskheti into the Safavid empire in the XVI-XVIII centuries . ⁷ Many words and terms related to agriculture are borrowed from the Iranian languages: armud (pear), nar (pomegranate), kavun (melon), lobia (bean), karpuz (watermelon), harman (threshing floor), chavdar (rye), pirin (rice), hiar (cucumber), shaftali (peach), meiwa (fruit), bostan (vegetable garden), melon (garden), bagh (vineyard), harman (threshing), lanchpar (plowman), and also names of dishes and products related to agriculture: erishta (dried noodles), nishasta (starch), may (yeast), chorba (soup), pilav (pilaf), khoshav (compote). Terms related to the construction of settled dwellings are Iranian in origin: takhta (board), zham (glass), tuvar (wall), panjara (window), bazha (roof), mardivan (staircase), khana (house), kent (village).

The geographical terms darya (sea), chaman (meadow, lawn), dere (ravine, gorge); names of animals and birds: zhanavar (predatory animal), khoroz (rooster); names of seasons and days of the week: bazar (Sunday), etasi bazaar (Monday), sali

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(Tuesday), Chershanbah (Wednesday), Pershanbah (Thursday), Zhuma (Friday), Zhuma Ertasi (Saturday), Hafta (week), Bahar (spring); administrative vocabulary: Paytakht (capital), Takht (throne), Padishah (king, ruler), Rahbar (leader), zindat (prison), zhank (war), farman (order).

There are many Arabisms in the Meskhetian language. But this does not indicate a particularly important role of the Arabs in the ethnogenesis of the Meskhetian Turks, but only the strong influence of Arab culture on the Turkish-speaking Meskhs through religion, education, and literature. Most of the Arabic borrowings are "bookish" in nature. So, many of them are associated with the spread of Arabic writing: alifba (alphabet), harf (letter), rakam (number), kitap (book), maktub (letter), katip (scribe), syfir (zero), imlya (spelling), kalam (pencil), taliba (student).

All religious terms are Arabic. Almost all abstract concepts are also denoted by Arabic words: haqiqat (truth), fiqir (thought), insaf (justice, humanity, mercy), adalat (justice) , etc. Many conjunctions are also of Arabic origin: ve (i), faqat (however), amma (but). Colloquial Arabic words are relatively few: sharap (wine), hamur (dough), saat (clock), nal (horseshoe) and a few others.

In the language of the Meskhetian Turks, there are also traces of the Modern Greek language: pilaki (clay pans), tirpan (spit), dirgan (pitchfork), synyr (border), fidan (graft, seedling), filich (sunrise), kiraz (cherry), lakhana (cabbage), somin (loaf), havli (garden yard), tamal (stone foundation), kiramut (brick), badavra (shingles for covering the roof), haite (stone).

Through Modern Greek, some Italian words also penetrated to meskham: furtna (storm), portakal (orange), furun (bakery oven). From Modern Greek to meskham came umuz (shoulder), lohusa (woman in labor), nanni (lullaby). These words were most likely transmitted through Greek women who married Meskhs or were taken into the harem ^.8

The Meskhov language also contains a small number of Armenian words: gami (threshing board), kutan (plow), patak (beehive, honeycomb) ⁹ .

Mainly Caucasian ethnic elements took part in the ethnogenesis of the Meskhs. Meskhetians have Hattian, Phrygian, Lydian, Persian, Georgian, Armenian, Kurdish, Khazar, and Hellenic blood in their veins.

Based on many years of research, Georgian Turkologists have stated that until November 14, 1944, the territory of Meskheti-Javakheti was inhabited by Turkish-speaking Meskhi Muslims with an independent language unit called the Akhaltsikhe or Meskheti dialect of the Turkish language, adjacent to the East Anatolian group of its dialects ^.10

Dialectological observations on the language of the Meskhetian Turks, as well as the generic names and ethnic features preserved by the Muslim Meskhs, allow us to conclude that the Meskhetian Turks (Meskhs) are ethnographically far from the Huns, Kipchaks, Oghuzs and Eftalites.

notes

^{Yunusov Arif.} 1 Akhyskinskiye (Meskheti) turki: dvukha deportirovannyy narod [Akhyskinskiye (Meskhetian) Turks: twice a deported people]. 1999. N 6. pp. 32-33.

^{Nemirovskiy A. A.} 2 Cappadocians and Cappadocia: towards the formation of an ethnopolitical map of ancient Anatolia // Ibid., p. 8.

^{Tsereteli K.} 3 Concerning the history of the term "moskhi" and the analysis of the names of flies-moskhi, etc. / / Communications of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR, 1954, Vol. XVI. N 2, pp. 111-118.

^{Cavaigane E.} 4 Meshiphiphrygiens // Journal Asiatique. 1953. V. XLI. P. 140.

^{Torgidzhanidze Parsadan.} 5 History of Georgia. Per. Kiknadze R. K. and Puturidze V. S. Tbilisi, 1998, p. 54.

⁶ See: Dzhikiya S. S. On dialectological work on Turkish languages in the Georgian SSR / / Voprosy dialektologii tyurkskikh yazykov. Baku, 1958.

⁷ See: Aliev F. F. Essays on the vocabulary of the language of the Turks of Kazakhstan. Alma-Ata, 1978.

^{Eremeev D. E.} 8 Ethnogenesis of the Turks, Moscow, 1971, pp. 230-233.

^{9. Aristov N. A.} 9 Notes on the ethnic composition of Turkic tribes and nationalities and information on their numbers. 1896. Vol. III-IV. pp. 59-94.

^{Marr Yu. N.} 10 Notes on the Turkish language in the vicinity of Abbastubani, Moscow: 1937, pp. 27-31; Gudashvili E. V. Features of the Turkish dialect of the population of the Tsialkhovsky district / / Proceedings of the Institute of Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR. Series of Oriental Studies. Tbilisi, 1954.

(c) 2002 Binali ALIYEV (Binali PASHALI OGLU)

Tashkent.

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