GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF DEIFIED SAINT MYATZEL (ON THE ISSUE OF PRE-ISLAMIC BELIEFS OF THE INGUSH PEOPLE)

Authors

  • Israpil M. Sampiev Ingush State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32653/CH162394-417

Keywords:

Ingushetia, the Kist society, Pнalhan, religion, deified Holy Mjatzel, sanctuaries, ancestral patrons, "elder deity".

Abstract

The study aims to verify the hypothesis about the origins in the ancient times of the cult of Myatzel as a holy ancestral-protector (patron) of the Falkhanoy teyp and his following evolution into one of the Ingush deified saints. The principles of historicism, the sociocultural and systematic approaches have been used as the methodological basis of the study. Methods of comparative and comprehensive analysis of documents, archeological and toponymic data, as well as narrative sources have also been applied in the paper. The following tasks are set as a verification method: to prove that other tribal groups did not have St. Myatzel as their ancestral patron; to argue that Myatzel was originally the ancestral patron of the teyp Falkhanoy; to substantiate the evolution of Myatzel into one of the nation’s “elder deities”.

Using E.M. Shilling’s characteristics of deities of the pre-Islamic Ingush beliefs, their classification in the works of M.B. Muzhukhoyeva and other authors, we revealed tribal-wide, communal (belonging to village groups), rural and ancestral deities of all tribal and rural communities of the Pankisi gorge of Highland Ingushetia. The study shows that none of these groups had sanctuaries dedicated to Myatzel and they did not consider Myatzel to be their sacred patron ancestor, except for the teyp Falkhanoy; however, he was revered as a nation-wide deified saint.

The present publication provides a series of evidence that St. Myatzel was initially the ancestral patron of the teyp Falkhonoy, remained as such for Falkhans even after his transformation into common for all Ingush people deified saint, and that all the priests of Myatzel and related temples in the villages of Beiyni and Falkhan must come from Falkhan. The transformation of Myatzel from the patron of Falkhanoy into a common for all Ingush saint is substantiated according to the scheme, described in ethnographic literature by B. Dalgat, B. Alborov and others.

As a result of the analysis of a complex of archaeological, historical, ethnographic and toponymic data, further conclusion is drawn: originated in antiquity as a cult of the sacred ancestor-patron of the teyp Falkhanoy, during the subsequent evolution, Myatzel transformed into one of the five pan-Ingush deified saints.

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Author Biography

  • Israpil M. Sampiev, Ingush State University
    D.Sc. (in Political science), Professor, Head of the Department of sociology and political science

References

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Published

2020-07-12

Issue

Section

Ethnography

How to Cite

1.
Sampiev IM. GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF DEIFIED SAINT MYATZEL (ON THE ISSUE OF PRE-ISLAMIC BELIEFS OF THE INGUSH PEOPLE). ИАЭК. 2020;16(2):394-417. doi:10.32653/CH162394-417