Bersa Sheikh


Bersa-Sheikh was a Chechen sheikh and one of the first Islamic preachers in Chechnya who played a major role in the Islamisation of the Chechens of Nakhch-Mokhk. Bersa-Sheikh was a friend and associate of Termaol Shaykh, one of the preachers of Islam in Chechnya around 1607.

The family tree

Genealogical tree of the Kurchaloyans from Nashkh came Kushul. Kushul — Kurchalha  — Khanbilha — Chabalkha — Chaykha — Chergishkha — Begal — Oku — Tovla — Maila  — Tovbolat — Tembolat — Timirbolat — Bersa  — Turlo — Abbas — Mokhmad-ela — Murtaz-ela — Aidamir — Edalgir — Bulun Botakh.

Background

Bersa-Sheikh was born as Duchi into Chechen family of the clan in the village of Guni in 1561. His father Timirbulat died before he born while his mother Chill was a Gunoi toastmaster. Until the age of fifteen, Bersa-Sheikh grew up in the home of Orza, his uncle from the mother's side. He was left fatherless early on, brought up by his mother at her in-laws in the village of Guni, where his mother had gone after the death of her husband. When Bersa was fifteen, he returned to his father's home. Bersa was married to a girl from his native aul, but the mother of his sons was a native of the village of Benoy.

Conversion to Islam

Bersa-Sheikh, being still young, went to Dagestan to the aul Kazi-Kumukh, with the purpose of learning Arabic grammar; after a short time, having made great progress, he returned home and lived without distinguishing himself in any particular way. According to other sources, he accepted Islam and the grace of a sheikh at the request of a dying Dagestani sheikh who led a Gazi raid on his native village of Bersan and fell by his hand.

Islamization of Chechnya

The first aul in Ichkeria to convert to Islam was Kurchali, Bersan's hometown; then little by little other surrounding auls began to follow this doctrine, in which the new sheikh began to teach the people who, like Bersan himself, had been without faith, without law.»
According to military historian И. D. Popko:
Umalat Laudayev, wrote «when Islamism was finally established among the Chechens, a certain Bersa of the Kirchala family stood at the head of the people; he had influence among the people and was called imam and sheikh».
The Chechen historian Yavus Zaindievich Akhmadov notes that in the immediate neighbourhood of Nakhch-Mokhk beyond the Aksai River was the Okotsk land, whose population was the first of all Nakhs to embrace Islam. Thus, Muslim burials in one of the villages of the society, Gachalk, are confidently dated to the 16th century. Shikh-Murza Isherimov, the ruler of the Okotsk possession, used to make a «shert» to the Moscow tsar.
According to Ya. Akhmadov, there is ambiguity as to whether his activities were related to the actual adoption of Islam, or to its establishment in Nakhch-Mokhk in the Sufi interpretation. He also reports that according to I. M. Popov, Bersa received the sheikh's right of grace from the hands of a Dagestani sheikh named Gad, whom he had killed, who «in the name of Allah bequeathed to him the power of … word …».

Death

He is buried in his native village of Nizhniye Kurchali, on his homestead. His brother's wife and children are buried with him. Not far from his grave are the burial places of Mustap-Sheikh and Zhansari, wife of Kunta-Khadji. Ya. Akhmadov reports an Arabic-language inscription on the stone, which is 17th century-style, stating, «Here Bersan».

Family

His wife was from Benoy, belonging to the Benoy teip. She bore Bersa sons Thurlo and Ärsamak.

Legacy

Russian sources

  • Ахмадов Я. З. Очерк исторической географии и этнополитического развития Чечни в XVI—XVIII веках. — АН Чеченской Республики. — М.: Благотворительный фонд поддержки чеченской литературы, 2009. Архивная копия от 12 августа 2017 на Wayback Machine
  • Попко И. Д. Терские казаки со стародавних времён. — Вып. 1. — СПб.: Тип. Кулиша, 1880. — 518 с.
  • Попов И. М. Предисловие // Сборник сведений о кавказских горцах : = Сборникъ свѣдѣній о Кавказскихъ горцахъ : сб. в 4 вып. — Издаваемый с соизволения Е.И.В. Главнокомандующего Кавказскою Армией при Кавказском Горском Управлении. — Тифлис : Тип. Главного Управления Наместника Кавказского, 1870. — Вып. IV. — С. 13–14.
  • Тесаев З. А. Институт «Мехк-Дай» в истории Чечни. — Грозный: Академия наук Чеченской Республики; ФГУП Издательско-полиграфический комплекс «Грозненский рабочий», 2019. — 688 с. — 1000 экз. — ISBN 978-5-4314-0386-6.