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Chakh Elmurzievich Akhriev ( – ) was the first Ingush people ethnographer and a lawyer by education, who recorded Ingush folklore, Vainakh religion, and culture.
Akhriev was born in Furtoug and became an amanat (mountain hostage) at the age of seven. He entered a military cantonist school, where Akhriev studied from 1857 to 1862. From 1862 to 1868, he studied at the , after which he returned to Furtoug, and started collecting folklore and ethnographic materials. In 1870s, he published some of those ethnographic works in and the newspaper . From 1870 to 1874, Akhriev studied at the , after which he relocated to Elizavetpol Governorate, where he worked for the administrative authorities of the cities of Yevlakh and Nukha. Akhriev continued working until 1912, when he resigned due to illness. He returned to Vladikavkaz, where he died on 12 May 1914.
In 1857 seven-year-old Chakh Akhriev, along with other Ingush boys of the Akhievs and Lyanovs, became amanat (mountaineer hostage). He was taken to Vladikavkaz Fortress, where he entered a military cantonist school from 1857 to 1862. Thanks to the assistance of his uncle , an officer in the Imperial Russian Army, Akhriev's position in Vladikavkaz was somewhat better than other hostage children; he was respected by the Russian authorities and had more freedom.
From 1862 to 1868, Akhriev studied at , at which many Caucasian intellectuals began their creative and scientific careers, including the Ingush intellectual . During the 1860s and 1870s, the historical and ethnographic study of the North Caucasus and Caucasian studies were encouraged in the Russian Empire, and branches of All-Russian scientific societies were opened. During these years, fundamental studies of scientists Adolf Berzhe, , and others began to be published. Akhriev engaged with Russian culture and was among the leading people of his time.
Akhriev's informants were the elders of the mountain villages of Ingushetia who witnessed the events and ceremonies of 18th-century Ingush culture and remembered stories about the lifves of their 17th-century ancestors. Akhriev was the first to describe the elements of the Ingush Nart saga.
From 1870 to 1874, he studied at . After his graduation, he was in unofficial exile in Elizavetpol Governorate for his criticism of Tsarist policies in the Caucasus. There, he worked in administrative bodies of the cities of Yevlakh and Nukha.
Akhriev suffered from chronic diabetes and homesickness. On 28 September 1912, he submitted a resignation letter due to poor health, and he was dismissed from the rank of collegiate counselor. He returned with his family to Vladikavkaz, where he spent the rest of his life. Akhriev died on 29 April 1914, and was buried according to Islamic funeral in Furtoug, his native village.
Akhriev's views on Ingush men are often contradictory and erroneous. His essay On the Character of the Ingush is the first attempt to describe the complex issue. Akhriev sees character as a category that changes under the influence of various factors. According to him, in the past, a man's warlike life put him in a freer attitude towards work; rich nature has a very beneficial effect. Furthermore, Akhriev sees the influence of the conquerors-Mongol Empire, the spread of Islam, as well as the difficult economic conditions of the Ingush people's life, as damaging to the Ingush character.
Akhriev had a negative attitude towards the new religion of Ingush, Islam, and saw Vainakh religion as a past stage. His progressive views, however, do not indicate that he was an atheist and took a materialist position; some of his progressive views were on par with the views of Russian revolutionary democrats.
On 26 January 2005, Akhriev was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for "outstanding services in the field of ethnography and many years of scientific activity" by Murat Zyazikov.
According to professor of North Ossetian State University :
Professor of Ingush Research Institute of the Humanities : said:
Ingush writer and poet wrote:
Akhriev's works that contained newly recorded legends about the emergence of Ingush societies and the founding of some auls, along with materials about the Chechens collected by Adolf Berge and Umalat Laudaev, served as the only primary sources the first Soviets authors incorrectly used to judge the histories of the Chechens and Ingush. This use of legends was a problem because no single picture emerged due to each community and teip having its own unrelated traditions. The typical features of the legends were that in the Middle Ages, the Chechens and Ingush arrived at their modern lands from somewhere else, and that the ancestors of individual teips came from very different regions, such as Georgia, Syria and Persia.
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