Malkh

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. (July 2024) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Russian article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,004 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at [[:ru:Махли]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|ru|Махли}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The Malkhi (Ancient Greek: Μαχλυη)^[a] were an ancient nation, living in the Western/Central North Caucasus, mentioned in classical sources, primarily by ancient Greco-Syrian writer Lucian and ancient Roman writer Claudius Aelianus.

Malkhi are mentioned by ancient Greco-Syrian writer Lucian and ancient Roman writer Claudius Aelianus.^[6] Despite Lucian's work having a literary and narrative nature, it shows what image the people living in Bosporan Kingdom had about the military-political union of the ancient Chechen, which they knew as "Malkhi". As per the tradition, Malkh acted as one of the large state formations of Southeast Europe in the second half of the 1st millennium BC, having connections with Bosporus, as well as competing with it and with the Scythians, the Colchis.^[7]

Some historians consider them as Maeotian,^[8] while others consider them equivalent to the Durdzuks, an ethnonym mentioned primarily in Georgian sources.^[9] Some historians consider that the ethnonym was used to designate Nakh peoples.^[10]

• Toxaris — Work of Lucian of Samosta mentioned the "Mahlians"
• Adermakhus — King of the Mahlians according to Gumba