Transgressive Sanctity: The Abrek in Chechen Culture

Abstract

The ancient tradition of the abrek (bandit) was developed into a political institution during the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century by Chechen and other Muslim peoples of the Caucasus as a strategy for dealing with the overwhelming military force of Russia's imperial army. During the Soviet period, the abrek became a locus for oppositional politics and arguably influenced the representations of violence and anti-colonial resistance during the recent Chechen Wars (1994-indefinite). This article is one of the first works of English-language scholarship to historicize this institution.

Keywords: Chechnya, Islam, Violence, Banditry, Criminality, Colonialism, Post-Soviet, Rebellion, Literature, Law