The directory «Plots»
Nogmov (Íîãìîâ) Shora Bekmurzin
(1794—1844)
Shora Bek-Mirza Nogma was born in 1794 at a small Kabardin aul near Piatigorsk (Beshtau).
Shora was trained to be a mulla, and after studying at a local mekteb (the Islamic elementary school), he was sent to pursue religious studies at the prestigious medrese in a town of Enderi in Central Daghestan. After graduating from the medrese in 1812, he returned to his native aul to work as a mullah. After a few years he was chosen to become a defterdar (secretary) at the one of the two Kabardin princely courts (mekhkeme), which later, in 1822, the Russian general Ermolov would merge into one Kabardin Provisional Court based at Fort Nalchik. The position implied a knowledge of Russian, which Nogma began to study with great enthusiasm. Nogma’s linguistic talents caught the attention of the Russian authorities, and after having served as an unofficial interpreter in the Russian army, in 1825 he became the official scribe and interpreter of the First Volga Cossack regiment. At this time, he already had a good command of five languages apart from his native Kabardin: Arabic, Kumyk, Abaza, Persian and Russian, and was working to create an alphabet for the Kabardin language.
Eager to reach the imperial capital where he could expand his interests in languages and history, in 1828 Nogma petitioned to join the newly formed the Circassian Guard. His plans were thwarted by the deportation of his village further south to make room for Russian towns and spas in the present region of the Mineral Waters. After setting up a household at a new place on the Malka river, in 1829 Nogma was appointed a teacher at a school for native hostages at Fort Nalchik. In 1830, a new opportunity came along when several members of the Circassian Guard returned to the region to recruit young local nobles. Nogmov received an invitation from the commander of the Circassian Guard, S. A. Mukhanov, to come to teach the members of the unit to read and write in several languages. The Russian authorities, however, preferred chivalrous Circassian horsemen excelling in marshal arts to someone with the literary pursuits like Nogma. He was allowed to leave but given no travel money. Determined to come to the imperial capital, in April 1830 Shora Nogma departed for St Petersburg at his own expense to become the arms bearer (the rank-and-file among the nobles) in the Circassian Guard.
As a new member of the Circassian Guard, Shora Nogma found himself under the command of a prominent Adyg prince, Khan-Giray. He was a descendant of an illustrious lineage, the Giray ruling house of the Crimean khans, as was well attested by his full name, Krym-Giray-Muhammed Giray Khan-Giray. Throughout the centuries, the Crimean khans sent their princes to collect the slave tribute and to rule the Adygs of the north-west Caucasus. Some of these princes settled there, assimilated, and became a part of the Adyg clan structure. Indeed, Khan-Giray’s father was one of the chiefs of the Khamysh (Khmish) clan of the Bzhedug tribe, a subdivison of the Adyg people residing on the left bank of the Kuban river east of the newly founded Russian fort of Ekaterinodar (presently Krasnodar).
Throughout this time Nogmov continued to work on the Kabardin grammar and alphabet based on the Cyrillic as well as collecting and translating Adyg legends and tales. Five years later Nogmov died during his visit to St-Petersburg. While his grammar remained incomplete, his collection of Adyg tales was published in Russian in 1861 under the title ‘A History of the Adyg People.’
Russia, 1994.09.01, 
Nalchik. Birth Bicentenary of Shora Nogmov
Russia, 1994, 
Birth Bicentenary of Shora Nogmov
