Amjad Jaimoukha


Amjad Jaimoukha wrote a number of books on North Caucasian – specifically Circassian and Chechen – culture and folklore. According to the Circassian Encyclopaedia "Jaimoukha is perhaps the most important writer on Circassian issues". He was considered one of the most influential Circassian writers and publicists in the last decade. In particular, he was active in promoting and assisting a new crop of Circassian and non-Circassian writers working on raising the profile of Caucasian issues at the global level.

Principal works

Jaimoukha published with the following Western publishing houses: Routledge , Curzon, Bennett and Bloom, Palgrave , L'Harmattan. He also worked with Sanjalay Press and the International Centre for Circassian Studies.

International Centre for Circassian Studies (ICCS)

Jaimoukha was director of the International Centre for Circassian Studies, an institute specialising in the dissemination of Circassian culture and folklore. The Centre is the brainchild of the famous Circassian writer and film producer and director Mohydeen Quandour. The principal aim of the Centre is the development and dissemination of Circassian literature, culture and folklore. There is a particular emphasis on boosting the status of Circassian and to promote its teaching and use. The Centre publishes a bilingual journal "The Hearth Tree". The publications of the Centre can be accessed via its website.
Jaimoukha devised a Latin orthography for Kabardian that is characterised by relative simplicity. An advantage of this system is that it has a one-to-one correspondence with the current Cyrillic orthography used for Kabardian, and already a software has been designed to render one orthography into the other, making it possible to turn works already published in Cyrillic Kabardian into the new orthography, and vice versa, facilitating transition from one system to the other.

Work at the Royal Scientific Society

Jaimoukha previously held the position of Assistant President of the Royal Scientific Society in the period 2003-2007. He published a number of studies and bibliographic tomes during his tenure at RSS, including Scientific Integrity, Intellectual Capital Report, and Bibliography of the Publications of the Royal Scientific Society.

Circassian culture and folklore

Jaimoukha was a strong advocate of the revival of all aspects of Circassian culture and folklore, including obsolete and defunct genres of art and culture. He wrote a number of books and articles in journals and newspapers championing the raising of the status of the Circassian language in both the Circassian republics in the Northwest Caucasus and in the diaspora, where some 5 million descendants of the 19th-century Circassian forced immigrants reside. The ultimate survival of the Circassian language and culture is intimately associated with the political fate of the Circassians in the Caucasus and the re-establishment of Circassia as a viable state, recognised as a full member of the comity of nations. The unification of the Kabardians, Cherkess, Adigeans, and Shapsugh in the Northwest Caucasus in the political and cultural spheres is a requisite step towards enhanced autonomy. Jaimoukha was among the vocal Circassians actively engaged in raising awareness of Circassian issues amongst the Circassians themselves and at a global level. He planned to publish a book on the controversial issue of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, to be held in Circassia.
Jaimoukha was a proponent of North Caucasian unity and independence. He advocated Circassian independence on a number of media outlets. He referred to the historical lands of the Circassians as "Circassia". Despite the linguistic diversity, the peoples of the North Caucasus share similar traditions, beliefs and culture. His work "Thoughts on North Caucasian Federation" maps a plan of unification of the western part of the region. According to this scheme, the Adiga entities would be united into one independent state that might eventually opt to enter into federative arrangements with the already independent Abkhaz and the Karachai-Balkar state. This would remove the artificial tensions that might flare up into open conflict between the Kabardians and Balkar in Kabardino-Balkaria and the Karachai and Cherkess in the Karachay–Cherkess Republic. The Adigeans would become more secure and more resistant to the Russian drive to undo their fragile republic. It would seem that the logical step of uniting the Kabardians and Cherkess into one autonomous entity on the one hand and the Karachai and Balkar into another, on the other, is considered taboo by the authorities in the two republics.

Collaborations

Principal literary collaborations included work with Nicholas Awde, the editor of the Caucasus World series published by Routledge and co-owner of the publishing house Bennett and Bloom, JonArno Lawson, the writer of a number of fantastic books, and Michel Malherbe, the prolific writer and editor of the Parlons... series published by the French publishing house L'Harmattan. A work on the Adigean dialect of Circassian was scheduled to be published by L'Harmattan in 2010. Jaimoukha contributed five articles in Carl Skutsche's seminal three-volume work Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities, published by Routledge in 2004 in New York.
There was a close co-operation with the Circassian writer Luba Belaghi in the framework of the publications of the International Centre for Circassian Studies.