The Republic of Ingushetia also referred to as simply Ingushetia, is a federal subject of Russia (a republic), located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital is the town of Magas. With its 7,000 square km, in terms of area, the republic is the smallest of Russia's federal subjects except for the federal cities.

The Ingush, a nationality group indigenous to the Caucasus, mostly inhabit Ingushetia. They refer to themselves as Ghalghai (from Ingush: Ghala ("fortress" or "town") and ghai ("inhabitants" or "citizens"). The Ingush speak the Ingush language, which has a very high degree of mutual intelligibility with neighboring Chechen. Ingush were/are traditionally a classless society based on a clan system and unwritten law (approximately 350 clans live in Ingushetia today). Every member within a clan and clans themselves are viewed as equal. Unlike the neighboring nations in the Caucasus (including Chechens), Ingush never had social superiors or inferiors.

History

4000–3000 BC
Invention of the wheel (3000 BC), horseback riding, metal works (copper, gold, silver, iron) dishes, armor, daggers, knives, arrow tips. The artifacts were found near Nasare-Cort, Muzhichi, Ja-E-Bortz (also known as Surkha-khi), Abbey-Gove (also known as Nazran or Nasare)

400 BC – 800 AD
appearance of kingdom of Albania (name known solely from Romans) on the east and center of the North Caucasus.

900 AD – 1200 AD
the kingdom in the center of the Caucasus splits into Alania and Noble Alania (known from Russian as Царственные Аланы). German scientist Peter Simon Pallas believed that Ingush people (Kist) were the direct descendants from Alania.

1239 AD
Destruction of the Alania capital of Maghas (both names known solely from Muslim Arabs) and Alan confederacy of the Northern Caucasian highlanders, nations, and tribes by Batu Khan (a Mongol leader and a grandson of Genghis Khan) "Magas was destroyed in the beginning of 1239 by the hordes of Batu Khan. Historically Magas was located at approximately the same place on which the new capital of Ingushetia is now built" – D.V.Zayats

1300 AD – 1400 AD
War between the Alans, Tamerlan, Tokhtamysh, and the Battle of the Terek River. The Alan tribes build fortresses, castles, and defense walls locking the mountains from the invaders. Part of the lowland tribes occupied by Mongols. The insurgency against Mongols begins. In 1991 the Jordanian historian Abdul-Ghani Khassan presented the photocopy from old Arabic scripts claiming that Alania was in Chechnya and Ingushetia, and the document from Alanian historian Azdin Vazzar (1395–1460) who claimed to be from Nokhcho tribe of Alania.

1500 AD
Russian conquest of the Caucasus. 1558 Temryuk of Kabarda sends his emissaries to Moscow requesting help against Ingush tribes from Ivan the Terrible. Ivan the terrible marries Temryuk's daughter Maria Temryukovna the Circassian (Kabardin) tsaritsa. Alliance formed to gain the ground in the central Caucasus for the expanding Tsardom of Russia against stubborn Vainakh defenders.

1700s
After several attempts to gain the access of strategic Darial Gorge Russian forces lose the battle near village Angusht. Hence the tribe which lived in the village and the nation as a whole is nicknamed Ingush.