Suffix (linguistics) in the context of "Lekianoba"

Lekianoba (Georgian: ლეკიანობა) was the name given to sporadic forays by Northeast Caucasian people into Georgia from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The term is derived from Leki, by which the Georgians knew the Lezgin people, with the suffix –anoba, which designates attribution. The references to these raids appear in the epic poetry of the Avars with the help of the Kist people the names of rulers who led the most devastating attacks, Umma-Khan, Nursal-Bek, and Mallachi, are mentioned in Georgian sources.

The attacks began with the disintegration of the Kingdom of Georgia and the subsequent decline of its successor states in the incessant defence warfare against the Persian and Ottoman Empires. In the late 16th century, part of the Georgian marchlands in the Kingdom of Kakheti, later known as Saingilo, was given by the Persian shah Abbas I to his Dagestani allies, creating a base for subsequent invasions.