Circassian people

The Circassian people are an ethnic group native to the Northwest Caucasian region in the former country of Circassia. The vast majority are in the diaspora, while only a handful remain in their historical lands.

Ethnic flag used by Circassians

Ethnonyms

The Circassians call themselves Adyghe. The word Circassian is an exonym, while Adyghe is an endonym.

Language

The Circassian language is a subdivision of the Northwest Caucasian languages, and is divided between Adyghe and Kabardian.

History

During the early spread of Christianity, the Circassians were known as Kassogs and their country as Kassakhi. They were heavily Christianized in the 6th century under Georgian and Byzantine influence. However with the arrival of the Ottoman Empire, the Circassians became Islamized and Sunni Islam became the predominant religion over time.

During the medieval period, Circassian slaves had taken the Mamluk throne and formed the Burji dynasty, leading to the Mamluks becoming a Circassian state. Despite the Mamluk state suffering a defeat to the Ottoman Empire in 1517, the Burji dynasty remained in charge of the Ottoman governance in Egypt.

When the Mongol Empire arrived to the region in the 13th century, they plundered Circassia and referred to them as the Jerkes, which literally means "one who blocks a path". Later, the Russian variant of this term, Cherkes, became exclusively attached to the Adyghe people by the 19th century, and was translated into "Circassian" in Western Europe.

Several legends speak of a prince named Inal who supposedly reunited the Circassian tribes after the Mongols drove them into the high mountains. The claim that he managed to unite the freedom-loving Circassians into a single political entity, is likely a romantic myth. The Circassians evaded complete annihilation by the Mongolians by retreating into the high mountains; in the year 1277, they had been defeated but continued to maintain a degree of independence in these regions.

In 1395, the founder of the Timurid Empire, Tamerlane, engaged in battle with the Circassians, but despite his defeat, he returned with a much larger army in order to conduct a number of raids in the region.

Crimean Tatar missionaries are said to have converted the Circassians to Islam, and many Crimean khans married with Circassian women who were known for their beauty. The Circassians had also rebelled in 1708 because of the tyranny and oppression that they faced from the Tatars. Tatars reportedly attacked Circassians, Russians, and Alans, killing men and capturing women and children, who were then imported to the corners of the earth.

The Russian Empire invaded Circassia in the 18th century, which marked the beginning of the Circassian genocide. Despite desperate attempts of resistance, Russian imperial forces managed to occupy chunks of Circassian territories in the late 19th century. During this period, roughly 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 Circassians perished in massacres, while those who survived were forcibly displaced. These numbers are debated, with others claiming that there is no reliable support or widespread agreement for such estimates. In the end, between 95% and 97% of the population was lost.

From 1891 and onwards, a large amount of Circassians joined the Hamidiye cavalry of the Ottoman Empire. Named after sultan Abdülhamid II, the cavalry would be responsible for the Hamidian massacres which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 80,000 to 300,000 Armenians and other Christian minorities.

Today, approximately 800,000 Circassians still inhabit their former lands in Russia, while 5,000,000 to 7,000,000 live in the diaspora, including roughly 2,000,000 in the Republic of Turkey.

Religions

The Circassians began adopting Islam around the 16th century. Before this, they followed indigenous pagan traditions, which made them ideal candidates for military slavery. Today, majority of Circassians follow the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam, though a small minority of them still follow Orthodox Christianity.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Biliarsky, Ivan; Cristea, Ovidiu; Oroveanu, Anca (2012-01-17). The Balkans and Caucasus: Parallel Processes on the Opposite Sides of the Black Sea. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 155. ISBN 978-1-4438-3705-7.
  2. ↑ Bergelson, Mira; Zoumpalidis, Dionysios (2024-03-04). Multilingual Moscow: Dynamics of Language and Migration in a Capital City. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 978-3-11-075125-3.
  3. ↑ Skutsch, Carl (2013-11-07). Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. Routledge. p. 675. ISBN 978-1-135-19388-1.
  4. ↑ Kelly, Walter Keating (1854). The History of Russia from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. Bohn. p. 21.
  5. ↑ Bashqawi, Adel (2017-09-15). Circassia: Born to Be Free. Xlibris Corporation. ISBN 978-1-5434-4765-1.
  6. ↑ Heng, Geraldine (2018-03-08). The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. p. 147. ISBN 978-1-108-42278-9.
  7. ↑ Yemelianova, Galina M. (2022-02-01). Islamic Leadership and the State in Eurasia. Anthem Press. ISBN 978-1-83998-053-4.
  8. 1 2 Richmond, Walter (2013-04-09). The Circassian Genocide. Rutgers University Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-8135-6069-4.
  9. 1 2 Richmond, Walter (2008-06-11). The Northwest Caucasus: Past, Present, Future. Routledge. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-134-00249-8.
  10. ↑ Williams, Brian Glyn (2001-01-01). The Crimean Tatars: The Diaspora Experience and the Forging of a Nation. BRILL. p. 198. ISBN 978-90-04-12122-5.
  11. ↑ Slavery in the Black Sea Region, c.900–1900: Forms of Unfreedom at the Intersection between Christianity and Islam. BRILL. 2021-11-29. p. 375. ISBN 978-90-04-47089-7.
  12. ↑ Barker, Hannah (2019-09-27). That Most Precious Merchandise: The Mediterranean Trade in Black Sea Slaves, 1260-1500. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-8122-9648-8.
  13. ↑ Mikaberidze, Alexander (2013-06-25). Atrocities, Massacres, and War Crimes: 2 volumes [2 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 979-8-216-05064-3.
  14. ↑ Jones, Adam (2016-12-16). Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction. Taylor & Francis. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-317-53386-3.
  15. ↑ Sykes, Heather (2016-12-08). The Sexual and Gender Politics of Sport Mega-Events: Roving Colonialism. Taylor & Francis. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-317-69001-6.
  16. 1 2 Ahmed, Akbar (2013-02-27). The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 357. ISBN 978-0-8157-4297-5.
  17. ↑ White, Matthew (2011-10-20). Atrocitology: Humanity's 100 Deadliest Achievements. Canongate Books. ISBN 978-0-85786-125-2.
  18. ↑ Kieser, Hans-Lukas; Mouradian, Khatchig (2025-11-12). The I.B. Tauris Handbook of the Late Ottoman Empire: History and Legacy. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-7556-4450-6.
  19. ↑ Green, George (2025-02-25). The Psychology of the Armenian Genocide. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-040-31851-5.
  20. ↑ Orttung, Robert W.; Zhemukhov, Sufian N. (2017-02-24). Putin's Olympics: The Sochi Games and the Evolution of Twenty-First Century Russia. Taylor & Francis. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-317-81317-0.
  21. ↑ Yelbasi, Caner (2019-08-22). The Circassians of Turkey: War, Violence and Nationalism from the Ottomans to Atatürk. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-83860-017-4.
  22. ↑ Meri, Josef W. (2006). Medieval Islamic Civilization: A-K, index. Taylor & Francis. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-415-96691-7.
  23. ↑ Gammer, Moshe (2007-10-22). Ethno-Nationalism, Islam and the State in the Caucasus: Post-Soviet Disorder. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-09852-1.
  24. ↑ Williams, Victoria R. (2020-02-24). Indigenous Peoples: An Encyclopedia of Culture, History, and Threats to Survival [4 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 260. ISBN 978-1-4408-6118-5.