Russian barons. Family titles of nobility and nicknames in Russia

Amateur historian Vitaly Shtybin talks about the divided Circassian people.

Yuga.ru has already been told about Vitaly Shtybin, a young entrepreneur from Krasnodar who became so interested in Circassian history that he became a popular blogger and a welcome guest at specialized conferences. This publication - about what is common and what is the difference between the Adyghes, Kabardians and Circassians - opens a series of materials that Vitaly will write specifically for our portal.

If you are sure that Kabardians and Balkars live in Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachays and Circassians live in Karachevo-Cherkessia, and Adyghes live in Adygea, then you will be surprised, but this is not entirely true. Adygs live in all these republics - they are one people, separated by artificial borders. These names are administrative in nature.

Adygs are a self-name, and the surrounding peoples traditionally call them Circassians. In the scientific world, the term Adygs (Circassians) is used to avoid confusion. There is only one main rule - Adygs are equivalent to the name Circassians. There is a slight difference between the Circassians (Circassians) of Kabardino-Balkaria\Karachay-Cherkessia and Adygea\Krasnodar Territory. It is noticeable in dialects. Kabardian and Circassian dialects are considered eastern dialects of the Adyghe language, Adyghe and Shapsug dialects are considered western. In a conversation, a resident of Cherkessk will not understand everything from the speech of a resident of Yablonovsky. Just as a typical inhabitant of central Russia will not immediately understand the Kuban hut, so it will be difficult for a Kabardian to understand the conversation of the Sochi Shapsugs.

The Kabardians call the Adyghes the grassroots Adygs due to geography, since Kabarda is located on an elevated plateau. It is worth noting that the term "Circassian" at different times applied not only to this people, but also to their neighbors in the Caucasus. It is this version that has been preserved today in Turkey, where the term "Circassian" refers to all immigrants from the North Caucasus.

In the Russian Empire, the Circassians (Circassians) did not have their own republics or autonomies, but with the advent of Soviet power, such an opportunity arose. However, the state did not dare to unite the divided people into one large republic, which could easily become equal in size and political weight to Georgia, Armenia or Azerbaijan.

Three republics were formed in different ways: Kabardino-Balkaria- which included Kabardians from the Circassians. To maintain balance, they were united with the Balkar Turks. Then formed Adyghe autonomy, which included all the remaining sub-ethnic groups of the former Kuban region. The mountainous part of the republic, like the city of Maikop, became part of it only in 1936. Shapsugs in the Lazarevsky district of the city of Sochi received their autonomy from 1922 to 1945, but it was liquidated forever. latest Karachay-Cherkess autonomy received in 1957 by the Adygs-Besleney, close in dialect to the Kabardians. In this case, the authorities also maintained an ethnic balance between them and the Abaza and Karachay Turks (relatives of neighboring Balkars) who inhabited the republic.

But what do the concepts "Shapsug", "Besleney", "Kabardian" and so on mean? Despite the one and a half century history of the Adyghes (Circassians) within the Russian state, the society has not got rid of the tribal (or, scientifically, sub-ethnic) division. Until the end of the Caucasian War in 1864, the Western Circassians (Circassians) lived throughout the Krasnodar Territory and Adygea, south of the Kuban River to the Shakhe River in the Lazarevsky District of Sochi. Eastern Circassians (Circassians) lived in the south of the Stavropol Territory, in the Pyatigorsk region, in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, on the flat parts of Chechnya and Ingushetia - between the Terek and Sunzha rivers.

As a result of the war, some of the sub-ethnic groups were expelled to Turkey - such as the Natukhai and Ubykhs, most of the Shapsugs, Khatukai, Abadzekhs. Today, the division into tribal societies is not as pronounced as before. The sub-ethnic term "Kabardians" was left to the Circassians (Circassians) of Kabardino-Balkaria. They were the most powerful, numerous and influential Adyghe subethnos in the entire Caucasus. Their own feudal state, the status of trendsetters and control over the routes in Transcaucasia helped them to hold the strongest positions in the politics of the region for a long time.

In the Republic of Adygea, on the contrary, the largest sub-ethnic groups are the Temirgoevs, whose dialect is the official language of the republic, and the Bzhedugs. In this republic, all the names of sub-ethnic groups were replaced by the artificial term "Adyghe". There are no strict borders in the villages of the republics, everyone lives interspersed, so that in Adygea you can meet Kabardians, and in Kabarda - Temirgoevs.

The easiest way to remember the subethnic groups is in the following order:

— Eastern Circassians (Circassians): Kabardians in Kabardino-Balkaria; Besleneyites in Karachay-Cherkessia;

— Western Circassians (Circassians): Shapsugs in the Lazarevsky district of the city of Sochi; Temirgoys\Khatukays\Bzhedugs\Abadzekhs\Mamkhegs\Jegerukhays\Adamievs\
Mahoshevs\Zhaneevs in the Republic of Adygea.

But what about the Abazins who live in all the same villages, but mainly in the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia? Abazins are a mixed people whose language is close to Abkhazian. Once upon a time they moved from Abkhazia to the plains of the northern slopes of the Caucasus and mixed with the Circassians. Their language is close to Abkhazian, which is related to the Adyghe (Circassian) language. Abkhazians (Abaza) and Circassians (Circassians) are distant relatives, much like Russians and Czechs.

Now, in a conversation with an Adyghe, a Circassian or a Kabardian, you can ask him what tribe (sub-ethnos) he is from, and you will learn a lot of interesting things from the life of the Adyghes (Circassians), and at the same time gain confidence as an expert on the structure of the amazing Adyghe (Circassian) society.

And finally, we got to the full-fledged first issue about Circassia, which it's time to put in order and add details. So, who are the Circassians and what is Circassia? We'll talk about this.
Video version of the release at this link - Notes on Circassia No. 1 - Circassians and Circassia.

Circassians

Circassians or Adyghes (self-name - Adyghe) are currently a group of peoples who speak the Adyghe languages ​​\u200b\u200bof the Abkhaz-Adyghe language group or the common name of a single people living in southern Russia and abroad, artificially divided in Soviet times into Adyghes (former Trans-Kuban Adygs) , Kabardians, Circassians (inhabitants of Karachay-Cherkessia) and Shapsugs (Lazarevsky and Tuapse regions of the Krasnodar Territory). In essence, they represent the indigenous population of Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia and the Krasnodar Territory. The closely related peoples of the Circassians include the Abkhazians and Abazins (Karachay-Cherkessia) with their own, Abkhazian dialect of the language. Often, the Ubykhs (the self-name “pyoh” or “bʼёkh”) are also referred to the Circassians - a sub-ethnos of the Adyghes, who lost their cultural identity and spoken language in the 19-20th centuries, being assimilated by the Turks or other Adyghes. At the same time, it is stipulated that the Ubykhs were one of the Adyghe tribes, very mixed in composition. The Ubykhs spoke their own dialect of the Adyghe-Abkhaz language, which stood out from the general mass, although they were largely bilingual - among them they also spoke the Abadzekh dialect of the Adyghe language or the Abaza dialect of the Abkhaz language. Today, some representatives of the Circassians mark themselves in the census as Ubykhs, but are not native speakers or experts in the culture of the Ubykhs.

Since ancient times, the Circassians have been known under various names, such as Kerkets, Zikhs, Jikis, Kashagis, Kases, Kasogs, Dzharkas, Meots, Sinds, Psesses, Doskhs, Kaskis and others. Most often they were called Zikhs, Meots, Kerkets and Kasogs, which they entered into history from the 6th century BC, when they were first described by ancient authors, and their culture was consistently confirmed by the monuments of Maikop culture, dolmen culture, Meotian culture and other archaeological cultures. The ethnonym "Circassians" appeared during the Mongol invasion in the 13th century and was later borrowed from the Tatars and medieval Genoese merchants and travelers, who were the first to give it prevalence. However, until the 13th century the name of the Circassians was different. So, the Genoese Georgy Interiano, who lived in the Caucasus in the 15th century, wrote in his memoirs “The Life of the Ziks, called Cherkassy”, that they are called “Zikhs” in Greek and Latin, the Tatars and Turks call them “Circassians”, and in their own adverbs they are called "Adygs". The name "Circassians" was then already used by the Turkic peoples, as well as Russians. Since that time, the toponym Cherkessia has been used to designate the country of residence of this people in the North Caucasus. The exact origin of the ethnonym "Adyg (Adyge, Adyge)" has not yet been established. The oldest mention in the history of this self-name in independent sources is the book of the aforementioned Genoese traveler G. Interiano, published in Venice in 1502. There are various versions relating the names to the solar symbols of the Sun, or to the analogue of the word "arias" among the Aryan peoples.

In the early Middle Ages, the Adyghe economy was of an agrarian nature, there were crafts associated with the manufacture of metal things and pottery. Following the Huns in the 4th - 9th centuries, the peoples of the North-Western Caucasus were subjected to aggression from the Avars, Byzantium, the Bulgar tribes, the Khazars. In an effort to maintain their political independence, the Adyghe tribes waged a fierce struggle against them. By the 10th century, a powerful tribal union had formed, called Zikhia, which occupied the space from Taman to the Nechepsukhe River, at the mouth of which the city of Nikopsia was located. In the early 40s of the 13th century, the Circassians had to endure the invasion of the Tatar-Mongols, the North Caucasian steppes became part of the Golden Horde. In the 14th century, during the period of military rivalry in the Golden Horde between Tokhtamysh and Tamerlane, the Circassians took the side of Tokhtamysh. However, the choice turned out to be unsuccessful, Tamerlane defeated Tokhtamysh and took revenge on the Circassians. As the Persian historian Nizam ad-Din Shami noted, the troops sent by Tamerlane devastated and robbed the entire region from Azov to Elbrus. At this time, the Circassians mostly hide in the mountains, active road communications appear along the tops of mountains and ridges, which were used until the 20th century.

By the 15th century, the following large sub-ethnic groups stood out among the Adygs:

- Zhaneyevtsy, living in the lower reaches of the Kuban and in the Azov steppe to the Don, as well as in the Eastern Crimea and Taman. During the 15th-18th centuries, they were gradually forced out first by the Crimean Tatars and Nogais from the steppes north of the Kuban, then pushed back from the south by the Shapsugs and Natukhais, and from the east by the Bzhedugs. As a result, after a serious plague in the 18th century, the Zhaneyevites were significantly reduced and were assimilated by their Adyghe neighbors. The same part that lived in Taman and Eastern Crimea back in the 16th century was mixed with a whole group of peoples living in political subordination from the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire;

- Temirgoevs, living from the end of the 13th century in the vast territories of the foothills of Adygea and the Krasnodar Territory, but later forced out from there by the Abadzekhs and Bzhedugs in the 15-18th centuries. They were considered an aristocratic family among the Circassians, their neighbors were equal to their laws, social and political structure, fashion, their dialect is still the literary and state language of the Republic of Adygea. By the 17th century, as a result of internal splits, separate small sub-ethnic groups broke away from them, located in the neighborhood - Khakuchi, Mamhegi, Adamievites, Egerukhaevites, etc.;

- bzhedugi, living from the 15th century in the central part of Adygea and the Krasnodar Territory, but later pushed to the left bank of the Kuban in the area of ​​​​the modern reservoir by the Shapsugs and Abadzekhs by the 18th century. One of the early offshoots of the Bzhedugs are the Makhoshevites, who lived in the central Laba. They were divided into two clans - Khamysheevtsev and Chercheneevtsev;

- natuhaytsy, living in the south-west of the Krasnodar Territory, on the coast near Anapa and Gelendzhik and inland to the Kuban. They formed at a later time by the 18th century, having assimilated the local Adyghe sub-ethnic groups, including the Khegayks and Zhaneevs;

- shapsugs, the largest subethnos that lived in the 15-16th century in the mountains of the Black Sea coast of the Tuapse and Lazarevsky regions of Sochi. By the 18th century, they significantly increased and occupied vast territories from the Shakhe River to the Pshada River along the coast (Malaya Shapsugia) and the territory of the central part of the Trans-Kuban region up to the Kuban River, pushing the Bzhedugs to it, between the Abin and Pshish (Bolshaya Shapsugia) rivers. The difference between Shapsugs and Natukhians is conditional, since in fact they belong to one vast ethnic group. By the end of the 18th century, the Abadzekhs are pushing them out of the Psekups River basin from the east;

- Abadzekhs, living from the 17th century, first in the upper reaches of the Belaya, Pshekha and Pshish rivers, and later settled down to their lower reaches and into the Psekups valley. They were considered the most warlike and savage highlanders, inhabitants of the highlands, and were the first to establish a democratic system based on the power of public meetings (khase). They were also the first to be subjected to radical Muslim propaganda and became the basis for the Islamic reform of Muhammad Amin;

- Ubykhs, which have already been mentioned above - a special sub-ethnos, according to one version, which preserved the language and culture of the ancient Adygs. They lived in the Sochi region of the Krasnodar Territory from the Shahe River to the Mzymta River and were the last to surrender in the Caucasian War;

- Abaza, a conditional group of Abkhaz-speaking small communities living in the valley of the Mzymta River (Sadzy, Dzhigets) and up through the passes in the upper reaches of the Laba (Karachay-Cherkessia);

- Kabardians, who lived from the 15th century in the vast territories of the Central Caucasus (Greater Kabarda) and along the floodplain of the Terek River (Small Kabarda). Founded their independent state association;

- Besleneevites, living along the Laba River and representing fragments of Kabardians who returned in the 17-18th centuries from Kabarda to Western Circassia;

- Abkhazians, actually the Abkhaz-speaking people who lived and live on the territory of modern Abkhazia.

The territory of settlement of these tribes was the historical region of Circassia. In addition, it is worth noting the scientific theory, according to which in the 9th-12th centuries the main Adyghe population of the Black Sea coast of Circassia became Abkhaz-speaking, without changing the composition of the population, that is, they adopted the culture and language of the minority that spread from Abkhazia. At the same time, the Christian diocese of the Zikhs was subordinate to the Abkhazian diocese. Later, from the 13th to the end of the 19th century, the Abkhaz dialect gradually gave way to the Adyghe in the opposite direction up to the Mzymta River. Moreover, among the Circassians lived other ethnic groups that fit into the structure of the life of the Circassians, such as Armenians (Cherksogai) and Greeks (Urums), whose culture in many respects became similar to the Circassian. They performed trading functions among them. Of all the listed sub-ethnic groups, the Temirgoevs, Bzhedugs, Abkhazians, Kabardians and Zhaneevs had a feudal (princely) structure of power. The rest of the peoples had either intermediate options, or open democratic societies that made decisions based on the will of the people's assemblies. Attempts by the aristocratic families of free societies to take power into their own hands resulted in a civil war of the people against the aristocracy (bourgeois revolution) at the end of the 18th century, which led to the expulsion or a significant reduction in the rights of the aristocracy among the Shapsugs, Natukhais and Abadzekhs.

But back to the past. In the 14th - 15th centuries, part of the Adygs occupied the lands in the vicinity of Pyatigorye, after the destruction of the Golden Horde by Timur's troops, they were joined by another wave of Adyghe tribes from the west, becoming the ethnic basis of the Kabardians. Migration to the east was also associated with the attempts of the Crimean Khanate to politically subjugate the lands of the Adygs, because of which the latter constantly entered into military conflicts with the Tatars. In the second half of the 15th century, Genoa developed an active trade and colonial activity in the Black Sea region. During the years of the Genoese penetration into the Caucasus, the trade of Italians with the Circassians was significantly developed. Of great importance was the export of bread - rye, barley, millet; timber, fish, caviar, furs, leather, wine, silver ore were also exported. But the offensive of the Turks, who captured Constantinople in 1453 and liquidated Byzantium, led to the decline and complete cessation of Genoa's activities in the North-Western Caucasus, especially after the capture of the North Caucasian colonies of Genoa by Turkey from 1475 to 1478. At this time, the migration of the Adyghes to the east intensified even more, since the Ottoman Empire was actively involved in the attempts to conquer the Adyghes. As a result, the Western Circassians fell into conditional subordination, while the Kabardians managed to maintain their independence at the cost of a 300-year constant war with the Crimean Tatars and Turks for their independence. In the 18th century, part of the Kabardians moved to the basin of the Bolshoi Zelenchuk and Maly Zelenchuk rivers, forming the basis of the Besleneyites - the future Circassians of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic.

INNER WORLD

In the folklore of the Circassians, the main place is occupied by Nart legends, heroic and historical songs, lamentations about heroes. The Nart epic is multinational and widespread from Abkhazia to Dagestan - among Ossetians, Adygs (Kabardians, Circassians and Adyghes), Abkhazians, Chechens, Ingush - which indicates the commonality of the culture of the ancestors of many peoples of the Western and North Caucasus. Researchers believe that the Adyghe version stands out from the general Nart epic as a complete and independent version. It consists of many cycles dedicated to various heroes. Each cycle includes narrative (mostly explanatory) and poetic texts-tales (pshinatle). But the most remarkable thing is that the Adyghe version is a singing epic. The traditional plots of the Nart epic of the Circassians with their song variants are cyclically grouped around their main characters: Sosruko, Bataraza, Ashameza, Badinoko, etc. Folklore includes, in addition to the Nart epic, a variety of songs - heroic, historical, ritual, love-lyrical, everyday, mourning , wedding, dance, etc.; fairy tales and legends; proverbs; riddles and parables; ditties; tongue twisters, which were performed by jeguaco folk singers.

The ancient religion of the Circassians is a monotheism with a harmonious system of worship of the One God Tkha, Thashkho (Thye, Tkheshkhue). This religion is part of the philosophical and ethical teachings of Adyghe or Khabze, which regulates all aspects of the life of the Adygs, and determines the relationship of man to man, to the world around him, to God. Tkha (Thyashho) is the source of world laws, which gave a person the opportunity to know them, which brings a person closer to God. Tkha does not interfere in everyday life, giving a person freedom of choice, he does not have any image, he is omnipresent, his presence is scattered throughout the world. In general, this religion is somewhat similar to the main features of druidism (especially in terms of conducting rituals in sacred groves) and Taoism (in terms of the rules of behavior in the life of a true Adyghe, on the basis of which the soul is either blessed or tormented by conscience before ancestors and descendants in the afterlife). the world).

Christian sources indicate Zikhia and Abazgia (the northern part of modern Abkhazia up to the river Kodor) as the objects of the preaching activity of the two apostles of Christ - Andrew the First-Called and Simon the Zealot. From the 6th century, Christianity established itself in Circassia, where it existed until the collapse of the Byzantine Empire. A large stratum of Christian clergy formed in Circassia. The first Christian bishop (iuan) in Zikhia appeared in the middle of the 6th century, his residence was in Nikopsis (modern Novomikhailovsky, on the Nechepsukho River of the Black Sea coast), where the remains of a Christian church are still preserved. The lands of the Circassians were spiritually subordinate to four dioceses, whose bishops were appointed by Byzantium. These diocesan centers were located in Phanagoria, Metrakh (Tamatarkh), Zykhopolis and Nikops. Even with the disappearance of Christian priests and churches in the 15th century under the onslaught of the Turks and Tatars, many rituals took root among the Circassians and still exist. In 1261, after Byzantium allowed the Genoese to settle here, Genoese colonies began to appear on the coast of Crimea and today's Russian Black Sea. In their colonies, the Genoese built Catholic churches. The city of Kafa became the center of missionary activity of the Catholic Church in this region. The missionary activity of the Catholics expanded, the success of their preaching was consolidated by the creation of church missions, called in historical works "episcopal centers" throughout the Caucasus. However, all this collapsed with the arrival of the Ottoman Empire in the region in the 1470s, leaving no traces, since preaching in Latin was alien to the people, and the Catholic missionaries themselves often tried to act by force, inciting the Adygs against themselves.

The process of adoption of Islam by the Circassians was gradual. The Circassians did not put anyone above themselves and their ambitions, therefore, no matter how hard the Ottoman Empire tried to subdue them, it did not succeed. Even after the total intensification of Muslim propaganda from the 17th century among the Circassians, the Turkish sultan began to be perceived only as a spiritual, religious leader, but not as the owner of the land, and Turkish troops continued to be attacked at any opportunity. Of all the Adyghe ethnographic groups, the first to accept Islam were those who lived on the Black Sea and Azov coasts - Khegayks, Zhaneyevtsy, Natukhaytsy and Bzhedugs. The Adyghe subethnoi in the steppes and foothills of the North Caucasus adopted Islam as the second echelon: Khatukais, Makhegs, Makhoshevs, Temirgoys, Besleneys and Kabardians. Finally, the Ubykhs, Shapsugs and Abadzekhs, who occupied the most high-altitude parts of the North-Western Caucasus, became the last echelon. Islam in Kabarda became the ideological weapon of the anti-colonial war with Russia. The goal of the Sharia movement was the unity of all social strata. At the head of this movement were the princes themselves, who, in order to unite all forces to fight against Russia, took the most radical measures, renouncing their usual privileges, and also promised land and freedom to the peasants. Dol, a prince from Little Kabarda, who commanded the armed forces of Sheikh Mansur, can be considered a harbinger of the Shariatists. Later, with the strengthening of the presence of Russia in the region, other Adyghes of the region also joined the fight on the basis of Islam.

Moreover, in the 40s of the 19th century, an important role in the Sharia reform in Circassia was played by the naib of Shamil - Mohammed-Amin. The religious reformer achieved the greatest success in such provinces of Circassia as Kabarda, Natukhai, Bzhedugia and Abadzekhia. In general, Islam became the ideological basis for the consolidation of the Adyghe societies of the late 18th - first half of the 19th century in the struggle against the expansion of the Russian Empire. The legal, ritual establishments of the Muslim religion were reflected in the culture of the Adygs, in their songs and folklore. Islamic ethics has become a component of the self-consciousness of the Adyghe people, their religious self-identification. And yet, their religion to the last represented and represents a mixture (syncretism) of religious rites and customs of Adyghe, Christianity and Islam, when, for example, imams read prayers in sacred groves, next to crosses hanging on trees. In addition, in this region, Amin met the active resistance of the local nobility, who were afraid of losing their privileges under the conditions of the Sharia reform and who united the Adyghes in the fight against Russia on the basis of the independence of the Adyghe society, the legal customs of the Adyghe and the Adyghe aristocracy. The clash of ideas eventually led to a military clash of representatives of different ideas in the person of the princes Sefer Bey Zanokov (Natukhai and partly Shapsugs), Haji Berzek Kerantukh (Ubykhs) and Mohammed Amin (Abadzekhs and partly Shapsugs, later also Temirgoevs and Bzhedugs).

By the 18th - 20th centuries, the main complexes of traditional clothing of the peoples of the North Caucasus had already taken shape. Archaeological material allows us to confirm with sufficient certainty the thesis about the local origin of the main structural details of the male and female costume. Clothing of the general North Caucasian type: for men - undershirt, beshmet, cherkeska, belt belt with a silver set, trousers, felt cloak, hat, hood, narrow felt or leather leggings (weapons were an integral part of the national costume); for women - bloomers, an undershirt, a tight-fitting caftan, a long swinging dress with a silver belt and long sleeve blades-pendants, a high hat trimmed with silver or gold galloon, a scarf. The traditional occupations of the Circassians are arable farming (millet, barley, since the 19th century the main crops are corn and wheat), horticulture, viticulture, cattle breeding (cattle and small cattle, horse breeding). Among the traditionally Adyghe home crafts, weaving, weaving, cloak, leather and weapons production, stone and wood carving, gold and silver embroidery have reached the greatest development. However, with the intensification of the slave trade towards Turkey since the 15th century, the raiding method of earning money among the Adyghes, especially among the nobility, has been actively growing. Both slaves captured in raids and their relatives were sold into slavery, usually among poor families. The traditional dwelling was a turluch single-chamber room, to which additional isolated rooms were attached with a separate entrance for married sons. The culture of using nature and land was brought to perfection, allowing a harmonious combination of careful attitude to it along with the development of settlements, which so impressed the agronomists of tsarist Russia in the 19-20 centuries.

An interesting fact is the Circassian presence in the life of medieval Egypt, where from the 8th century captives were taken from Circassia. So, by the 13th century, the power in the Egyptian sultanate was seized by the Burjits - the second Mamluk dynasty of the sultans of Egypt, who constituted the military caste of the Circassians and replaced the Bakhrits, the Turkic caste of warriors, in power. The name comes from the tower-like barracks (burj) of the Cairo citadel. The founder of the dynasty was Barquq, a former shepherd from Circassia, who overthrew the last of the Bakhrits and established himself on the Sultan's throne in 1382. The reign of the Burjits ended in 1517 after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I, but the Circassians in subsequent years, up to the 21st century, constituted the officer elite in Egypt and still retain their influential diaspora in the country.

CAUCASUS WAR

Since the beginning of the 18th century, periodic conflicts of the Circassians with the Russian Empire have arisen as it gradually strengthens on the Kuban River and the Black Sea coast, especially since the last decade of the 18th century. The Nekrasov Cossacks also fall under the blow of the Russian troops. In total, the historical period of the Caucasian War took 101 years (from 1763 to 1864), as a result, putting the Adyghe peoples on the verge of complete extinction. And if the active period of the war with the Russians in Kabarda, still alone in its uprising, lasted from 1763 to the 1820s, starting with the construction of the Mozdok fortress in the lands of the Kabardians against their will, then the active war in the western Adyghe lands began in 1792 with the creation by Russian troops of a continuous cordon line along the Kuban River. After the entry of Eastern Georgia in 1801 and Northern Azerbaijan in 1803-1805 into the Russian Empire, their territories were separated from Russia by the lands of Chechnya, Dagestan and the North-Western Caucasus. The Circassians made raids on the Caucasian fortified lines, hindered the development of ties with the Transcaucasus. In this regard, by the beginning of the 19th century, the annexation of these territories became an important military-political task for Russia. In 1817, Russia began a systematic offensive against the Circassians. Appointed this year as commander-in-chief of the Caucasian corps, General A.P.

Ermolov

The liberation movement in the North Caucasus developed under the banner of Muridism, one of the currents of Sufi Islam. Muridism assumed complete submission to the theocratic leader - the imam - and a war with the infidels until complete victory. In the late 20s - early 30s of the 19th century, a theocratic state - the imamate - was formed in Chechnya and Dagestan. But among the Adyghe tribes of the Western Caucasus, Muridism did not receive significant distribution, initially spreading only in Malaya Kabarda under the command of Imam Mansur. In the same years, Abkhazia and Dzhigetia (the valley of the Mzymta River) fell under the control of Russia. After the defeat of Turkey in the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829. the eastern coast of the Black Sea from the mouth of the Kuban to the bay of St. Nicholas was assigned to Russia. It should be noted that the territories inhabited by the Circassians were not part of the Ottoman Empire - Turkey simply renounced its claims to these lands and recognized them as Russia. The Circassians refused to submit to Russia, as they had not previously submitted to Turkey, recognizing only its religious authority. By this time, Kabarda had fallen into complete submission, finally broken by the plague epidemic.

By 1839, during the construction of the Black Sea defensive line, the Circassians were forced into the mountains, from where they continued to raid Russian settlements. In February - March 1840, numerous Circassian detachments stormed a number of Russian coastal fortifications, but were forced to leave them. The main reason for this was the famine created by the Russians during the blockade of the coast from Turkish smugglers and religious propaganda. In the 1840s - 1850s. Russian troops advanced in Trans-Kuban in the space from the Laba River to Gelendzhik, gaining a foothold with the help of fortresses and Cossack villages. However, during the Crimean War, in the mid-50s, the Russian fortifications on the Black Sea coast were abandoned, since it was believed that it was impossible to defend and supply them under the condition that the fleets of England and France dominated the sea. However, the Circassians did not take advantage of the opportunity to fortify and attack due to numerous internal unrest and lack of unity.

At the end of the Crimean War, Russian troops won a complete victory in the Eastern Caucasus, captured Imam Shamil and, thus, neutralized his imams operating in Circassia. Thus, Russia was able to transfer the entire mass of Russian troops to the Trans-Kuban front and resumed the offensive on the Circassian territories. By 1861, most of the flat Northwestern Caucasus came under Russian control, and by 1862, Russia had completely taken over the lands of the Adygs in the mountains. The Russian-Circassian war was extremely fierce. After 1856, having mobilized huge military resources, the Russian army began to break off narrow strips of land from Circassia, immediately destroying all Adyghe villages and occupying the occupied territory with fortresses, forts, Cossack villages, that is, it pursued a scorched earth policy. Gradual annexation gave its results already by 1860 due to the fact that Circassia began to experience a severe food crisis: hundreds of thousands of refugees accumulated in the still independent valleys.

The Kuban historian Felitsin wrote: "The Circassian auls were burned out by the hundreds, their crops were exterminated or trampled down by horses, and the inhabitants who expressed obedience were evicted to the flat parts under the control of bailiffs, while the recalcitrant went to the seashore for resettlement in Turkey." The new Russian emperor Alexander II put the Circassians under the condition - either resettlement in the floodplain of the Kuban River under the supervision of Russian fortresses, or eviction to Turkey. It is worth noting that initially Russian policy in the region in the 20-30s of the 19th century adhered to the point of view of the peaceful conquest of the region. It was assumed that the acquaintance of the Circassians with the benefits of civilization, as well as open trade with them, would lead them into obedience and desire to become part of the Russian Empire. It was during this period that exchange yards were actively working, and a number of foreigners were allowed by the Russian government to draw up plans for arranging trade. However, gradually, due to fraudulent actions on the part of merchants, everyday skirmishes of the parties, especially during the construction of fortifications, as well as massive anti-Russian propaganda from Turkey, the number of military clashes of the parties increased and lobbyists for a military solution to the issue won in Russian politics, especially since it seemed faster than the many years of peaceful involvement of the Circassians in the life of the empire. Attempts by individual chiefs and generals to pursue the ideas of peaceful coexistence, especially from among the Decembrists, led to their loss of positions or transfer to other regions of the empire.

All this eventually led to a bloody war and the mass deportation of the Circassians to the Ottoman Empire. According to preliminary estimates, the number of those who remained at home was a little more than 50 thousand people out of the original 1.3 million people. During the chaotic eviction, tens of thousands of people died on the way from diseases, from overloading Turkish watercraft and poor-quality conditions created by the Turks to receive exiles, not to mention the fact that during the entire hundred years war, many of them died from epidemics caused by hostilities. . The expulsion of the Circassians to Turkey (Muhajirism) turned out to be a national tragedy for them, and subsequently the loss of culture and language. In 1864, Russia completely took control of the territory of residence of the Adyghes, part of the Adyghe nobility by this moment had transferred to the service of the Russian Empire, had established control over the last unattached territory of Circassia - the upland strip of the Trans-Kuban region and the North-Eastern Black Sea region (Sochi, Tuapse, and mountainous parts Apsheronsky, Seversky and Abinsk districts of the modern Krasnodar Territory). On May 21, 1864, the Caucasian War ended with a parade of Russian troops on the site of the current Krasnaya Polyana, and this day is celebrated among the Circassians around the world as a day of mourning in memory of those killed in the war, and many monuments to this date are currently installed on the territory of the Adyghe republics.

The Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid II supported the settlement of the Circassians in the territory of his empire, which was expressed by false stories about numerous benefits for settlers. As a result, they settled on the deserted border of Syria and in other desolate border regions to stop the Bedouin raids, settled separately in order to deliberately exclude the appearance of large enclaves. Soon the Circassians were equalized in rights with other subjects of the Ottoman Empire, which meant the payment of taxes on a common basis and conscription into the regular army. In the years that followed, the Circassians here were deprived of the opportunity to learn in their own language and express their own culture during the Turkish Revolution of the early 20th century. As for those Circassians who decided to move to the Kuban, for a long time they essentially lived on reservations, having received the status of a traitor people, until the attitude towards them changed in Soviet times largely due to the activities of the Soviet functionary of Adyghe origin Khakurate, who managed to achieve education a separate autonomous region of the Circassians and receive opportunities for them to study in their native language and in their native culture.

Shahan Giray Hakurate

In general, in Soviet times, the lands inhabited by the Adygs were divided into one autonomous union republic, two autonomous regions and one national region: the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Adygei and Cherkess autonomous regions and the Shapsug national region, abolished in 1945. Many of their territories were administratively transferred for settlement to neighboring ethnic groups, as well as to the Cossack and Russian population. Abroad, the ethnonym "Circassian" continues to be used in relation to the descendants of the Adyghe Muhajirs, as well as the descendants of the Circassian Mamluks, who ruled Egypt and Syria from 1390 to 1517, living in the Adyghe diaspora. The largest diaspora of the Circassians is represented in Turkey, where their number is about 1.5 million people. Also, their descendants live in all countries of the Middle East - in Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc. The diaspora is also represented in some European countries (mainly in Germany, France and some Balkan countries), North America and Australia.

On February 7, 1992, the Supreme Council of the Kabardino-Balkarian SSR adopted a resolution "On the condemnation of the genocide of the Circassians (Circassians) during the Russian-Caucasian war", which declared the death of the Circassians in 1760-1864. genocide and proclaimed May 21 "the Day of Remembrance of the Circassians (Circassians) - victims of the Russian-Caucasian war." In October 2006, 20 Adyghe public organizations from different countries applied to the European Parliament with a request to recognize the genocide of the Adyghe people during and after the Russian-Caucasian war of the 18th and 19th centuries. A month later, public associations of Adygea, Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to recognize the genocide of the Circassians, which was ignored, and in 2010, the Circassian delegates turned to Georgia with a similar request, which on May 20, 2011 adopted a resolution on recognition of the Circassian genocide by the Russian Empire during the Caucasian War.

After the end of the Caucasian War, the Zhaneyevs, Khegayks, Khakuchis, part of the Shapsug tribes no longer exist, and there are no representatives of the Ubykhs (they have completely lost their language and culture), Natukhais, Egerukays and Khatukais in the Caucasus. Today, in connection with the war in Syria, repatriates from this country arrive in Kabardino-Balkaria from the descendants of the Circassians who settled in Turkey, who are trying to integrate into society with state support.

Circassians

This name denotes a group of heterogeneous, but related in language and culture, Western mountain peoples of the Caucasus, who occupied (before their eviction from Russia) most of the Kabardian plane, a significant part of both slopes of the Caucasus Range and the eastern coast of the Black Sea, that is, the entire southern part the current Kuban region and the western part of the Terek. Ch. is divided into three large groups: actually Ch. or adigue as they call themselves Kabardians And Abkhazians(however, the relationship between the language of the latter and the language of Ch. has not yet been established scientifically). The 1st group (Adige) included the following nationalities: abadzekhs, the most warlike of the Circassian tribes, who lived in the valleys of the Belaya, Laba, Pshish, Psekups rivers, along the northern slope of the Caucasus Range; shepsugs who inhabited the valleys of the Ubin River and its tributaries; Natukhians(along the Black Sea coast from Anapa to the Tuapse River and along the Kuban River to Adagum); Besleneyites- "inhabitants of a large forest"; west of the last egarukai And Mekheshites; even further to the west, between the rivers Skhaguashe and Pshish - gatyukayites; to the north, along the right bank of the Belaya and along the watershed with Laba - temirgoy(kemguy); bzheduhi(between the rivers Afips and Belaya, east of the Shepsugs); finally, Zhaneyevites, a once powerful tribe, the remnants of which held out on the Karakuban Island, and a very mixed tribe Ubykhs. Ch. lived in the Caucasus in almost the same places from ancient times: the first historical information about them dates back to the beginning of the 6th century. BC The name Ch. was given to them by the peoples around them, but they always called themselves Adige. Klaproth derives the name Ch. from Turkic words: black(road) and kesmek(cut off), so Ch. is a synonym for a robber; but this name, apparently, is older than the appearance of the Turkic tribes in Central Asia. Already among Greek historians there is a name kerket, which is attributed specifically to Ch. The Greeks also called them zyukhoy (in Appiana). In ancient times, the territory of Ch., in addition to the western Caucasus, extended to the Crimean peninsula. Back in 1502, they occupied the entire eastern shore of the Sea of ​​Azov to the Cimmerian Bosporus, from where they were driven out by the Russians and Tatars. Very little data has been preserved about the ancient history of Ch. What is certain is that they gradually experienced a whole series of cultural influences, from the Greeks, Persians, Byzantines, Turks, and ending with the Ottomans and Russians. According to Masudi (X century), they dressed in Greek silk fabrics and adhered to the religion of Magism. Byzantium gave them Christianity, and the general conditions of the historical life of the Caucasus, this open road of peoples, created that social system of militant feudalism, which remained inviolable until the era of the struggle with Russia. From the 16th century the first detailed description of the life of C., made by the Genoese Interiano, has come down to us. He depicts a conglomeration of independent tribes organized on a feudal basis, societies consisting of nobles, vassals, serfs and slaves. The latter served as a subject of trade even with Cairo. The free people knew only hunting and war, undertook distant campaigns, even to Chersonesus, continuously fought with neighboring Turkic tribes, and in between they slaughtered each other or raided the peasants who were hiding from them in the mountains and formed alliances for protection. Their courage, dashing horsemanship, chivalry, generosity, hospitality were as famous as the beauty and grace of their men and women. But their life was full of rudeness and cruelty. They were considered Christians, but made sacrifices to pagan gods; their funeral rites were often pagan; they practiced polygamy; their life was so full of bloodshed that until the age of 60 the noble did not dare to enter the church. They did not know writing. Pieces of matter served as their only coin, although they valued precious metals, using huge bowls of gold and silver during feasts. In the way of life (housing, food) they were simple; luxury was manifested only in weapons and partly in clothing. In the 17th century another traveler, Jean de Luca, finds in them already an enormous change that has taken place in less than one century. Half of the Ch. already professes Mohammedanism; not only the religion, but also the language and culture of the Turks penetrated deeply into the life of the Turks, who gradually fell under the political influence of the Turks. Upon the conclusion of the Peace of Adrianople in 1829, when all Turkish possessions in the Caucasus passed to Russia, Ch. (on whose territory Russia bordered along the Kuban River), as previously dependent on Turkey, had to pass into Russian citizenship. Refusal to obey caused a long-term war (see Caucasian Wars), which ended with the emigration of the majority of Ch. to Turkey and the forced eviction of those who remained from the mountains to the plains. In 1858, there were up to 350,000 men on the right slope of the Caucasus Range, of which 100,000 were noble. At the end of the war, up to 400 thousand souls moved to Turkey. By the end of the 1880s, there were 130 thousand of all Ch., of which the majority (84 thousand) were Kabardians. In the 1980s, about 16,000 Abadzekhs, 12,000 Bzhedukhs, 6,000 Besleneyites, and 2 1/2,000 Shapsugs were counted in the 1980s from Ch. Abkhazians and Kabardians are described in a special way (see these words). Actually Ch.-adige are slender and broad-shouldered. Their hair, most often dark blond, frames a beautifully oval face, with sparkling eyes, almost always dark. Their appearance breathes dignity and inspires sympathy. They proudly say: "ssé adighé - I adighe" (Chantre). Ch.'s costume consists of a beshmet or arkhaluk, a Circassian coat, buttons, chevyakov, a cloak, and a papakha trimmed with galloon, with a hood resembling a Phrygian hat. Weapons - a checker (the name passed from Ch. to us), a gun, a dagger and pistols; on both sides of the Circassian coat there are leather slots for rifle cartridges, on the belt there are greasers, a screwdriver and a bag with accessories for cleaning weapons. Women put on a long shirt made of coarse calico or muslin, with wide sleeves, over the shirt, a silk beshmet, chevyak trimmed with galloon, and on their heads a round cap, twisted with white muslin, a turban. Before marriage, girls wore a special corset that squeezed their breasts. Ch.'s estate is usually located in seclusion. It consists of a hut built of turluk and covered with thatch, a granary on poles and a barn surrounded by a dense yard, behind which stretch vegetable gardens sown mainly with corn and millet. Kunakskaya, consisting of a house and a stable, fenced with a palisade, adjoins the fence from the outside. Saklya consists of several rooms, with windows without glass. Instead of a stove in the earthen floor, there is a recess for the fire, with a wicker pipe smeared with clay. The situation is the most unpretentious: shelves along the walls, several tables, a bed covered with felt. Stone buildings are rare and only on the tops of mountains: the warlike Ch. considered it shameful to seek protection behind stone fences. Ch. is very undemanding in food. His usual food: wheat stew, lamb, milk, cheese, corn, millet porridge (paste), buza or mash. Pork and wine are not consumed. In addition to farming, cattle breeding, and hunting, Ch. cultivate beekeeping. Back in the 50s. 19th century The social structure of Czechoslovakia resembled, even to the last detail, the feudal life of medieval Europe. Princes, nobles, vassals, serfs, slaves, freedmen, peasants, tightly united for mutual protection - such was the complex organization of Ch. , blood feud, institution of hospitality. These features, especially the last two, have survived to the present day. The nobles have a custom to give their children at an early age for full education in another family, an experienced teacher (atalyk). In the family of a teacher, far from the caresses and pampering influence of his parents, the boy goes through a harsh hardening school and acquires all the habits of a rider and a warrior, and a girl - all the knowledge of a housewife and a worker. Between pupils and their educators and families of the latter, strong and tender bonds of friendship are established for life. Young people meet during the festivities, dance their national dance cafenir(kind of Lezginka), during which declarations of love take place, in the only permitted symbolic form of firing shots in front of the beloved. Before marriage, the young do not have any communication, but through his friends the groom asks the consent of the bride and agrees on the day of her flight from her parents' house (marriage by abduction is practiced by the noble class). Only after this is an agreement established about the kalym (see). The position of women is difficult; they carry the most difficult chores in the field and at home. From the 2nd half of the XVIII century. Ch. all became Sunni Mohammedans. Adherence to Mohammedanism is supported by hatred for the conquerors of other faiths; but they are far from being Mohammedans in essence. Their religious rites and views are a mixture of paganism, Christianity and Mohammedanism. They still worship Shibla, the god of thunder, war and justice, as well as the spirits of the waters, the sea, trees, and the elements. They make bloody sacrifices to their gods, their sacred groves are especially respected, which they did not dare to profane in their time, even their priests, who limited themselves only to the establishment of crosses among them, the construction of temples, etc. The language of Ch. is completely different from other Caucasian languages. The purest dialect is Kabardian; it is distinguished by an abundance of labial and palatal sounds, making the assimilation of pronunciation almost unthinkable for a European. There is an experience of grammar and vocabulary, but the scientific study of language is still at a very primitive stage.

For literature, see the Caucasian region, Kabardians, Abkhazians, as well as Semenov ("Geographic and Statistical Dictionary of the Russian Empire"), Yakushkin ("Foreigners of Russia") and Mezhov. Wed also "Picturesque Russia" (vol. IX, art. Berger); Ernest Chantres, "Recherches anthropol. dans le Caucase" (vol. IV); Erckert, "Der Kaukasus"; "Materials for the description of localities and tribes of the Caucasus"; publications of the Caucasian Department of the Geographical Society; "Caucasian Calendar".

Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron. - St. Petersburg: Brockhaus-Efron. 1890-1907 .

See what "Circassians" are in other dictionaries:

- (Adygs from KChR) Self-name Adyge ... Wikipedia

Circassians, Circassians, units. Circassian, Circassian, husband. 1. The common name for Kabardians (Upper Circassians) and Adyghes (Lower Circassians; ling.). 2. The name of the Kabardians living within the Circassian Autonomous Region. Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov. D.N. Ushakov. ... ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

- (self-name Adyghe) people in Karachay Circassian Aut. region (40.2 thousand people); in total in the Russian Federation 50.7 thousand people (1992). They also live in Turkey and other countries of Western Asia, where all people from the North are also called Circassians. Caucasus ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- "Circassians", the first of L.'s poems that have come down to us (1828); belongs to the number of his early kavk. romantic poems. Main on personal impressions, as well as stories about the life and customs of the highlanders, known to L. from his relatives E. A. Khastatova and P. P. Shan Giray. ... ... Lermontov Encyclopedia

- (self-name Adyghe) nationality with a total number of 270 thousand people. Main resettlement countries: Russian Federation 51 thousand people, incl. Karachaevo Cherkssia 40 thousand people Other settlement countries: Turkey 150 thousand people, Syria 35 thousand people, Iraq 15 thousand ... Modern Encyclopedia

Circassians, ov, unit es, a, husband. A people belonging to the indigenous population of Karachay-Cherkessia. | female Circassian, and | adj. Circassian, oh, oh. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

- (self-name Adyghe), people in the Russian Federation (50.8 thousand people), in Karachasvo Circassia (40.2 thousand people). They also live in Turkey, Jordan, and others. Believers ... ... Russian history

Ov; pl. 1. The people living in Adygea and Karachay-Cherkessia; representatives of this people, the Adyghe. 2. Outdated. The general name of the peoples inhabiting the North Caucasus (Kabardians, Dagestanis, etc.); representatives of these peoples. ◁ Circassian, a; m. ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Circassians Ethnopsychological dictionary

Circassians- representatives of the ancient people currently living on the territory of Adygea and Karachay-Cherkessia. As socio-psychological studies show, the Circassians are distinguished by their strong character, loyalty to the word, perseverance, patience ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy

The Circassians (the self-name of the Adygs) are the oldest inhabitants of the North-Western Caucasus, whose history, according to many Russian and foreign researchers, is rooted far back in time, in the era of stone.

As Gleason's Pictorial Journal noted in January 1854, "their history is so long that, with the exception of China, Egypt, and Persia, the history of any other country is but a story of yesterday. The Circassians have a striking feature: they never lived in submission to external domination. The Circassians were defeated, they were forced out into the mountains, suppressed by superior force. But never, even for a short time, did they obey anyone but their own laws. And now they live under the rule of their leaders according to their own customs.

The Circassians are also interesting because they are the only people on the surface of the globe who can trace an independent national history so far into the past. They are few in number, but their region is so important and their character so striking that the Circassians are well known to ancient civilizations. They are mentioned in abundance by Geradot, Varius Flaccus, Pomponius Mela, Strabo, Plutarch and other great writers. Their traditions, legends, epics are a heroic tale of freedom, which they have maintained for at least the last 2300 years in the face of the most powerful rulers in human memory.

The history of the Circassians (Circassians) is the history of their multilateral ethnocultural and political ties with the countries of the Northern Black Sea region, Anatolia and the Middle East. This vast space was their single civilizational space, communicating within itself with millions of threads. At the same time, the bulk of this population, according to the results of research by Z.V. Anchabadze, I.M. Dyakonov, S.A. Starostin and other authoritative researchers of ancient history, for a long period was focused on the Western Caucasus.

The language of the Circassians (Adyghes) belongs to the West Caucasian (Adyghe-Abkhazian) group of the North Caucasian language family, whose representatives are recognized by linguists as the most ancient inhabitants of the Caucasus. Close ties of this language with the languages ​​of Asia Minor and Western Asia, in particular, with the now dead Hattian, whose speakers lived in this region 4-5 thousand years ago, were found.

The oldest archaeological realities of the Circassians (Circassians) in the North Caucasus are the Dolmen and Maykop cultures (3rd millennium BC), which took an active part in the formation of the Adyghe-Abkhazian tribes. According to the famous scientist Sh.D. Inal-ipa is the distribution area of ​​dolmens and is basically the "original" homeland of the Adyghes and Abkhazians. An interesting fact is that dolmens are found even on the territory of the Iberian Peninsula (mainly in the western part), the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. In this regard, the archaeologist V.I. Markovin put forward a hypothesis about the fate of newcomers from the western Mediterranean in the early ethnogenesis of the Circassians (Adygs) by merging with the ancient West Caucasian population. He also considers the Basques (Spain, France) to be mediators of the linguistic ties between the Caucasus and the Pyrenees.

Along with the Dolmen culture, the Maykop early Bronze culture was also widespread. It occupied the territory of the Kuban region and the Central Caucasus, i.e. the area of ​​settlement of the Circassians (Circassians) that has not been replaced for millennia. Sh.D.Inal-ipa and Z.V. Anchabadze indicate that the disintegration of the Adyghe-Abkhazian community began in the 2nd millennium BC. and ended by the end of the ancient era.

In the III millennium BC, in Asia Minor, the Hittite civilization developed dynamically, where the Adyghe-Abkhazians (North-Eastern part) were called the Hutts. Already in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. Hatti existed as a single state of the Adyghe-Abkhazians. Subsequently, part of the Hattians, who did not submit to the powerful Hittite Empire, formed the Kasku state in the upper reaches of the Galis River (Kyzyl-Irmak in Turkey), whose inhabitants retained their language and entered history under the name kaskov (kaskov). Scientists compare the name of the helmets with the word that later various peoples called the Circassians - kashagi, kasogi, kasagi, kasagi etc. Throughout the existence of the Hittite Empire (1650-1500 to 1200 BC), the kingdom of Kasku was its irreconcilable enemy. It is mentioned in written sources up to the 8th century. d.c.e.

According to L.I. Lavrov, there was also a close connection between the North-Western Caucasus and Southern Ukraine and the Crimea, which goes back to the pre-Scythian era. This area was inhabited by a people called Cimmerians, which, according to the version of famous archaeologists V.D. Balavadsky and M.I. Artamonov, are the ancestors of the Circassians. V.P. Shilov attributed to the remains of the Cimmerians Meotians who were Adyghe-speaking. Taking into account the close interactions of the Circassians (Circassians) with the Iranian and Frankish peoples in the Northern Black Sea region, many scientists suggest that the Cimmerians were a heterogeneous union of tribes, which was based on the Adyghe-speaking substratum - the Cimmerian tribe. The formation of the Cimmerian union is attributed to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC.

In the 7th century d.c.e. Numerous hordes of Scythians poured in from Central Asia and fell upon Cimmeria. The Scythians drove the Cimmerians west of the Don and into the Crimean steppes. They are preserved in the southern part of the Crimea under the name taurus, and to the east of the Don and in the North-Western Caucasus under the collective name of the Meota. In particular, they were Sinds, Kerkets, Achaeis, Geniokhs, Sanigs, Zikhs, Psesses, Fateis, Tarpits, Doskhs, Dandarias and etc.

In the 6th century AD the ancient Adyghe state of Sindika was formed, which entered the 4th century. d.c.e. to the Bosporan kingdom. The Bosporan kings always relied in their policy on the Sindo-Meots, attracted them to military campaigns, passed off their daughters as their rulers. The area of ​​the Meotians was the main producer of bread. According to foreign observers, the Sindo-Meotian era in the history of the Caucasus coincides with the era of antiquity in the 6th century. BC. – V c. AD According to V.P. Shilov, the western border of the Meotian tribes was the Black Sea, the Kerch Peninsula and the Sea of ​​Azov, from the south - the Caucasus Range. In the north, along the Don, they bordered on the Iranian tribes. They also lived on the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov (Sindian Scythia). Their eastern border was the Laba River. A narrow strip was inhabited by the Meots along the Sea of ​​Azov, nomads lived to the east. In the III century. BC. according to a number of scientists, part of the Sindo-Meotian tribes entered the union of the Sarmatians (Siraks) and their kindred Alans. In addition to the Sarmatians, Iranian-speaking Scythians had a great influence on their ethnogenesis and culture, but this did not lead to the loss of the ethnic face of the ancestors of the Circassians (Circassians). And the linguist O.N. Trubachev, on the basis of his analysis of ancient toponyms, ethnonyms and personal names (anthroponyms) from the territory of the distribution of Sinds and other Meotians, expressed the opinion that they belonged to the Indo-Aryans (Proto-Indians), who allegedly remained in the North Caucasus after their main mass left for the South east in the second millennium BC

Scientist N.Ya.Marr writes: “Adygs, Abkhazians and a number of other Caucasian peoples belong to the Mediterranean “Japhetic” race, to which the Elams, Kassites, Khalds, Sumerians, Urartians, Basques, Pelasgians, Etruscans and other dead languages ​​\u200b\u200bof the Mediterranean basin belonged” .

Researcher Robert Eisberg, having studied ancient Greek myths, came to the conclusion that the cycle of ancient legends about the Trojan War arose under the influence of Hittite legends about the struggle of their own and alien gods. The mythology and religion of the Greeks were formed under the influence of the Pelasgians, related to the Hattians. To this day, historians are amazed by the related plots of ancient Greek and Adyghe myths, in particular, the similarity with the Nart epic attracts attention.

The invasion of the Alanian nomads in the 1st-2nd centuries. forced the Meotians to leave for the Trans-Kuban region, where they, together with other Meotian tribes and tribes of the Black Sea coast who lived here, laid the foundations for the formation of the future Circassian (Adyghe) people. In the same period, the main elements of the men's costume, which later became the all-Caucasian, were born: Circassian coat, beshmet, legs, belt. Despite all the difficulties and dangers, the Meots retained their ethnic independence, their language and the peculiarities of their ancient culture.

In IV - V centuries. The Meotians, like the Bosporus as a whole, experienced the onslaught of the Turkic nomadic tribes, in particular, the Huns. The Huns defeated the Alans and drove them to the mountains and foothills of the Central Caucasus, and then destroyed part of the cities and villages of the Bosporan kingdom. The political role of the Meotians in the North-Western Caucasus came to naught, and their ethnic name disappeared in the 5th century. As well as the ethnonyms of Sinds, Kerkets, Geniokhs, Achaeans and a number of other tribes. They are replaced by one big name - Zikhia (zihi), the rise of which began as early as the 1st century AD. It is they, according to domestic and foreign scientists, who begin to play the main role in the unification process of the ancient Circassian (Adyghe) tribes. Over time, their territory has expanded significantly.

Until the end of the 8th century AD. (Early Middle Ages) the history of the Circassians (Circassians) is not deeply reflected in written sources and is studied by researchers based on the results of archaeological excavations, which confirm the habitats of the Zikhs.

In the VI-X centuries. The Byzantine Empire, and from the beginning of the 15th century, the Genoese (Italian) colonies, had a serious political and cultural influence on the course of the Circassian (Adyghe) history. However, as written sources of that time testify, the planting of Christianity among the Circassians (Circassians) was not successful. The ancestors of the Circassians (Circassians) acted as a major political force in the North Caucasus. The Greeks, who occupied the eastern coast of the Black Sea long before the birth of Christ, transmitted information about our ancestors, whom they call in general zyugami, and sometimes kerkets. Georgian chroniclers call them jihami, and the region is called Djikhetia. Both of these names are vividly reminiscent of the word train, which in the current language means a person, since it is known that all peoples originally called themselves people, and gave their neighbors a nickname for some quality or locality, then our ancestors, who lived on the Black Sea coast, became known to their neighbors under the name of people : tsig, jik, tsukh.

The word kerket, according to experts of different times, is probably the name given to them by neighboring peoples, and maybe by the Greeks themselves. But, the real generic name of the Circassian (Adyghe) people is the one that survived in poetry and legends, i.e. ant, which changed over time in Adyge or Adykh, and, according to the property of the language, the letter t changed into di, with the addition of the syllable he, which served as a plural in names. In support of this thesis, scientists say that until recently, elders lived in Kabarda, who pronounced this word similar to its previous pronunciation - antihe; in some dialects, they simply say atihe. To further reinforce this opinion, one can give an example from the ancient poetry of the Circassians (Circassians), in which the people are always called Ants, for example: antynokopyesh - Ants princely son, antigishao - Ants youth, antigiwork - Ants nobleman, antigishu - Ants rider. Knights or famous leaders were called sled, this word is an abbreviated narant and means "eye of ants". According to Yu.N. The Voronova border of Zikhia and the Abkhazian kingdom in the 9th-10th centuries passed in the northwest near the modern village of Tsandripsh (Abkhazia).

To the north of the Zikhs, an ethnically related kasogian tribal union, which was first mentioned in the 8th century. The Khazar sources say that "all living in the country Kesa»The Khazars are paid tribute for the Alans. This suggests that the ethnonym "Zikhi" gradually left the political arena of the North-Western Caucasus. Russians, like the Khazars and Arabs, used the term kashaki in the form of kasogi. In X-XI, the collective name Kasogi, Kashaki, Kashki covered the entire Proto-Circassian (Adyghe) massif of the North-Western Caucasus. The Svans also called them Kashags. The ethnic territory of the Kasogs by the 10th century ran in the west along the Black Sea coast, in the east along the Laba River. By this time they had a common territory, a common language and culture. Later, for various reasons, the formation and isolation of ethnic groups took place as a result of their movement to new territories. Thus, for example, in the XIII-XIV centuries. a Kabardian sub-ethnic group was formed, which migrated to their current habitats. A number of small ethnic groups were absorbed by larger ones.

The defeat of the Alans by the Tatar-Mongols allowed the ancestors of the Circassians (Circassians) in the XIII-X1V centuries. occupy land in the foothills of the Central Caucasus, in the basin of the rivers Terek, Baksan, Malka, Cherek.

The last period of the Middle Ages, they, like many other peoples and countries, were in the zone of military and political influence of the Golden Horde. The ancestors of the Circassians (Circassians) maintained various kinds of contacts with other peoples of the Caucasus, the Crimean Khanate, the Russian state, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Poland, the Ottoman Empire.

According to many scientists, it was during this period, in the conditions of the Turkic-speaking environment, that the Adyghe ethnic name arose "Circassians". Then this term was accepted by those who visited the North Caucasus, and from them entered the European and Oriental literature. According to T.V. Polovinkina, this point of view is official today. Although a number of scientists refer to the connection between the ethnonym Circassians and the term Kerkets (the Black Sea tribe of ancient times). The first of the known written sources to record the ethnonym Circassian in frme serkesut, is the Mongolian chronicle “The Secret Legend. 1240". Then this name appears in various variations in all historical sources: Arabic, Persian, Western European and Russian. In the 15th century, a geographical concept also arises from an ethnic name. "Circassia".

The very etymology of the ethnonym Circassian has not been established with sufficient certainty. Tebu de Marigny, in his book “Journey to Circassia”, published in Brussels in 1821, cites one of the most common versions in pre-revolutionary literature, which boils down to the fact that this name is Tatar and means from Tatar Cher “road” and Kes “cut off ", but completely "cutting off the path." He wrote: “We in Europe knew these peoples under the name Cirkassiens. The Russians call them Circassians; some suggest that the name is Tatar, since Tsher means "road" and Kes "cut off", which gives the name of the Circassians the meaning "cutting off the path. Interestingly, the Circassians call themselves only "Adyghe" (Adiqheu)". The author of the essay “The History of the Unfortunate Chirakes”, published in 1841, Prince A. Misostov considers this term a translation from Persian (Farsi) and meaning “thug”.

Here is how J. Interiano tells about the Circassians (Circassians) in his book “The Life and Country of the Zikhs, called Circassians”, published in 1502: Circassians, call themselves - "adiga". They live in the space from the Tana River to Asia along the entire sea coast that lies towards the Cimmerian Bosphorus, now called Vospero, the Strait of St. along the seashore up to Cape Bussi and the river Phasis, and here it borders on Abkhazia, that is, part of Colchis.

From the land side they border on the Scythians, that is, on the Tatars. Their language is difficult - different from the language of neighboring peoples and strongly guttural. They profess the Christian religion and have priests according to the Greek rite.

The famous orientalist Heinrich - Julius Klaproth (1783 - 1835) in his work "Journey through the Caucasus and Georgia, undertaken in 1807 - 1808" writes: “The name “Circassian” is of Tatar origin and is made up of the words “cher” - road and “kefsmek” to cut off. Cherkesan or Cherkes-ji has the same meaning as the word Iol-Kesedzh, which is common in Turkic and denotes the one who "cuts off the path."

“The origin of the name Kabarda is difficult to establish,” he writes, since the etymology of Reineggs - from the Kabar River in the Crimea and from the word “da” - a village, can hardly be called correct. Many Circassians, in his opinion, are called "kabarda", namely the Uzdens (nobles) from the Tambi clan near the Kishbek River, which flows into the Baksan; in their language "kabardzhi" means Kabardian Circassian.

... Reineggs and Pallas are of the opinion that this nation, which originally inhabited the Crimea, was expelled from there to the places of their present settlement. In fact, there are the ruins of a castle, which the Tatars call Cherkes-Kerman, and the area between the rivers Kacha and Belbek, whose upper half, also called Kabarda, is called Cherkes-Tuz, i.e. Circassian plain. However, I see no reason in this to believe that the Circassians came from the Crimea. It seems to me more likely to consider that they simultaneously lived both in the valley north of the Caucasus and in the Crimea, from where they were probably expelled by the Tatars under the leadership of Khan Batu. One day, an old Tatar mullah explained to me quite seriously that the name "Circassian" is composed of the Persian "chekhar" (four) and Tatar "kes" (man), because the nation comes from four brothers.”

In his travel notes, the Hungarian scholar Jean-Charles de Besse (1799 - 1838) published in Paris under the title "Journey to the Crimea, the Caucasus, Georgia, Armenia, Asia Minor and Constantinople in 1929 and 1830" states that that “... the Circassians are a numerous, brave, restrained, courageous, but little known people in Europe ... My predecessors, writers and travelers, argued that the word “Circassian” comes from the Tatar language and is composed of "cher" ("road") and "kesmek" ("cut»); but it did not occur to them to give this word a more natural and more suitable meaning to the character of this people. It should be noted that " cher" in Persian means "warrior", "courageous", and "kes" means "personality", "individual". From this we can conclude that it was the Persians who gave the name that this people now bears.

Then, most likely, during the Caucasian War, other peoples that did not belong to the Circassian (Adyghe) people began to be called the word "Circassian". “I don’t know why,” wrote L. Ya Lulye, one of the best experts on the Circassians in the first half of the 19th century, among whom he lived for many years, “but we are used to calling all the tribes inhabiting the northern slope of the Caucasus Mountains Circassians, while they call themselves Adyge. The transformation of the ethnic term "Circassian" in essence into a collective one, as was the case with the terms "Scythian", "Alans", led to the fact that the most diverse peoples of the Caucasus were hiding behind it. In the first half of the XIX century. it became customary to call "Circassians not only the Abazins or Ubykhs, who are close to them in spirit and way of life, but also the inhabitants of Dagestan, Checheno-Ingushetia, Ossetia, Balkaria, Karachay, who are completely different from them in language."

In the first half of the XIX century. with the Black Sea Adygs, the Ubykhs became very close in cultural, everyday and political relations, who, as a rule, owned, along with their native, and the Adyghe (Circassian) language. F.F. Tornau notes on this occasion: “... the Ubykhs with whom I met spoke Circassian” (F.F. Tornau, Memoirs of a Caucasian officer. - “Russian Bulletin”, vol. 53, 1864, No. 10, p. 428). Abaza also by the beginning of the 19th century. were under the strong political and cultural influence of the Circassians and in everyday life they differed little from them (ibid., pp. 425 - 426).

N.F. Dubrovin in the preface to his well-known work “The History of War and Dominion, Russians in the Caucasus” also noted the presence of the above misconception in Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century about classifying the North Caucasian peoples as Circassians (Adyghes). In it, he notes: “From many articles and books of that time, one can conclude that only two peoples with whom we fought, for example, on the Caucasian line: these are the highlanders and the Circassians. On the right flank, we were at war with the Circassians and mountaineers, and on the left flank, or in Dagestan, with the mountaineers and Circassians ... ". He himself produces the ethnonym "Circassian" from the Turkic expression "sarkias".

Karl Koch, the author of one of the best books about the Caucasus published at that time in Western Europe, noted with some surprise the confusion that existed around the name of the Circassians in modern Western European literature. “The idea of ​​the Circassians still remains uncertain, despite the new descriptions of the travels of Dubois de Montpere, Belle, Longworth, and others; sometimes by this name they mean Caucasians living on the Black Sea coast, sometimes they consider all the inhabitants of the northern slope of the Caucasus to be Circassians, they even indicate that Kakhetia, the eastern part of the region of Georgia lying on the other side of the Caucasus, is inhabited by Circassians.

In spreading such misconceptions about the Circassians (Circassians) were guilty not only French, but, in equal measure, many German, English, American publications that reported certain information about the Caucasus. Suffice it to point out that Shamil very often appeared on the pages of the European and American press as the "leader of the Circassians", which thus included numerous tribes of Dagestan.

As a result of this completely misuse of the term "Circassians", it is necessary to be especially careful about the sources of the first half of the 19th century. In each individual case, even when using the data of the most knowledgeable in the Caucasian ethnography of the authors of that time, one should first figure out what kind of “Circassians” he is talking about, whether the author means by Circassians, in addition to the Adygs, other neighboring mountain peoples of the Caucasus. It is especially important to make sure of this when the information concerns the territory and number of the Adyghes, because in such cases, very often non-Adyghe peoples were ranked among the Circassians.

The extended interpretation of the word "Circassian", adopted in Russian and foreign literature of the first half of the 19th century, had the real basis that the Adygs were indeed at that time a significant ethnic group in the North Caucasus, which had a great and comprehensive influence on the peoples surrounding them. Sometimes small tribes of a different ethnic origin were, as it were, interspersed in the Adyghe environment, which contributed to the transfer of the term "Circassian" to them.

Ethnonym Circassians, subsequently included in European literature, was not as widespread as the term Circassians. There are several versions regarding the etymology of the word "Circassians". One comes from the astral (solar) hypothesis and translates this word as "children of the Sun"(from the term " tyge", "dyge" - the sun), the other is the so-called "antskaya" about the topographic origin of the term (meadows) "marinist" ("pomeranians").

As evidenced by numerous written sources, the history of the Circassians (Circassians) of the XVI-XIX centuries. is closely connected with the history of Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, all the Middle Eastern countries, about which not only the modern inhabitants of the Caucasus, but also the Circassians (Adyghes) themselves today have a very vague idea.

As is known, the emigration of the Circassians to Egypt took place throughout the Middle Ages and modern times, and was associated with a developed institution of hiring for service in the Circassian society. Gradually, the Circassians, due to their qualities, occupied an increasingly privileged position in this country.

Until now, in this country there are surnames Sharkasi, which means "Circassian". The problem of the formation of the Circassian ruling stratum in Egypt is of particular interest not only in the context of the history of Egypt, but also in terms of studying the history of the Circassian people. The rise of the Mamluk institution in Egypt dates back to the Ayyubid era. After the death of the famous Saladin, his former Mamluks, mostly of Circassian, Abkhazian and Georgian origin, became extremely powerful. According to the study of the Arab scholar Rashid ad-Din, the commander-in-chief of the army, Emir Fakhr ad-Din Cherkes, carried out a coup d'état in 1199.

The Circassian origin of the Egyptian sultans Bibars I and Qalaun is considered proven. The ethnic map of Mamluk Egypt during this period consisted of three layers: 1) Arab-Muslim; 2) ethnic Turks; 3) ethnic Circassians (Circassians) - the elite of the Mamluk army already in the period from 1240. (see the work of D. Ayalon "Circassians in the Mamluk Kingdom", the article by A. Polyak "The Colonial Character of the Mamluk State", the monograph by V. Popper "Egypt and Syria under the Circassian Sultans" and others).

In 1293, the Circassian Mamluks, led by their emir Tugdzhi, opposed the Turkic rebels and defeated them, while killing Beydar and several other high-ranking Turkic emirs from his entourage. Following this, the Circassians enthroned the 9th son of Kalaun, Nasir Muhammad. During both invasions of the Mongol Emperor of Iran, Mahmud Ghazan (1299, 1303), the Circassian Mamluks played a decisive role in their defeat, which is noted in the chronicle of Makrizi, as well as in modern studies by J.Glubb, A.Hakim, A.Khasanov. These military merits greatly increased the authority of the Circassian community. So one of its representatives, Emir Bibars Jashnakir, took the post of vizier.

According to existing sources, the establishment of Circassian power in Egypt was associated with a native of the coastal regions of Zikhia Barquq. Many wrote about his Zikh-Circassian origin, including the Italian diplomat Bertrando de Mizhnaveli, who personally knew him. The Mamluk chronicler Ibn Taghri Birdi reports that Barquq came from the Circassian Kas tribe. Kassa here apparently means kasag-kashek - the usual name for zihs for Arabs and Persians. Barquq ended up in Egypt in 1363, and four years later, with the support of the Circassian governor in Damascus, he became emir and began to recruit, buy and lure Circassian Mamluks into his service. In 1376, he became regent for another juvenile Kalaunid. Concentrating actual power in his hands, Barquq was elected sultan in 1382. The country was waiting for a strong personality to come to power: “The best order was established in the state,” wrote Ibn Khaldun, a contemporary of Barkuk, the founder of the sociological school, “people were glad that they were under the citizenship of the sultan, who knew how to properly evaluate and manage affairs.”

The leading Mamluk scholar D. Aalon (Tell Aviv) called Barquq a statesman who staged the largest ethnic revolution in the history of Egypt. The Turks of Egypt and Syria took the accession to the throne of the Circassian with extreme hostility. So the emir-Tatar Altunbuga al-Sultani, the governor of Abulustan, fled after an unsuccessful rebellion to the Chagatai of Tamerlane, finally stating: "I will not live in a country where the ruler of which is a Circassian." Ibn Tagri Birdi wrote that Barquq had a Circassian nickname "Malikhuk", which means "son of a shepherd". The policy of squeezing out the Turks led to the fact that by 1395 all emir positions in the Sultanate were occupied by Circassians. In addition, all the highest and middle administrative posts were concentrated in the hands of the Circassians.

Power in Circassia and in the Circassian Sultanate was held by one group of aristocratic families of Circassia. For 135 years, they managed to maintain their dominance over Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Hijaz with its holy cities - Mecca and Medina, Libya, Lebanon, Palestine (and the significance of Palestine was determined by Jerusalem), the southeastern regions of Anatolia, part of Mesopotamia. This territory with a population of at least 5 million people was subordinate to the Circassian community of Cairo of 50-100 thousand people, which at any time could put up from 2 to 10-12 thousand excellent heavily armed horsemen. The memory of these times of greatness of the greatest military and political power was preserved in the generations of the Adyghes until the 19th century.

10 years after Barquq came to power, the troops of Tamerlane, the second-ranking conqueror after Genghis Khan, appeared on the Syrian border. But, in 1393-1394, the governors of Damascus and Aleppo defeated the advance detachments of the Mongol-Tatars. A modern researcher of the history of Tamerlane, Tilman Nagel, who paid great attention to the relationship between Barkuk and Tamerlane, in particular, noted: “Timur respected Barkuk ... upon learning of his death, he was so happy that he gave the person who reported this news 15,000 dinars.” Sultan Barquq al-Cherkasi died in Cairo in 1399. Power was inherited by his 12-year-old son from the Greek slave Faraj. Faraj's cruelty led to his assassination, orchestrated by the Circassian emirs of Syria.

One of the leading specialists in the history of Mamluk Egypt, P.J. Vatikiotis wrote that “... the Circassian Mamluks ... were able to demonstrate the highest qualities in battle, this was especially evident in their confrontation with Tamerlane at the end of the 14th century. Their founding sultan Barquq, for example, was not only an able sultan in it, but also left magnificent monuments (a madrasah and a mosque with a mausoleum) testifying to his taste in art. His successors were able to conquer Cyprus and keep this island in vassalage from Egypt until the Ottoman conquest.

The new Sultan of Egypt, Muayyad Shah, finally approved the Circassian dominance on the banks of the Nile. On average, 2,000 natives of Circassia joined his army every year. This sultan easily defeated a number of strong Turkmen princes of Anatolia and Mesopotamia. In memory of his reign, there is a magnificent mosque in Cairo, which Gaston Viet (author of the 4th volume of the History of Egypt) called "the most luxurious mosque in Cairo."

The accumulation of Circassians in Egypt led to the creation of a powerful and efficient fleet. The highlanders of the Western Caucasus prospered as pirates from ancient times until the 19th century. Antique, Genoese, Ottoman and Russian sources have left us a fairly detailed description of Zikh, Circassian and Abazgian piracy. In turn, the Circassian fleet freely penetrated the Black Sea. Unlike the Turkic Mamluks, who did not prove themselves at sea, the Circassians controlled the Eastern Mediterranean, plundered Cyprus, Rhodes, the islands of the Aegean Sea, fought Portuguese corsairs in the Red Sea and off the coast of India. Unlike the Turks, the Circassians of Egypt had an incomparably more stable supply from their native country.

Throughout the Egyptian epic from the XIII century. Circassians were characterized by national solidarity. In the sources of the Circassian period (1318-1517), the national cohesion and monopoly domination of the Circassians were expressed in the use of the terms "people", "people", "tribe" exclusively for the Circassians.

The situation in Egypt began to change from 1485, after the start of the first Ottoman-Mamluk war, which lasted several decades. After the death of the experienced Circassian military commander Kaitbai (1468-1496), a period of internecine wars followed in Egypt: in 5 years, four sultans were replaced on the throne - the son of Kaitbai an-Nasir Muhammad (named after the son of Kalaun), az-zahir Kansav, al- Ashraf Janbulat, al-Adil Sayf ad-Din Tumanbai I. Al-Gauri, who ascended the throne in 1501, was an experienced politician and an old warrior: he arrived in Cairo at the age of 40 and quickly rose to a high position thanks to the patronage of his sister, Qaitbai's wife. And Kansav al-Gauri ascended the throne of Cairo at the age of 60. He showed great activity in the foreign policy sphere in view of the growth of Ottoman power and the expected new war.

The decisive battle between the Mamluks and the Ottomans took place on August 24, 1516 in the Dabiq field in Syria, which is considered one of the most grandiose battles in world history. Despite heavy shelling from cannons and arquebuses, the Circassian cavalry inflicted enormous damage on the army of the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. However, at the moment when the victory already seemed to be in the hands of the Circassians, the governor of Aleppo, Emir Khairbey, with his detachment went over to the side of Selim. This betrayal literally killed the 76-year-old Sultan Kansav al-Gauri: he was seized by an apocalyptic blow and he died in the arms of his bodyguards. The battle was lost and the Ottomans occupied Syria.

In Cairo, the Mamluks elected the last sultan to the throne - the 38-year-old last nephew of Kansav - Tumanbay. With a large army, he gave four battles to the Ottoman armada, the number of which reached from 80 to 250 thousand soldiers of all nationalities and religions. In the end, Tumanbey's army was defeated. Egypt became part of the Ottoman Empire. During the period of the Circassian-Mamluk emirate, 15 Circassian (Adyghe) rulers, 2 Bosnians, 2 Georgians and 1 Abkhazian were in power in Cairo.

Despite the irreconcilable relations of the Circassian Mamluks with the Ottomans, the history of Circassia was also closely connected with the history of the Ottoman Empire, the most powerful political formation of the Middle Ages and modern times, numerous political, religious, and family relations. Circassia was never part of this empire, but its people in this country made up a significant part of the ruling class, making a successful career in administrative or military service.

This conclusion is also shared by representatives of modern Turkish historiography, who do not consider Circassia a country dependent on the Port. So, for example, in the book of Khalil Inaldzhik "The Ottoman Empire: the classical period, 1300-1600." a map is provided that reflects by periods all the territorial acquisitions of the Ottomans: the only free country along the perimeter of the Black Sea is Circassia.

A significant Circassian contingent was in the army of Sultan Selim I (1512-1520), who received the nickname "Yavuz" (Terrible) for his cruelty. While still a prince, Selim was persecuted by his father and was forced, in order to save his life, to leave the governorship in Trebizond and flee by sea to Circassia. There he met the Circassian prince Taman Temryuk. The latter became a faithful friend of the disgraced prince and for three and a half years accompanied him in all his wanderings. After Selim became Sultan, Temryuk was in great honor at the Ottoman court, and at the place of their meeting, by Selim's decree, a fortress was erected, which received the name Temryuk.

The Circassians formed a special party at the Ottoman court and had a great influence on the policy of the Sultan. It was also preserved at the court of Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566), since he, like his father, Selim I, lived in Circassia before his sultanship. His mother was a Girey princess, half Circassian. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, Türkiye reached the peak of its power. One of the most brilliant commanders of this era is the Circassian Ozdemir Pasha, who in 1545 received the extremely responsible post of commander of the Ottoman expeditionary force in Yemen, and in 1549, “as a reward for his steadfastness”, he was appointed governor of Yemen.

Ozdemir's son, Circassian Ozdemir-oglu Osman Pasha (1527-1585) inherited from his father his power and talent as a commander. Beginning in 1572, the activities of Osman Pasha were connected with the Caucasus. In 1584, Osman Pasha became the grand vizier of the empire, but continued to personally lead the army in the war with the Persians, during which the Persians were defeated, and the Circassian Ozdemir-oglu captured their capital Tabriz. On October 29, 1585, Circassian Ozdemir-oglu Osman Pasha died on the battlefield with the Persians. As far as is known, Osman Pasha was the first Grand Vizier from among the Circassians.

In the Ottoman Empire of the 16th century, another major statesman of Circassian origin is known - the governor of Kafa Kasym. He came from the Janet clan and had the title of defterdar. In 1853, Kasim Bey submitted to Sultan Suleiman a project to connect the Don and the Volga by a canal. Among the figures of the 19th century, the Circassian Dervish Mehmed Pasha stood out. In 1651 he was the governor of Anatolia. In 1652, he took the post of commander of all the naval forces of the empire (kapudan pasha), and in 1563 he became the grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire. The residence, built by Dervis Mehmed Pasha, had a high gate, hence the nickname "High Port", which the Europeans denoted the Ottoman government.

The next no less colorful figure among the Circassian mercenaries is Kutfaj Deli Pasha. The Ottoman author of the middle of the 17th century, Evliya Chelebi, wrote that "he comes from the brave Circassian tribe Bolatkoy."

Cantemir's information is fully confirmed in the Ottoman historical literature. The author, who lived fifty years earlier, Evliya Chelyabi, has very picturesque personalities of military leaders of Circassian origin, information about close ties between immigrants from the Western Caucasus. Very important is his message that the Circassians and Abkhazians who lived in Istanbul sent their children to their homeland, where they received military education and knowledge of their native language. According to Chelyaby, there were settlements of Mamluks on the coast of Circassia, who returned at different times from Egypt and other countries. Chelyabi calls the territory of Bzhedugia the land of the Mamluks in the country of Cherkesstan.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the Circassian Osman Pasha, the builder of the Yeni-Kale fortress (modern Yeysk), the commander of all the naval forces of the Ottoman Empire (kapudan-pasha), enjoyed great influence on state affairs. His contemporary, Circassian Mehmed Pasha, was the governor of Jerusalem, Aleppo, commanded troops in Greece, for successful military operations he was granted the title of three-bunch pashas (a marshal's rank by European standards; only the grand vizier and the sultan are higher).

A lot of interesting information about prominent military and statesmen of Circassian origin in the Ottoman Empire is contained in the fundamental work of the outstanding statesman and public figure D.K. Kantemir (1673-1723) “The History of the Growth and Decline of the Ottoman Empire”. The information is interesting because around 1725 Kantemir visited Kabarda and Dagestan, personally knew many Circassians and Abkhazians from the highest circles of Constantinople at the end of the 17th century. In addition to the Constantinople community, he gives a lot of information about the Cairo Circassians, as well as a detailed outline of the history of Circassia. It covered such problems as the relationship of the Circassians with the Muscovite state, the Crimean Khanate, Turkey and Egypt. The campaign of the Ottomans in 1484 in Circassia. The author notes the superiority of the military art of the Circassians, the nobility of their customs, the closeness and kinship of the Abazians (Abkhaz-Abaza), including in language and customs, gives many examples of the Circassians who had the highest positions at the Ottoman court.

The abundance of Circassians in the ruling layer of the Ottoman state is indicated by the historian of the diaspora A. Dzhureiko: “Already in the 18th century, there were so many Circassian dignitaries and military leaders in the Ottoman Empire that it would be difficult to list them all.” However, an attempt to list all the major statesmen of the Ottoman Empire of Circassian origin was made by another historian of the diaspora, Hassan Fehmi: he compiled biographies of 400 Circassians. The largest figure in the Circassian community of Istanbul in the second half of the 18th century was Gazi Hassan Pasha Jezairli, who in 1776 became Kapudan Pasha, the commander-in-chief of the empire's naval forces.

In 1789, the Circassian commander Hassan Pasha Meyyit, was the Grand Vizier for a short time. A contemporary of Jezairli and Meyyit Cherkes Hussein Pasha, nicknamed Kuchuk (“little”), went down in history as the closest associate of the reforming sultan Selim III (1789-1807), who played an important role in the war against Bonaparte. The closest associate of Kuchuk Hussein Pasha was Mehmed Khosrev Pasha, originally from Abadzekhia. In 1812 he became Kapudan Pasha, a post he held until 1817. Finally, he becomes Grand Vizier in 1838 and retains this post until 1840.

Interesting information about the Circassians in the Ottoman Empire is reported by the Russian general Ya.S. Proskurov, who traveled around Turkey in 1842-1846. and met Hasan Pasha, "a natural Circassian, taken from childhood to Constantinople, where he was brought up."

According to the studies of many scientists, the ancestors of the Circassians (Circassians) took an active part in the formation of the Cossacks of Ukraine and Russia. So, N.A. Dobrolyubov, analyzing the ethnic composition of the Kuban Cossacks at the end of the 18th century, indicated that it partially consisted of “1000 male souls who voluntarily left the Kuban Circassians and Tatars” and 500 Cossacks who returned from the Turkish Sultan. In his opinion, the latter circumstance suggests that these Cossacks, after the liquidation of the Sich, went to Turkey due to the common faith, which means that it can also be assumed that these Cossacks are partly of non-Slavic origin. Semeon Bronevsky sheds light on the problem, who, referring to historical news, wrote: “In 1282, the Baskak of the Tatar Kursk principality, having called Circassians from Beshtau or Pyatigorye, inhabited the settlement with them under the name Cossacks. These, copulating with Russian fugitives, for a long time repaired robberies everywhere, hiding from searches over them through forests and ravines. These Circassians and fugitive Russians moved "down the Dpepr" in search of a safe place. Here they built a town for themselves and called it Cherkask, for the reason that most of them were the Cherkasy breed, making up a robber republic, which later became famous under the name of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks.

The same Bronevsky reported about the further history of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks: “When the Turkish army in 1569 came near Astrakhan, then Prince Mikhailo Vishnevetsky was called from the Dnieper from the Circassians with 5,000 Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, who, copulating with the Don Cossacks, won a great victory on the dry route and at sea in boats they won over the Turks. Of these Circassian Cossacks, most of them remained on the Don and built a town for themselves, also calling it Cherkasy, which was the beginning of the settlement of the Don Cossacks, and as it is likely that many of them also returned to their homeland to Beshtau or Pyatigorsk, this circumstance could give reason to call the Kabardians generally Ukrainian residents who fled from Russia, as we find mention of that in our archives. From the information of Bronevsky, we can conclude that the Zaporizhzhya Sich, which was formed in the 16th century in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, i.e. “below the Dnieper”, and until 1654 it was a Cossack “republic”, waged a stubborn struggle against the Crimean Tatars and Turks, and thus played a major role in the liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people in the 16th-17th centuries. At its core, the Sich consisted of the Zaporozhye Cossacks mentioned by Bronevsky.

Thus, the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, which formed the backbone of the Kuban Cossacks, consisted partly of the descendants of the Circassians who had once been taken away “from the Beshtau or Pyatigorsk region”, not to mention the “Circassians who voluntarily left the Kuban”. It should be emphasized that with the resettlement of these Cossacks, namely from 1792, the colonization policy of tsarism began to intensify in the North Caucasus, and in particular, in Kabarda.

It should be emphasized that the geographical position of the Circassian (Adyghe) lands, especially Kabardian, which had the most important military-political and economic significance, was the reason for their involvement in the political interests of Turkey and Russia, predetermining to a large extent the course of historical events in this region since the beginning of the 16th century. and led to the Caucasian War. From the same period, the influence of the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate began to increase, as well as the rapprochement of the Circassians (Circassians) with the Moscow state, which later turned into a military-political union. The marriage in 1561 of Tsar Ivan the Terrible to the daughter of the senior prince of Kabarda, Temryuk Idarov, on the one hand, strengthened the alliance of Kabarda with Russia, and, on the other hand, further aggravated relations between the Kabardian princes, the feuds between which did not subside until the conquest of Kabarda. Even more aggravated its internal political situation and fragmentation, interference in the Kabardian (Circassian) affairs of Russia, Ports and the Crimean Khanate. In the 17th century, as a result of internecine strife, Kabarda split into Greater Kabarda and Lesser Kabarda. The official division took place in the middle of the 18th century. In the period from the 15th to the 18th century, the troops of the Porte and the Crimean Khanate invaded the territory of the Circassians (Adygs) dozens of times.

In 1739, at the end of the Russian-Turkish war, the Belgrade Peace Treaty was signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, according to which Kabarda was declared a “neutral zone” and “free”, but failed to use the opportunity provided to unite the country and create own state in its classical sense. Already in the second half of the 18th century, the Russian government developed a plan for the conquest and colonization of the North Caucasus. Those military men who were there were instructed to "beware most of all the association of mountaineers", for which it is necessary "to try to kindle a fire of internal disagreement between them."

According to the Kyuchuk-Kainarji peace between Russia and the Porte, Kabarda was recognized as part of the Russian state, although Kabarda itself never recognized itself under the rule of the Ottomans and the Crimea. In 1779, 1794, 1804 and 1810, there were major protests by the Kabardians against the seizure of their lands, the construction of the Mozdok fortresses and other military fortifications, the poaching of subjects, and for other good reasons. They were brutally suppressed by the tsarist troops led by the generals Jacobi, Tsitsianov, Glazenap, Bulgakov and others. Bulgakov alone in 1809 ravaged 200 Kabardian villages to the ground. At the beginning of the 19th century, the whole of Kabarda was engulfed in an epidemic of plague.

According to scientists, the Caucasian War began for the Kabardians from the second half of the 18th century, after the construction of the Mozdok fortress by Russian troops in 1763, and for the rest of the Circassians (Adygs) in the Western Caucasus in 1800, from the time of the first punitive campaign of the Black Sea Cossacks led by the ataman F.Ya. Bursak, and then M.G. Vlasov, A.A. Velyaminov and other tsarist generals on the Black Sea coast.

By the beginning of the war, the lands of the Circassians (Circassians) began from the northwestern tip of the Greater Caucasus Mountains and covered a vast territory on both sides of the main ridge for about 275 km, after which their lands passed exclusively to the northern slopes of the Caucasus Range, to the Kuban basin, and then Terek, stretching to the southeast for about 350 km.

“The Circassian lands…,” wrote Khan-Giray in 1836, “stretch over 600 versts in length, starting from the mouth of the Kuban up this river, and then along the Kuma, Malka, and Terek to the borders of Malaya Kabarda, which previously stretched all the way to confluence of the Sunzha with the Terek river. The width is different and consists of the aforementioned rivers at noon south along the valleys and slopes of the mountains in different curvatures, having distances from 20 to 100 versts, thus making up a long narrow strip, which, starting from the eastern corner formed by the confluence of the Sunzha with the Terek, then expands, then again hesitates, following west down the Kuban to the shores of the Black Sea. It should be added to this that along the Black Sea coast, the Adygs occupied an area of ​​about 250 km. At its widest point, the lands of the Adyghes extended from the shores of the Black Sea to the east to Laba for about 150 km (counting along the Tuapse-Labinskaya line), then, when moving from the Kuban basin to the Terek basin, these lands narrowed strongly to expand again on the territory of Greater Kabarda to More than 100 kilometers.

(To be continued)

Information compiled on the basis of archival documents and scientific works published on the history of the Circassians (Circassians)

"Gleason's Illustrated Journal". London, January 1854

S.Kh.Khotko. Essays on the history of the Circassians. St. Petersburg, 2001. p. 178

Jacques-Victor-Edouard Thebu de Marigny. Travel to Circassia. Travels to Circassia in 1817. // V.K.Gardanov. Adygs, Balkars and Karachais in the news of European authors of the 13th - 19th centuries. Nalchik, 1974, p. 292.

Giorgio Interiano. (Second half of the 15th - early 16th centuries). Life and country of Zikhs, called Circassians. Remarkable storytelling. //V.K.Gardanov. Adygs, Balkars and Karachais in the news of European authors of the 12th – 19th centuries. Nalchik. 1974. S.46-47.

Heinrich Julius Klaproth. Travels in the Caucasus and Georgia, undertaken in 1807 - 1808. //V.K.Gardanov. Adygs, Balkars and Karachais in the news of European authors of the 13th-19th centuries. Nalchik, 1974. pp.257-259.

Jean-Charles de Bess. Travels to the Crimea, the Caucasus, Georgia. Armenia, Asia Minor and Constantinople in 1829 and 1830. //V.K.Gardanov. Adygs, Balkars and Karachais in the news of European authors of the XII-XIX centuries. Nalchik, 1974.S. 334.

V.K.Gardanov. The social system of the Adyghe peoples (XVIII - the first half of the XIX century). M, 1967. S. 16-19.

S.Kh.Khotko. Essays on the history of the Circassians from the era of the Cimmerians to the Caucasian War. Publishing house of St. Petersburg University, 2001. S. 148-164.

Ibid, p. 227-234.

Safarbi Beytuganov. Kabarda and Yermolov. Nalchik, 1983, pp. 47-49.

“Notes on Circassia, composed by Khan Giray, part 1, St. Petersburg., 1836, l. 1-1ob.//V.K.Gardanov "Social system of the Adyghe peoples". Ed. "Science", the main edition of Eastern literature. M., 19

A large number of different peoples live on the territory of the Russian Federation. One of them is the Circassians - a nation with an original amazing culture that was able to maintain its bright individuality.

Where live

Circassians inhabit Karachay-Cherkessia, live in the Stavropol, Krasnodar Territories, Kabardino-Balkaria and Adygea. A small part of the people lives in Israel, Egypt, Syria and Turkey.

population

About 2.7 million Circassians (Circassians) live in the world. According to the 2010 census, the Russian Federation accounted for approximately 718,000 people, of which 57,000 are residents of Karachay-Cherkessia.

Story

It is not known exactly when the ancestors of the Circassians appeared in the North Caucasus, but they have been living there since the Paleolithic. Of the most ancient monuments associated with this people, one can single out the monument of the Maikop and Dolmen cultures, which flourished in the 3rd millennium BC. The areas of these cultures, according to scientists, are the historical homeland of the Circassian people.

Name

In the 5th-6th century, the ancient Circassian tribes united into a single state, which historians call Zikhia. This state was distinguished by militancy, a high level of social organization and the constant expansion of land. This people categorically did not want to obey, and throughout its history, Zikhia did not pay tribute to anyone. From the 13th century, the state was renamed Circassia. In the Middle Ages, Circassia was the largest state in the Caucasus. The state was a military monarchy, an important role in which was played by the Adyghe aristocracy, which was headed by the pshchy princes.

In 1922, the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Region was formed, which was part of the RSFSR. It included part of the lands of the Kabardians and the lands of the Besleneyites in the upper reaches of the Kuban. In 1926, the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Okrug was divided into the Cherkess National Okrug, which became an autonomous region in 1928, and the Karachay Autonomous Okrug. Since 1957, these two regions have again merged into the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Okrug and became part of the Stavropol Territory. In 1992, the district received the status of a republic.

Language

The Circassians speak the Kabardino-Circassian language, which belongs to the Abkhaz-Adyghe family of languages. The Circassians call their language "Adyghebze", which translates into the Adyghe language.

Until 1924, writing was based on the Arabic alphabet and Cyrillic. From 1924 to 1936 it was based on the Latin alphabet and in 1936 again on the Cyrillic alphabet.

There are 8 dialects in the Kabardino-Circassian language:

1. Dialect of Great Kabarda
2. Khabezsky
3. Baksan
4. Besleneyevsky
5. Dialect of Malaya Kabarda
6. Mozdok
7. Malkinsky
8. Kuban

Appearance

Circassians are brave, fearless and wise people. Valor, generosity and generosity are greatly revered. The most contemptible vice for the Circassians is cowardice. Representatives of this people are tall, slender, with regular features, dark blond hair. Women have always been considered very beautiful, distinguished by chastity. Adult Circassians were hardy warriors and impeccable riders, they were fluent in weapons, they knew how to fight even in the highlands.

Cloth

The main element of the national men's costume is the Circassian coat, which has become a symbol of the Caucasian costume. The cut of this piece of clothing has not changed over the centuries. As a headdress, men wore a "kelpak", sewn from soft fur, or a hood. A felt burka was put on the shoulders. On their feet they wore high or short boots, sandals. Underwear was sewn from cotton fabrics. Circassian weapons - a gun, a saber, a pistol and a dagger. On the Circassian coat on both sides there are leather sockets for cartridges, greasers and a bag with accessories for cleaning weapons are attached to the belt.

The clothes of Circassian women were quite diverse, always richly decorated. Women wore a long dress made of muslin or cotton, a short silk beshmet dress. Before marriage, girls wore a corset. Of the headdresses, they wore high cone-shaped hats decorated with embroidery, low cylindrical hats made of velvet or silk, decorated with gold embroidery. An embroidered hat trimmed with fur was put on the bride's head, which she had to wear until the birth of her first child. Only the uncle of the spouse from the father's side could take it off, but only if he brought generous gifts to the newborn, among which were cattle or money. After the presentation of gifts, the cap was removed, after which the young mother put on a silk scarf. Elderly women wore cotton scarves. They wore bracelets, chains, rings, various earrings from jewelry. Silver elements were sewn to dresses, caftans, they decorated headdresses.

Shoes were made from leather or felt. In the summer, women often went barefoot. Only girls from noble families could wear morocco red dudes. In Western Circassia, there was a type of footwear with a closed toe, made of dense material, with wooden soles and a small heel. People from the upper aristocratic classes wore sandals made of wood, made in the form of a bench, with a wide strap made of fabric or leather.

Life

Circassian society has always been patriarchal. The man is the head of the family, the woman supports her husband in making decisions, always demonstrates humility. Women have always played an important role in everyday life. First of all, she was the keeper of the hearth and comfort in the house. Each Circassian had only one wife, polygamy was extremely rare. It was a matter of honor to provide the spouse with everything necessary so that she always looked good, did not need anything. Hitting or insulting a woman is an unacceptable shame for a man. The husband was obliged to protect her, to treat her with respect. A Circassian man never quarreled with his wife, did not allow himself to utter swear words.

A wife should know her duties and fulfill them clearly. She is in charge of managing the household and all household chores. Men did hard physical work. In rich families, women were protected from difficult work. They spent most of their time sewing.

Circassian women have the right to resolve many conflicts. If a dispute began between two mountaineers, the woman had the right to stop it by throwing a handkerchief between them. When a rider passed by a woman, he was obliged to dismount, lead her to the place where she was going, and only then go on. The rider held the reins in his left hand, and on the right, honorable side, a woman walked. If he passed by a woman who was doing physical work, he should have helped her.

Children were brought up with dignity, they tried to grow up courageous and worthy people. All children went through a harsh school, thanks to which the character was formed and the body was tempered. Until the age of 6, a woman was engaged in raising a boy, then everything passed into the hands of a man. They taught the boys how to shoot a bow and how to ride a horse. The child was given a knife with which he had to learn to hit a target, then they were given a dagger, a bow and arrows. The sons of the nobility are obliged to breed horses, entertain guests, sleep in the open air, using a saddle instead of a pillow. Even in early childhood, many princely children were given to noble houses for education. At the age of 16, the boy was dressed in the best clothes, put on the best horse, given the best weapons and sent home. The return of the son home was considered a very important event. In gratitude, the prince should bestow a gift on the person who raised his son.

Since ancient times, the Circassians have been engaged in agriculture, growing corn, barley, millet, wheat, and planting vegetables. After the harvest, a portion was always set aside for the poor, and the surplus stocks were sold on the market. They were engaged in beekeeping, viticulture, gardening, bred horses, cattle, sheep and goats.

Of the crafts, weapons and blacksmithing, cloth making, and clothing manufacturing stand out. The cloth produced by the Circassians was especially valued by neighboring peoples. In the southern part of Circassia they were engaged in wood processing.

dwelling

The estates of the Circassians were secluded and consisted of a hut, which was built from turluk and covered with straw. The dwelling consists of several rooms with windows without glass. A recess for the fire was made in the earthen floor, equipped with a wicker and clay-coated pipe. Shelves were installed along the walls, beds were covered with felt. Stone dwellings were rarely built and only in the mountains.

In addition, a barn and a barn were built, which were surrounded by a dense fence. Behind it were vegetable gardens. From the outside, the Kunatskaya, which consisted of a house and a stable, adjoined the fence. These buildings were surrounded by palisades.

Food

Circassians are not picky about food, they do not drink wine and pork. Food was always treated with respect and gratitude. Dishes are served to the table, taking into account the age of those sitting at the table, from the oldest to the youngest. In the cuisine of the Circassians, dishes from lamb, beef and poultry are the basis. The most popular cereal on the Circassian table is corn. At the end of the holidays, lamb or beef broth is served, this is a sign for guests that the feast is coming to an end. In the cuisine of the Circassians, there is a difference between the dishes that are served at weddings, commemorations and other events.

The cuisine of this people is famous for its fresh and tender cheese, Adyghe cheese - latakai. They are eaten as a separate product, added to salads and various dishes, which makes them inimitable and unique. Very popular kojazh - cheese fried in oil with onions and ground red pepper. Circassians are very fond of cheese. Favorite dish - fresh peppers stuffed with herbs and cheese. Peppers are cut into circles and served at the festive table. For breakfast, they eat porridge, scrambled eggs with flour or scrambled eggs. In some areas, already boiled, chopped eggs are added to the omelet.

From the first courses, ashryk is popular - a soup of dried meat with beans and pearl barley. In addition to it, the Circassians cook shorpa, egg, chicken and vegetable soups. Unusual is the taste of soup with dried fat tail.

Meat dishes are served with pasta - hard-boiled millet porridge, which is cut like bread. For the holidays, they prepare a dish of hedlibzhe poultry, frogs, turkey with vegetables. The national dish is lyy gur - dried meat. An interesting tursha dish is potatoes stuffed with garlic and meat. The most common sauce among Circassians is potato. It is boiled with flour and diluted with milk.

Bread, lakuma donuts, halivas, pies with beet tops “khui delen”, corn cakes “natuk-chyrzhyn” are made from baking. From sweets they make different versions of halvah from corn and millet with apricot pits, Circassian balls, marshmallow. Of the drinks among the Circassians, tea, makhsima, the milk drink kundapso, various drinks based on pears and apples are popular.

Religion

The ancient religion of this people is monotheism - part of the teachings of Khabze, which regulated all areas of the life of the Circassians, determined the attitude of people towards each other and the world around them. People worshiped the Sun and the Golden Tree, Water and Fire, which, according to their beliefs, gave life, believed in the god Tkha, who was considered the creator of the world and the laws in it. The Circassians had a whole pantheon of heroes of the Nart epic and a number of customs that were rooted in paganism.

Since the 6th century, Christianity has become the leading faith in Circassia. They professed Orthodoxy, a small part of the people converted to Catholicism. Such people were called "frekkardashi". Gradually, from the 15th century, the adoption of Islam began, which is the official religion of the Circassians. Islam has become part of the national identity, and today the Circassians are Sunni Muslims.

culture

The folklore of this people is very diverse and consists of several areas:

• fairy tales and tales
• proverbs
• songs
• riddles and allegory
• Tongue Twisters
• ditties

There were dances at all holidays. The most popular are lezginka, udzh khash, kafa and udzh. They are very beautiful and full of sacred meaning. Music occupied an important place; without it, not a single celebration took place among the Circassians. Popular musical instruments are the harmonica, harp, flute and guitar.

During national holidays, horse riding competitions were held among young people. The Circassians held dance evenings "jagu". Girls and boys stood in a circle and clapped their hands, in the middle they danced in pairs, and the girls played musical instruments. The boys chose the girls they wanted to dance with. Such evenings allowed young people to get acquainted, communicate and subsequently form a family.

Fairy tales and legends are divided into several groups:

• mythical
• about animals
• with riddles and riddles
• legal education

One of the main genres of oral folk art of the Circassians is the heroic epic. It is based on legends about heroes-heroes and their adventures.

Traditions

A special place among the Circassians is occupied by the tradition of hospitality. All the best was always allocated to the guests, the hosts never bothered them with their questions, laid a rich table and provided the necessary amenities. Circassians are very generous and ready to set the table for the guest at any time. According to custom, any visitor could enter the yard, tie his horse to the hitching post, enter the house and spend as many days there as necessary. The owner had no right to ask his name, as well as the purpose of the visit.

It is not permissible for the young to be the first to start a conversation in the presence of the elders. It was considered shameful to smoke, drink and sit in the presence of your father, eat with him at the same table. Circassians believe that one should not be greedy in food, one should not keep one's promises, and appropriate other people's money.

One of the main customs of the people is the wedding. The bride left her home immediately after the groom entered into an agreement with her father on a future wedding. They took her to friends or relatives of the groom, where she lived before the celebration. This custom is an imitation of bride kidnapping with the full consent of all parties. The wedding celebration lasts 6 days, but the groom is not present at it. It is believed that relatives are angry with him for the kidnapping of the bride. When the wedding ended, the groom returned home and briefly reunited with his young wife. He brought treats from his father to her relatives as a sign of reconciliation with them.

The bridal chamber was considered a sacred place. It was impossible to do chores around her and talk loudly. After a week of staying in this room, the young wife was taken to a big house, a special ceremony was performed. They covered the girl with a blanket, gave her a mixture of honey and butter, showered her with nuts and sweets. Then she went to her parents and lived there for a long time, sometimes until the birth of a child. Upon returning to her husband's house, the wife began to take care of the household. Throughout his married life, the husband came to his wife only at night, he spent the rest of the time in the men's quarters or in the kunatskaya.

The wife was the mistress of the women's part of the house, she had her own property, this was a dowry. But my wife had a number of prohibitions. She was not supposed to sit in front of men, call her husband by name, go to bed until he came home. A husband could divorce his wife without any explanation, she could also demand a divorce for certain reasons. But this happened very rarely.

A man did not have the right to kiss his son in the presence of strangers, to pronounce the name of his wife. When the husband died, all 40 days the wife had to visit his grave and spend some time near it. Gradually this custom was forgotten. The widow was to marry the brother of her dead husband. If she became the wife of another man, the children stayed with the husband's family.

Pregnant women had to follow the rules, there were prohibitions for them. This was necessary in order to protect the future mother with a child from evil spirits. When a man was told that he would become a father, he left the house and for several days appeared there only at night. After the birth, two weeks later, they performed the ceremony of laying the newborn in the cradle and gave him a name.

Murder was punishable by death, the sentence passed by the people. The murderer was thrown into the river, with stones tied to him. There was a custom of blood revenge among the Circassians. If they were insulted or there was a murder, they took revenge not only on the murderer, but on his entire family and relatives. The death of his father could not be left without revenge. If the killer wanted to avoid punishment, he had to raise and raise a boy from the family of the murdered. The child, already a young man, was returned to his father's house with honors.

If a person was killed by lightning, they buried him in a special way. An honorary funeral was held for animals killed by lightning. The rite was accompanied by singing and dancing, and chips from a tree that was struck and burned by lightning were considered healing. The Circassians performed rituals to bring rain in a drought, before and after agricultural work they made sacrifices.