Circassia

Circassia, historic region, encompassing roughly the area between the Black Sea, the Kuban River, and the Caucasus, now largely the Krasnodar Territory of SE European Russia. The Circassians are a Muslim people, whose Russian name is Cherkess and whose native name is Adygey. They are now officially classified in Russia as three peoples: the Kabards, in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic; the Circassians or Cherkess, in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic; and the Adygey, in the Adygey Republic. The term Circassian has sometimes been incorrectly applied to all the mountain peoples of the N Caucasus.

Known in antiquity, they inhabited the western side of the Caucasus and the Crimea and were known to the Greeks as the Zyukhoy. They were Christianized in the 6th cent. A.D. but adopted Islam in the 17th cent. after coming under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. In 1829 the Ottoman Turks were forced to cede Circassia to Russia. At this time the Circassians occupied almost the entire area between the main Caucasian range, the Kuban River, and the Black Sea. In the many Russo-Turkish wars in the first half of the 19th cent., the Circassians bitterly fought the Russians. After the Russian conquest of the area, about 400,000 Circassians migrated to Turkey (1861-64). Circassian women were reputed to be great beauties, and many were sold into slavery in Turkey. There are today large Circassian groups in Turkey, Syria, and Jordan.

Circassia, also known as Cherkessia in Russian, is a region in Caucasia. Historically it comprised the southern half of the current Krasnodar Territory and most of the interior of the current Stavropol Territory, but now only refers to a portion of the Karachay-Cherkessia Republic, Adyghe Republic and Kabardino-Balkaria Republic of the Russian Federation. The historical region is named after the traditional inhabitants, the Circassians (they prefer Adyghe or Adiga).

After the fall of whole Circassia by the Russians, and due to the Russian Massacres against the Circassian tribes in 1864, 90% of the remaining survivors of these tribes were enforced to leave Circassia again to the Ottoman Empire with their brother's in faith such as Chechens, Dagistans, Balqars,etc.and these massacres considered the ugliest human genocide against Circassian/Adyghe_people in the 18th-19th Centuries.and as a result the Circassians became minority in their historical land Circassia. Forgotten Genocide. Circassian World. .

A larger population now is in the tiny Republic of Adygea of the Russian Federation which is entirely surrounded by Krasnodar Krai.

The Circassian diaspora is a community of people (and their descendants) who were expelled from the historical Circassia in the late 19th Century after a series of uprisings against Russian Imperial rule. They are found in various areas of the old Ottoman Empire, including Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Kosovo (until they were repatriated in 1998, after receiving threats from the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army), Egypt (Circassians were part of the Mamluk armies), and Israel (in the villages of Kfar Kama and Rehaniya, since 1880), and even as far afield as Upstate New York and New Jersey in the United States, and Europe (Germany and Netherland).

See also

• Circassians
• Circassian beauties

Notes

References

• Jaimoukha, Amjad, The Circassians: A Handbook, London: Routledge, New York: Routledge & Palgrave, 2001.