Origin and settlement of the Circassians. Circassians (Adyghe) are a generous and warlike people. In what way did the Circassians appear in the Caucasus

“In Greek and Latin, the Circassians callThey are called “Zikhs”, and in their own language their name is “Adyge”.

GeorgInteriano

Italian traveler XVV.

The origin of the Adyghe goes back to the times oflen... their chivalrous feelings, their morals are patriarchaltheir purity, their strikingly beautiful features place them undoubtedly to the first rank of the free peoples of the Caucasus.”

Fr. Bodenstedt

Die Volker des Kaukasus und ihre Freiheitskampfe gegen die Russen, Paris, 1859, S. 350.

“Based on what I have seen, I must considerto describe the Circassians, taken en masse, as the people mostbest-bred I've ever seen orwhich I have read anything about."

James Stanislaus Bell

Journal of a Residence in Circassia During the Years 1837, 1838, 1839, Paris, 1841, p. 72.

“Courage, intelligence, remarkable beauty: nature isgave everything, and what I especially admired in their character was the cold and noble dignity that neverwas not refuted and which they combined with feelingsmost chivalrous and with ardent love of national freedom."

M-me Hommaire de Hell

VoyagedansIesSteppesdelamerCaspienne et dans la Russie meridionale, 2 eed., Paris, 1868, p. 231.

“Circassian nobly represents the latestthe remnants of that knightly and warlike spirit thatwho shed so much brilliance on the peoples of the Middle Ages.”

L. s., r. 189.

I. Background

“The historical past of the people, character and peculiaritiesthe features of its centuries-old culture determine thethe coefficient of scientific interest in this people and their culture. In this sense, the Circassians are verya wonderful object for researchers of the history of Kavka-for history in general and cultural history in particular. They belong to the oldest main population of the Caucasus andthe primary inhabitants of Europe."

The oldest period of the Stone Age (Paleolithic) ha-characterized in Circassia by the burial of the dead with bent knees and covering them with ocher, and the end of the Neolithic by the presence of megaliths - dolmens and menhirs. There are more than 1,700 dolmens here. Their character, foundthey contain inventory (Maikop, Tsarskaya village, now No-free, Kostroma, Vozdvizhenskaya, etc.) in the eracopper brings them closer to the Thuringian, so-called Schnurkeramik Zivilisation . EthnicityThe builders of dolmens are still unknown. It is easier to identify the authors of a newer era in the Kuban - the Bronze Age. This culture completely coincides with the Danube,which is called Band Ceramics . Almost all archaeologists this is attributed to Band Keramik Thracians and Illyrianspeople who inhabited the Danube basin, the Balkans, the AncientGreece and a significant part of Asia Minor (Troy, Phrygia,Bithynia, Mysia, etc.).

Historical data confirms the language of archaeologicalgy: ancient Circassian tribes bear Thracian namesand are found in the Balkans.

It is also known that ancient Circassia constitutes the mainnew Bosphorus kingdom around the Kerch Strait,bore the name “Cimmerian Bosphorus”, and kimme-the rians are considered by many ancient authors alsoThracian tribe.

II. Ancient history

According to scientists, the ancient history of the Circassiansbegins with the period of the Bosphorus Kingdom, formingwhich took place shortly after the collapse of the Cimmerian Empire around 720 BC . under the pressure of the Scythians.

According to Diodorus Siculus, at first they ruledBosphorus "old princes" with the capital Phanagoria, near Taman. But the real dynasty is founded in 438 BC R. X . Spartok, originally from the "old princes". Thracianthe name Spartok is a completely normal phenomenon in fraCo-Cimmerian character of the local population.

The power of the Spartokids was not immediately established at all times.village of Circassia. Levkon I (389-349) is called “kingdom”warring" over the Sinds, Torets, Dandars and Psessians. Under Perisad I (344-310), son of Leukon I, list of sub- the power of the king of the peoples of ancient Circassia is done her: Perisad I bears the title of king of the Sinds, Maits (Meots) and Fatei.

In addition, one inscription from the Taman Peninsulaemphasizes that Perisad I ruled all the lands betweenthe extreme borders of the Tauri and the borders of the Caucasianlands, i.e. Maits (including Fatei), as well as Sinds (in theirincluding the Kerkets, Torets, Psseses and other Circassian tribes na) constituted the main population of the Bosphorus kingdom. Only the southern coastal Circassians: Achaeans, Heniokhs andSanigs are not mentioned in the inscriptions, but in any casein the era of Strabo, they were also part of the kingdom, while retaining their princes, the “Sceptuchi.” Howeverother Circassian tribes retained their autonomy and had their own princes, such as the Sinds and Dardans. In general, the Sinds occupied special place in the kingdom. Auto-their role was so broad that they had their own currency coin with the inscription "Sindoi". In general, judging by coins of the cities of the Bosphorus, ancient Circassia usedmonetary unity.

Next to the king - archon, with autonomous princesCircassia, with a legate in Tanais (at the mouth of the Don), urbanmanagement indicates the high development of bosphorussky society. At the head of the city was the mayor,representative of the central government, and a board, somethinglike a city council.

The social structure of the Bosphorus kingdom is a high level of development with an enlightened monarchy, with administrative decentralization, with well-organizedcalled merchant unions, served with the aristocracyloy and business, with a healthy agricultural population. Never has Circassia prospered so culturally and economically.mikically, as during the Spartokids in IV and III centuries. BC Kings The Bosphorus was not inferior in splendor and wealth to modern onesto them monarchs. The country represented the last outpostAegean civilization in the northeast.

All trade in the Sea of ​​Azov and a significant parttrade in the Black Sea was in the hands of the Bosporus Panticapaeum on the Kerch Peninsula served as the main port for import, and Phanagoria and other cities of Circassiancoastlines were mainly exported. South of Tsemez(Sundzhuk-Kale) export items included: fabrics,famous in the ancient world, honey,wax, hemp, wood for building ships and dwellings, furs,leather, wool, etc. Ports north of Tsemez exportedmainly grain, fish, etc. Here in the country of the Maitsthere was a granary that fed Greece. Average exportit reached 210,000 hectoliters in Attica, i.e. halfthe bread she needs.

Another source of wealth for the Bosphorian-Circassiansthere was fishing. To the east of the Sea of ​​Azov there werefish salting centers and wholesale warehouses.

Along with this, industry was also developed, especially the production of ceramics, bricks and tiles.The items imported from Athens were wine, olivecow oil, luxury goods and jewelry.

French consul in Crimea Peysonel (1750-1762) writes that the ancient Circassians did not engage inonly cattle breeding, arable farming and fishing, but they also had developed gardening, horticulture, beekeepingfarming and handicraft production in the form of blacksmithingbusiness, saddlery, tailoring, cloth making,Buroks, leather, jewelry, etc.

The economic level of the inhabitants of Circassia will be discussed later.Today is evidenced by the size of the trade that they conducted with the outside world. Average annual exportfrom Circassia only through the ports of Taman and Kaplu was:80-100 thousand centners of wool, 100 thousand pieces of cloth, 200thousand ready-made burkas, 50 - 60 thousand ready-made trousers, 5-6thousand ready-made Circassians, 500 thousand sheep skins, 50 - 60 thousand. rawhide, 200 thousand pairs of bull horns. Then he walkedfur goods: 100 thousand wolf skins, 50 thousand cow skinsnykh, 3 thousand bear skins, 200 thousand pairs of boar tusks; beekeeping products: 5-6 thousand centners good-go and 500 centners of cheap honey, 50 - 60 thousand okka wax, etc.

Import into Circassia also testified to the highstandard of living. Silk and paper fabrics, velvet, blankets, bath towels, linen, threads,paints, rouge and whitewash, as well as perfumes and incense, morocco,paper, gunpowder, gun barrels, spices, etc.

Let us note by the way that the English traveler EdMund Spencer, who visited Circassia in the first quarterlast century, and comparing it with the ancient one, he writes that in Anapa there were more than 400 stores, 20 largewood warehouses, 16 grain dumps, etc. In addition to black-kesov, Turks, Armenians, Greeks, Genoese lived here, 50Lyaks, 8 Jews, 5 French, 4 Englishmen. Every year inMore than 300 large ships visited the port of Anapaforeign flags. About the size of trade in the citycould be judged at least by the annual sale of canvas,which was sold annually in the amount of 3,000,000 piastres,of which 2,000,000 came from England. It is typical that the total amount of trade turnover in Circassiawith Russia did not exceed 30,000 rubles at that time. It is forbiddenforget also that trade with foreign countries was not carried outonly through Anapa, but also through other ports, such as Ozersk, Atshimsha, Pshat, Tuapse.

Since the time of Satur I the Greeks used the Bosphorusspecial benefits, but the Bosphorians also had in Athensits advantages. In parallel with trade relationsCultural ties between both countries also developed.Ancient Circassians took part in the Olympic Games inGreece, in the festivals of Panathenaic and were crowned inAthens with a golden crown. The Athenians awarded honorary citizenship to a number of Bosphorus kings; at public meetingsnyahs of the golden crown (So crowned with goldenthe crowns were Levkon I, Spartok II and Perisad). Leukon and Perisades entered the gallery of famous statesmen among the Greeks.dedicatory husbands and their names were mentioned in Greek schools.

By the end of the 2nd century BC . Bosphorus enters the stripcrises caused by pressure from the Scythians, usjust that Perisad I had to hand over my crownMithridates the Great (114 or 113 BC) X.). From this moment the Roman period of the Bosphorus reign beginsva. The kings of the latter seek the protection of Rome, but the populationhostile to foreign interference in its affairs. SomeThe first Circassian tribes: Heniokhs, Sanigs and Zikhi depend from Rome of the era of Hadrian.

Around the middle of the 3rd century. after R. X . Germanic tribesHeruls and Goths or Borans invade the Bosporus kingdom quality

Circassia's nominal connection with Rome continued even when Byzantium took its place.

During the Greek and Roman periods, the religion of the ancientsCircassians was Thraco-Greek. In addition to the cults of Apolloon, Poseidon, especially the lunar goddess, etc., byread the great goddess mother (like the Phrygians Cybele),and the thunder god is the supreme god, corresponding to the Greek Zeus.

It is interesting to note that the Circassians revered:Tlepsh - God the blacksmith; Psethe - God of life; Thagolej - God of fertility; Amish - God of animals; Mazythe - God of the forests Trakho R. Literature about Circassia and the Circassians, “Bulletin of the Instituteon the Study of the USSR", No. 1 (14), Munich, 1955, p. 97.

The author does not touch here on the prehistoric era, traces of which were found in the Kuban, since there is a fundamental labor - Fr. Hancar, Urgeschichte Kaukasiens, Wien, Verlag v. Anton Schroll & Co.; Leipzig, Verlag Heinrich Keller clothed the tent he erected on the top of Parnassus. This tent was stolen by Hercules from the Circassian Amazons, etc.

A large number of different peoples live on the territory of the Russian Federation. One of them is the Circassians - a people with a unique, stunning culture that has been able to preserve its bright individuality.

Where do they live?

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

Number

There are about 2.7 million Circassians (Adygs) living in the world. According to the 2010 population census, the Russian Federation accounted for approximately 718,000 people, of which 57 thousand 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 Paleolithic times. Among the most ancient monuments associated with this people, one can highlight the monument to the Maykop 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 belligerence, a high level of social organization and a constant expansion of land. This people categorically did not want to obey, and throughout its history Zikhia did not pay tribute to anyone. Since the 13th century, the state was renamed Circassia. During the Middle Ages, Circassia was the largest state in the Caucasus. The state was a military monarchy, in which the Adyghe aristocracy, headed by the princes of Pshcha, played an important role.

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 Besleneevites in the upper reaches of the Kuban. In 1926, the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Okrug was divided into the Circassian National Okrug, which became an autonomous region in 1928, and the Karachay Autonomous Okrug. Since 1957, these two regions united again into the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Okrug and became part of the Stavropol Territory. In 1992, the district received the status of a republic.

Language

Circassians speak the Kabardian-Circassian language, which belongs to the Abkhaz-Adyghe family of languages. The Circassians call their language “Adygebze”, which translates to the Adyghe language.

Until 1924, writing was based on the Arabic alphabet and Cyrillic alphabet. 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. Greater Kabarda dialect
2. Khabezsky
3. Baksansky
4. Besleneevsky
5. The dialect of Little Kabarda
6. Mozdoksky
7. Malkinsky
8. Kubansky

Appearance

Circassians are brave, fearless and wise people. Valor, generosity and magnanimity are highly respected. The most despicable vice for the Circassians is cowardice. Representatives of this people are tall, slender, with regular facial features and dark brown hair. Women have always been considered very beautiful and chaste. Adult Circassians were hardy warriors and impeccable horsemen, mastered weapons perfectly, and 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 item of clothing has not changed after centuries. As a headdress, men wore a “kelpak”, sewn from soft fur, or a bashlyk. A felt burka was put on the shoulders. On their feet they wore high or short boots and sandals. Underwear was made from cotton fabrics. Circassian weapons are a gun, a saber, a pistol and a dagger. The Circassian coat has leather sockets for cartridges on both sides, grease boxes and a bag with accessories for cleaning weapons are attached to the belt.

The clothing of Circassian women was quite varied and was always richly decorated. Women wore a long dress made of muslin or cotton, and a short silk beshmet dress. Before marriage, girls wore a corset. Among the headdresses, they wore high cone-shaped hats, decorated with embroidery, and low cylindrical headdresses made of velvet or silk, decorated with gold embroidery. An embroidered cap trimmed with fur was placed on the bride's head, which she had to wear until the birth of her first child. Only the spouse’s paternal uncle could remove it, but only if he brought generous gifts to the newborn, including livestock or money. After presenting gifts, the cap was removed, and then the young mother put on a silk scarf. Elderly women wore scarves made of cotton fabric. Jewelry included bracelets, chains, rings, and various earrings. Silver elements were sewn onto dresses, caftans, and decorated with headdresses.

Shoes were made from leather or felt. In summer, women often walked barefoot. Only girls from noble families could wear morocco red boots. In Western Circassia there was a type of shoe with a closed toe, made of dense material, with a wooden sole and a small heel. People from the upper aristocratic classes wore sandals made of wood, shaped like 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 and always demonstrates humility. Women have always played an important role in everyday life. She was primarily 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 and did not need anything. Hitting or insulting a woman is an unacceptable shame for a man. The husband was obliged to protect her and treat her with respect. A Circassian man never quarreled with his wife and did not allow himself to utter swear words.

A wife must know her responsibilities and fulfill them clearly. She is responsible for managing the household and all household chores. Men did heavy 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 an argument began between two highlanders, the woman had the right to stop it by throwing a handkerchief between them. When a horseman passed by a woman, he was obliged to dismount, lead her to the place where she was going, and only then ride on. The rider held the reins in his left hand, and a woman walked on the right, honorable side. If he passed a woman who was doing physical work, he had to help her.

The children were raised with dignity, they tried to make them grow up to be courageous and worthy people. All children went through a harsh school, thanks to which their character was formed and their bodies were tempered. Until the age of 6, a woman raised a boy, then everything passed into the hands of a man. They taught the boys archery and horse riding. The child was given a knife with which he had to learn to hit a target, then he was given a dagger, a bow and arrows. The sons of the nobility are required to breed horses, entertain guests, and sleep in the open air, using a saddle instead of a pillow. Even in early childhood, many princely children were sent to noble houses to be raised. At the age of 16, the boy was dressed in the best clothes, mounted on the best horse, given the best weapons and sent home. The son's return home was considered a very important event. In gratitude, the prince must give a gift to the person who raised his son.

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

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

Housing

Circassian estates were located secludedly and consisted of a saklya, 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 pipe coated with clay. Shelves were installed along the walls, and the beds were covered with felt. Stone dwellings were rarely built and only in the mountains.

In addition, a barn and a stable were built, which were surrounded by a dense fence. Behind it were vegetable gardens. Adjacent to the fence on the outside was the kunatskaya, which consists of a house and a stable. These buildings were surrounded by a palisade.

Food

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

The cuisine of this people is famous for its fresh and tender cheese, the Adyghe cheese - latakai. They are eaten as a separate product, added to salads and various dishes, which makes them unique. Koyazh is very popular - cheese fried in oil with onions and ground red pepper. Circassians love feta cheese very much. My favorite dish is fresh peppers stuffed with herbs and cheese. Peppers are cut into slices 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.

A popular first course is ashryk - a soup made from dried meat with beans and pearl barley. In addition to it, Circassians prepare shorpa, egg, chicken and vegetable soups. Soup with dried fat tail turns out to have an unusual taste.

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

Baked goods include bread, lakuma crumpets, khalivas, pies with beet tops “khuei delen”, and corn cakes “natuk-chyrzhyn”. For sweets, they make different versions of halva from corn and millet with apricot kernels, Circassian balls, and marshmallows. The most popular drinks among the Circassians are tea, makhsyma, the milk drink kundapso, and various drinks based on pears and apples.

Religion

The ancient religion of this people is monotheism - part of the Khabze teachings, 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, they believed in the god Thya, 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 people's consciousness, and today Circassians are Sunni Muslims.

Culture

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

• fairy tales and legends
• proverbs
• songs
• riddles and allegories
• tongue twisters
• ditties

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

During national holidays, horse riding competitions were held among young people. Circassians held “dzhegu” dance evenings. 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 meet, communicate and subsequently form a family.

Fairy tales and legends are divided into several groups:

• mythical
• about animals
• with riddles and clues
• legal educational

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

Traditions

The tradition of hospitality occupies a special place among the Circassians. The guests were always given the best, the hosts never bothered them with their questions, set a rich table and provided them with the necessary amenities. Circassians are very generous and are ready to set a table for a 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.

Young people are not allowed to be the first to start a conversation in the presence of their elders. It was considered shameful to smoke, drink, sit in the presence of your father, or eat at the same table with him. Circassians believe that one cannot be greedy in food, one cannot fail to keep one’s promises, and one cannot 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 about the 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 his family is angry with him for kidnapping his bride. When the wedding ended, the groom returned home and was briefly reunited with his young wife. He brought treats to her relatives from his father as a sign of reconciliation with them.

The bridal room was considered a sacred place. It was forbidden to do chores around her or talk loudly. After a week of staying in this room, the young wife was taken to a large house and a special ceremony was performed. The girl was covered with a blanket, given a mixture of honey and butter, and showered with nuts and sweets. Then she went to her parents and lived there for a long time, sometimes until the birth of the child. Upon returning to her husband's house, the wife began to take care of the house. Throughout their 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 female half 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 with men, call her husband by name, or go to bed until he came home. The husband could divorce his wife without any explanation, and she could also demand a divorce for certain reasons. But this happened very rarely.

A man had no right to kiss his son or pronounce his wife’s name in the presence of strangers. When a husband died, the wife had to visit his grave for 40 days and spend some time near it. Gradually this custom was forgotten. The widow had to marry the brother of her deceased husband. If she became the wife of another man, the children remained 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 expectant mother and child from evil spirits. When a man was told that he would become a father, he left home and for several days appeared there only at night. After the birth, two weeks later, a ceremony was performed to place the newborn in the cradle and give him a name.

Murder was punishable by death, the verdict was passed by the people. The killer was thrown into the river with stones tied to him. The Circassians had a custom of blood feud. If they were insulted or a murder occurred, revenge was taken 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 educate a boy from the family of the murdered man. 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. Honorable funerals were held for animals killed by lightning. The ritual 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 during droughts, and made sacrifices before and after agricultural work.

From the first half of the 1st millennium BC. Thanks to ancient Greek written sources, the names of the tribes that inhabited the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region and the Northern Caucasus become known.

These are steppe Iranian-speaking nomads - the Cimmerians, Scythians and their eastern neighbors the Sauromatians. The middle and lower reaches of the Kuban River, the Eastern Azov region, the Taman Peninsula and the Trans-Kuban region were occupied by settled agricultural tribes, united by the name “Meotians”.

The Meotians and Sindians were first mentioned by ancient Greek authors of the 6th-5th centuries BC. Hecatea of ​​Miletus, Hellanicus of Mytilene, Herodotus. The ancient Greek geographer and historian Strabo, who lived at the turn of the new era, reports about them in more detail in his work.

Along the Black Sea coast, ancient authors indicate the Kerkets, Torets, Zikhs and other tribes, some of which are classified as Meotians. The main body of Meotian tribes are considered the indigenous population of the North-West Caucasus, belonging to the Caucasian language family. The Meots are considered one of the distant ancestors of the Circassians.

One of the main hypotheses about the ancient ancestors of the Circassians suggests that they were Meotians. Tribal names of the ancestors of the Meotians: Keshak, Kashka, Kason and Abkhazians - Abeshla, Absils. The Zikhs, who actively developed in the 5th-6th centuries in the Kuban, were also classified as Meotian tribes. Scientists suggest that the ancient tribes who lived in the Northwestern Caucasus spoke the Abkhaz-Circassian language. In the book by Sheudzhen A.Kh., Galkin G.A. Tkhakushinova A.K. and others. “Land of the Circassians.” Maykop, GURIPP “Adygea”, several versions of the appearance of the Circassians in the North Caucasus are given.

Among them: Arabian, Turkish, Egyptian, Crimean, Khazar, Ryazan, Greek, Genoese, as well as “Cossack Cossacks - descendants of the Pyatigorsk Circassians”, “Adyghe-Anty - Slavic tribes”, “Adyghe-Kabardians - descendants of the Amazons”, “ Kabardians are the descendants of Genghis Khan,” etc. But all of them do not have sufficient justification.

According to the Arabian version, the Circassians moved to Kuban from Arabia.

According to the information collected in 1784, Governor General P.S. Potemkin, the Kabardian princes “... trace their family back to one prince, called Kes, who left Arabia and became the owner of all the mountain peoples.” The legend existing among the Circassians says: “Circassians descend from two brothers: Cher and Kes, who came from Arabia from the Qureish tribe.”

According to the work of S. Bronevsky (1823) “According to the inhabitants’ own legends, Kabarda in ancient times was ruled by one prince named Inal, who descended from Keyes, and this one came out of Arabia and conquered the Circassians.”

Amateur historian Vitaly Shtybin talks about the divided Circassian people.

Yuga.ru has already been told about Vitaly Shtybin, a young Krasnodar entrepreneur 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 Adygeis, 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, Karachais and Circassians live in Karachevo-Cherkessia, and Adygeans live in Adygea, then you will be surprised, but this is not entirely true. The Circassians 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. The Kabardian and Circassian dialects are considered eastern dialects of the Adyghe language, while the 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 average person in central Russia will not immediately understand the Kuban balachka, so it will be difficult for a Kabardian to understand the conversation of the Sochi Shapsugs.

Kabardians call the Adyghe people the lower Adyghe people due to geography, since Kabarda is located on an elevated plateau. It is worth noting that the term “Circassian” at different times extended not only to this people, but also to its neighbors in the Caucasus. This is precisely the version that has been preserved today in Turkey, where the term “Circassian” is used to describe 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 it formed Adyghe autonomy, which included all the remaining subethnic groups of the former Kuban region. The mountainous part of the republic, like the city of Maykop, became part of it only in 1936. Shapsugs in the Lazarevsky district of Sochi received their autonomy from 1922 to 1945, but it was permanently eliminated. Last Karachay-Cherkess Autonomy received in 1957 by the Besleneev Adygs, who are close in dialect to the Kabardians. In this case, the authorities also supported the ethnic balance between them and the Abazas and Karachay Turks (relatives of the neighboring Balkars) who inhabited the republic.

But what do the concepts “Shapsug”, “Besleneevets”, “Kabardian” and so on mean? Despite the one-and-a-half-century history of the Circassians (Circassians) within the Russian state, society has never gotten rid of tribal (or, in scientific terms, subethnic) division. Until the end of the Caucasian War in 1864, Western 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 Pyatigorye region, in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, in the flat parts of Chechnya and Ingushetia - between the Terek and Sunzha rivers.

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

In the Republic of Adygea, on the contrary, the largest subethnic groups are the Temirgoys, whose dialect is the official language of the republic, and the Bzhedugs. In this republic, all names of subethnic groups were replaced by the artificial term “Adyghe”. There are no strict boundaries in the villages of the republics, everyone lives interspersed, so in Adygea you can meet Kabardians, and in Kabarda - Temirgoyevites.

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

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

- Western Circassians (Circassians): Shapsugs in the Lazarevsky district of Sochi; Temirgoyites\Khatukayites\Bzhedugi\Abadzekhs\Mamkhegs\Egerukhaevites\Adamievites\
Makhoshevites/Zhaneevites in the Republic of Adygea.

But what about the Abazas, who live in all the same villages, but mainly in the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia? The 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 (Abazas) and Circassians (Circassians) are distant relatives, much like Russians and Czechs.

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

Circassians (Adygs). What are they? (Brief information from history and current status.)

Circassians (the self-name of the Adygs) are the oldest inhabitants of the North-West Caucasus, whose history, according to many Russian and foreign researchers, goes back centuries, to the Age of Stone.

As Gleason's Illustrated Magazine 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 tale of yesterday. The Circassians have a striking feature: they have never lived under external domination. The Adygs were defeated, they were driven into the mountains, suppressed by superior force. But they never, even for a short time, obeyed anyone other than 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 represent 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. Mention of them is found in abundance in Heradotus, Varius Flaccus, Pomponius Mela, Strabo, Plutarch and other great writers. Their stories, legends, epics are a heroic tale of freedom, which they have maintained for at least the last 2,300 years in the face of the most powerful rulers in human memory.”

The history of the Circassians (Adygs) 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, interconnected within itself by 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 (Adyghe) belongs to the Western 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 connections of this language with the languages ​​of Asia Minor and Western Asia were discovered, in particular with the now dead Huttian, whose speakers lived in this region 4-5 thousand years ago.

The most ancient archaeological realities of the Circassians (Adygs) in the North Caucasus are the Dolmen and Maikop cultures (3rd millennium BC), which took an active part in the formation of the Adyghe-Abkhaz tribes. According to the famous scientist Sh.D. Inal-ipa, the distribution area of ​​dolmens, is basically the “original” homeland of the Circassians 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, 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 Western Caucasian ancient population. He also considers the Basques (Spain, France) to be mediators of 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. region of settlement of the Circassians (Adygs) unchanged for thousands of years. Sh.D.Inal-ipa and Z.V. Anchabadze indicate that the collapse of the Adyghe-Abkhaz community began in the 2nd millennium BC. and ended by the end of the ancient era.

In the 3rd millennium BC, the Hittite civilization developed dynamically in Asia Minor, where the Adyghe-Abkhazians (North-Eastern part) were called Hattians. Already in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. Hatti existed as a single Adyghe-Abkhaz state. Subsequently, part of the Hutts, who did not submit to the powerful Hittite Empire, formed the state of Kasku in the upper reaches of the Galis River (Kyzyl-Irmak in Turkey), the inhabitants of which retained their language and went down in history under the name Kaskov (Kashkov). Scientists compare the name Kaskov with the word that later various peoples called the Circassians - Kashags, Kasogs, Kasags, Kasakhs, etc. Throughout the existence of the Hittite Empire (1650-1500 to 1200 BC), the kingdom of Kasku was its an implacable enemy. It is mentioned in written sources until the 8th century. b.c.e.

According to L.I. Lavrov, there was also a close connection between the Northwestern Caucasus and Southern Ukraine and Crimea, which goes back to the pre-Scythian era. This territory was inhabited by a people called the Cimmerians, who, according to the version of famous archaeologists V.D. Balavadsky and M.I. Artamonov, are the ancestors of the Circassians. V.P. Shilov included the Meotians, who were Adyghe-speaking, among the remnants of the Cimmerians. Taking into account the close interactions of the Circassians (Adygs) 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 substrate - the Cimmer tribe. The formation of the Cimmerian Union dates back to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC.

In the 7th century b.c.e. Numerous hordes of Scythians poured from Central Asia and attacked Cimmeria. The Scythians drove the Cimmerians west of the Don and into the Crimean steppes. They survived in the southern part of the Crimea under the name Tauri, and to the east of the Don and in the North-Western Caucasus under the collective name Meotians. In particular, these included the Sinds, Kerkets, Achaeans, Heniokhs, Sanigs, Zikhs, Psessians, Fateis, Tarpits, Doskhs, Dandarii, etc.

In the 6th century B.C. The ancient Adyghe state of Sindika was formed, which entered the 4th century. b.c.e. to the Bosporan kingdom. The Bosporan kings always relied in their policies on the Sindo-Maeotians, involved them in military campaigns, and married off their daughters to their rulers. The Maeotian region 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 century 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 Iranian tribes. They also lived on the coast of the Azov Sea (Sindian Scythia). Their eastern border was the Laba River. Along the Sea of ​​Azov, a narrow strip was inhabited by the Meotians; nomads lived to the east. In the 3rd century. BC According to a number of scientists, part of the Sindo-Meotian tribes entered the alliance of the Sarmatians (Siraks) and related Alans. In addition to the Sarmatians, the Iranian-speaking Scythians had a great influence on their ethnogenesis and culture, but this did not lead to the loss of the ethnic identity of the ancestors of the Circassians (Adygs). And the linguist O.N. Trubachev, based on his analysis of ancient toponyms, ethnonyms and personal names (anthroponyms) from the territory of distribution of the Sinds and other Meotians, expressed the opinion that they belong to the Indo-Aryans (proto-Indians), who allegedly remained in the North Caucasus after the departure of the bulk of them to the south. east in the second millennium BC.

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

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

Invasion of Alan 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. During the same period, the main elements of men’s costume, which later became common in the Caucasus, arose: Circassian coat, beshmet, leggings, and belt. Despite all the difficulties and dangers, the Meotians retained their ethnic independence, their language and the characteristics of their ancient culture.

In the IV - V centuries. The Meotians, like the Bosporus as a whole, experienced the onslaught of 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-West Caucasus came to naught, and their ethnic name disappeared in the 5th century. As well as the ethnonyms of the Sinds, Kerkets, Heniokhs, Achaeans and a number of other tribes. They are being replaced by one big name - Zikhia (zihi), the rise of which began in the 1st century AD. It is they, according to domestic and foreign scientists, who are beginning to play the main role in the unification process of the ancient Circassian (Adyghe) tribes. Over time, their territory expanded significantly.

Until the end of the 8th century AD. (early Middle Ages) the history of the Circassians (Adygs) 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 Circassian (Adyghe) history. However, as written sources of that time testify, the introduction of Christianity among the Circassians (Adygs) was not successful. The ancestors of the Circassians (Adygs) acted as a major political force in the North Caucasus. The Greeks, who occupied the eastern shore of the Black Sea long before the birth of Christ, passed on information about our ancestors, whom they generally call Zyugs, and sometimes Kerkets. Georgian chroniclers call them jikhs, and the region is called Dzhikheti. Both of these names vividly resemble the word tsug, which in today’s language means man, since it is known that all peoples originally called themselves people, and gave their neighbors nicknames based on some quality or locality, and so did our ancestors who lived on the shores of the Black Sea. became known to their neighbors under the name of people: tsig, jik, tsuh.

The word kerket, according to experts from different times, is probably the name given to it by neighboring peoples, and perhaps by the Greeks themselves. But the real generic name of the Circassian (Adyghe) people is the one that has 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 an increase in the plural in names. In support of this thesis, scientists say that until recently there lived elders in Kabarda who pronounced this word similar to its previous pronunciation - antihe; in some dialects they simply say atikhe. To further support this opinion, we can give an example from the ancient poetry of the Circassians (Circassians), in which the people are always called ant, for example: antynokopyesh - an ant princely son, antigishao - an ant youth, antigiwork - an ant nobleman, antigishu - an ant horseman. The knights or famous leaders were called nart, this word is shortened to narant and means “eye of the ants.” According to Yu.N. The Voronov 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 Kasog tribal union developed, which was first mentioned in the 8th century. Khazar sources say that “all those living in the country of Kesa” pay tribute to the Khazars for the Alans. This suggests that the ethnonym “Zikhi” gradually left the political arena of the North-West Caucasus. The Russians, like the Khazars and Arabs, used the term kashaki in the form kasogi. In X–XI, the collective name Kasogi, Kashaks, Kashki covered the entire Proto-Circassian (Adyghe) massif of the North-Western Caucasus. The Svans also called them Kashag. By the 10th century, the ethnic territory of the Kasogs 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. Subsequently, for various reasons, the formation and isolation of ethnic groups occurred as a result of their movement to new territories. Thus, for example, in the XIII-XIV centuries. A Kabardian sub-ethnic group was formed and 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 (Adygs) in the XIII-XV centuries. occupy lands in the foothills of the Central Caucasus, in the basin of the Terek, Baksan, Malka, Cherek rivers.

During the last period of the Middle Ages, they, like many other peoples and countries, were in the zone of military-political influence of the Golden Horde. The ancestors of the Circassians (Adygs) 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, and the Ottoman Empire.

According to many scientists, it was during this period, in the conditions of a Turkic-speaking environment, that the Adyghe ethnic name “Circassians” arose. Then this term was adopted by people who visited the North Caucasus, and from them it entered 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 (a Black Sea tribe of ancient times). The first known written source that recorded the ethnonym Circassian in the form 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, the geographical concept “Circassia” emerged from the ethnic name.

The etymology of the ethnonym Circassian has not been established with sufficient certainty. Tebu de Marigny, in his book “Travel to Circassia,” published in Brussels in 1821, cites one of the most widespread 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: “In Europe we 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", giving the Circassian name the meaning of "cutting off the path." It’s interesting that the Circassians call themselves only “Adyghe” (Adiqheu).” The author of the work “The History of Unfortunate Chirakes”, published in 1841, Prince A. Misostov, considers this term to be a translation from Persian (Farsi) and meaning “thug”.

This is how J. Interiano talks about the Circassians (Adygs) in his book “The Life and Country of the Zikhs, Called Circassians,” published in 1502: “The Zikhs are so called in the languages: common, Greek and Latin, and are called Circassians by the Tatars and Turks, They 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. John and the Strait of the Zabak Sea, otherwise the Sea of ​​Tana, in ancient times called the Maeotian Swamp, and further beyond the strait along the seashore up to Cape Bussi and the Phasis River, and here it borders on Abkhazia, that is, part of Colchis.

On the landward side they border with the Scythians, that is, with the Tatars. Their language is difficult - different from the language of neighboring peoples and very 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 “A Journey through the Caucasus and Georgia, undertaken in 1807 – 1808.” writes: “The name “Circassian” is of Tatar origin and is composed of the words “cher” - road and “kefsmek” to cut off. Cherkesan or Cherkes-ji has the same meaning as the word Iol-Kesedj, which is used in Turkic and means the one who “cuts off the path.”

“The origin of the name Kabarda is difficult to establish,” he writes, since Raineggs’ etymology – from the Kabar River in Crimea and from the word “da” - village – can hardly be called correct. Many Circassians, in his opinion, are called “Kabarda”, namely Uzdeni (nobles) from the Tambi clan near the Kishbek River, which flows into 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 there, which the Tatars call Cherkess-Kerman, and the area between the rivers Kacha and Belbek, whose upper half, also called Kabarda, is called Cherkess-Tuz, i.e. Circassian plain. However, I see no reason to believe that the Circassians came from Crimea. It seems to me more likely to believe 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 made up of the Persian “chekhar” (four) and the Tatar “kes” (man), because the nation comes from four brothers.”

In his travel notes, the Hungarian scientist Jean-Charles De Besse (1799 - 1838), published in Paris under the title “Travel to the Crimea, the Caucasus, Georgia, Armenia, Asia Minor and Constantinople in 1929 and 1830,” says that , that “...Circassians are a numerous, brave, reserved, courageous people, but little known 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” (“to 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 who did not belong to the Circassian (Adyghe) people began to be called the word “Circassian”. “I don’t know why,” wrote L.Ya. Lyulye, 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 accustomed to calling all the tribes inhabiting the northern slope of the Caucasus Mountains Circassians, while they They call themselves Adyge." The transformation of the ethnic term “Circassian” into an essentially collective one, as was the case with the terms “Scythian” and “Alan,” led to the fact that the most diverse peoples of the Caucasus were hidden behind it. In the first half of the 19th century. It has become customary to call “Circassians not only the Abazas or Ubykhs, who are close to them in spirit and way of life, but also the inhabitants of Dagestan, Checheno-Ingushetia, Ossetia, Balkaria, and Karachay, who are completely different from them in language.”

In the first half of the 19th century. The Ubykhs, who, as a rule, spoke the Adyghe (Circassian) language along with their native language, became very close to the Black Sea Circassians in cultural, everyday and political relations. F.F. Tornau notes in this regard: “... 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). The Abazas 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 famous work “The History of War and Dominion, Russians in the Caucasus,” also noted the presence of the above-mentioned misconception in Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century regarding the attribution of the North Caucasian peoples to the Circassians (Adygs). In it, he notes: “From many articles and books of that time, one can draw the conclusion that there are 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 waged war with the Circassians and highlanders, and on the left flank, or in Dagestan, with the highlanders and Circassians...” He himself derives the ethnonym “Circassian” from the Turkic expression “sarkyas”.

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 new descriptions of the travels of Dubois de Montpere, Bell, Longworth and others; sometimes by this name they mean the Caucasians living on the shores of the Black Sea, sometimes all inhabitants of the northern slope of the Caucasus are considered Circassians, they even indicate that Kakheti, the eastern part of the region of Georgia lying on the other side of the Caucasus, is inhabited by Circassians.”

Not only French, but also, equally, many German, English, and American publications that reported certain information about the Caucasus were guilty of spreading such misconceptions about the Circassians (Adygs). It is enough 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.

Due to this completely incorrect use of the term “Circassians,” it is necessary to treat the sources of the first half of the 19th century with special caution. In each individual case, even when using the data of the most knowledgeable authors in Caucasian ethnography of that time, one should first figure out which “Circassians” are being discussed, and whether by Circassians, in addition to the Circassians, the author means other neighboring mountainous peoples of the Caucasus. It is especially important to verify this when the information concerns the territory and number of the Circassians, because in such cases non-Circassians were very often classified as Circassians.”

The expanded 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 Circassians were indeed at that time a significant ethnic group in the North Caucasus, exerting a great and comprehensive influence on the peoples surrounding them. Sometimes small tribes of a different ethnic origin were, as it were, interspersed into the Adyghe environment, which contributed to the transfer of the term “Circassian” to them.

The ethnonym Adygs, which later entered European literature, was not as widespread as the term Circassians. There are several versions regarding the etymology of the word “Adyghe”. One comes from the astral (solar) hypothesis and translates this word as “children of the sun” (from the term “tyg’e”, “dyg’e” - sun), the other is the so-called “antskaya” about the topographical origin of this term (“glades”), “ Marinista" ("Pomeranians").

As numerous written sources testify, the history of the Circassians (Adygs) of the 16th-19th centuries. is closely connected with the history of Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and all Middle Eastern countries, about which not only modern residents of the Caucasus, but also the Circassians (Adygs) themselves have a very vague idea today.

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

There are still surnames Sharkasi in this country, which means “Circassian”. The problem of the formation of the Circassian ruling stratum in Egypt is of certain interest not only in the context of the history of Egypt, but also in terms of studying the history of the Circassian people. The increasing power of the Mamluk institution in Egypt dates back to the Ayyubid era. After the death of the famous Saladin, his former Mamluks, mainly of Circassian, Abkhaz and Georgian origin, became extremely stronger. According to the research of the Arab scholar Rashid ad-Din, the commander-in-chief of the army, Emir Fakhr ad-Din Circassian, carried out a coup d'etat 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 (Adygs) - 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 Tugji, opposed the Turkic rebels and defeated them, killing Beidar and several other high-ranking Turkic emirs from his entourage. Following this, the Circassians placed Qalaun's 9th son, Nasir Muhammad, on the throne. During both invasions of the Mongol emperor of Iran Mahmud Ghazan (1299, 1303), the Circassian Mamluks played a decisive role in their defeat, as noted in the chronicle of Makrizi, as well as in modern studies by J. Glubb, A. Hakim, A. Khasanov. These military achievements 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 Zihia Barkuk. Many people wrote about his Zikh-Circassian origin, including the Italian diplomat Bertrando de Mizhnaveli, who knew him personally. The Mamluk chronicler Ibn Tagri Birdi reports that Barquq came from the Circassian Kasa tribe. Kassa here apparently means kasag-kashek - a common name for zikhs among Arabs and Persians. Barquk found himself in Egypt in 1363, and four years later, with the support of the Circassian governor in Damascus, he became an emir and began to intensively recruit, buy and lure Circassian Mamluks into his service. In 1376, he became regent for the next young Qalaunid. Concentrating actual power in his hands, Barquk 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 Barquk’s contemporary, the founder of the sociological school, Ibn Khaldun, “people were glad that they were under the citizenship of the Sultan, who knew how to correctly assess and manage affairs.”

The leading Mamluk scholar D. Aalon (Tel Aviv) called Barquq a statesman who organized the largest ethnic revolution in the entire history of Egypt. The Turks of Egypt and Syria reacted extremely hostilely to the accession of the Circassian to the throne. So the Tatar emir Altunbuga al-Sultani, the governor of Abulustan, fled after an unsuccessful rebellion to the Chagatai of Tamerlane, finally declaring: “I will not live in a country where the ruler is Circassian.” Ibn Tagri Birdi wrote that Barkuk had the 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 high and middle administrative posts were concentrated in the hands of the Circassians.

Power in Circassia and 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 meaning of Palestine was determined by Jerusalem), the southeastern regions of Anatolia, and part of Mesopotamia. This territory, with a population of at least 5 million people, was subject to the Circassian community of Cairo of 50-100 thousand people, which at any time could field from 2 to 10-12 thousand excellent heavily armed horsemen. The memory of these times of greatness of greatest military-political power was preserved in generations of Circassians 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 advanced 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, noted in particular: “Timur respected Barkuk... when he learned of his death, he was so happy that he gave the person who reported this news 15,000 dinars.” Sultan Barquq al-Cherkassi 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, organized 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 Barkuk, for example, was not only a capable sultan, 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 hold the island as a vassal of Egypt until the Ottoman conquest.”

The new Sultan of Egypt, Muayyad Shah, finally established 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 combat-ready fleet. The mountaineers of the Western Caucasus excelled as pirates from ancient times until the 19th century. Ancient, Genoese, Ottoman and Russian sources left us a fairly detailed description of Zikh, Circassian and Abazg piracy. In turn, the Circassian fleet freely penetrated the Black Sea. Unlike the Turkic Mamluks, who did not show themselves in any way at sea, the Circassians controlled the Eastern Mediterranean, plundered Cyprus, Rhodes, the islands of the Aegean Sea, and fought with 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 13th century. Circassians were characterized by national solidarity. In the sources of the Circassian period (1318-1517), the national cohesion and monopoly dominance of the Circassians were expressed in the use of the terms “people”, “people”, “tribe” exclusively to address the Circassians.

The situation in Egypt began to change in 1485, after the start of the first Ottoman-Mamluk war, which lasted several decades. After the death of the experienced Circassian military leader Qaitbay (1468-1496), a period of internecine wars followed in Egypt: in 5 years, four sultans replaced the throne - Qaitbay’s son an-Nasir Muhammad (named after the son of Qalaun), az-zahir Kansav, al- Ashraf Janbulat, al-Adil Sayf ad-Din Tumanbay I. Al-Ghauri, 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 took a high position thanks to the patronage of his sister, Qaytbay’s wife. And Kansav al-Gauri ascended to the Cairo throne at the age of 60. He showed great activity in the foreign policy sphere due to the increase in Ottoman power and the expected new war.

The decisive battle between the Mamluks and the Ottomans took place on August 24, 1516 on the Dabiq field in Syria, which is considered one of the most ambitious 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 victory seemed to be in the hands of the Circassians, the governor of Aleppo, Emir Khairbey, and his detachment went over to Selim’s side. This betrayal literally killed the 76-year-old Sultan Kansawa al-Ghauri: he was seized by an apocalyptic blow and 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 ranged 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, there were 15 Circassian (Adyghe) rulers, 2 Bosnians, 2 Georgians and 1 Abkhaz 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, and numerous political, religious, and family relationships. Circassia was never part of this empire, but its natives in this country made up a significant part of the ruling class, pursuing successful careers 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 Porte. For example, in the book by Khalil Inalcık “The Ottoman Empire: the classical period, 1300-1600.” a map is provided showing by period all the territorial acquisitions of the Ottomans: the only free country along the perimeter of the Black Sea is Circassia.

There was a significant Circassian contingent 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, saving his life, to leave his governorship in Trebizond and flee by sea to Circassia. There he met the Circassian prince of Taman Temryuk. The latter became a faithful friend of the disgraced prince and for three and a half years accompanied him on all his travels. After Selim became the 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 Sultan's policies. It was also preserved at the court of Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566), since he, like his father, Selim I, stayed in Circassia before his sultanate. His mother, a Girey princess, was 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 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 perseverance,” was appointed governor of Yemen.

Ozdemir's son, Circassian Ozdemir-oglu Osman Pasha (1527-1585) inherited his father's power and talent as a commander. Beginning in 1572, Osman Pasha's activities 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 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 Zhane clan and had the title of Defterdar. In 1853, Kasim Bey submitted to Sultan Suleiman a project to connect the Don and Volga with a canal. Among the figures of the 19th century, Circassian Dervish Mehmed Pasha stood out. In 1651 he was 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 Dervish Mehmed Pasha, had a high gate, hence the nickname “High Porta”, which Europeans used to designate the Ottoman government.

The next no less colorful figure from among the Circassian mercenaries is Kutfaj Delhi Pasha. The mid-17th century Ottoman author Evliya Çelebi wrote that “he comes from the brave Circassian Bolatkoy tribe.”

Cantemir's information is fully confirmed in 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. 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, seems very important. According to Chelyabi, on the coast of Circassia there were settlements of Mamluks 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, Circassian Osman Pasha, the builder of the Yeni-Kale fortress (modern Yeisk), and 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, and for successful military operations he was granted the rank of three-bunch pasha (the rank of marshal by European standards; only the grand vizier and the sultan are higher).

Much interesting information about prominent military and government figures 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 and 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 Moscow 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-Abazin), including in language and customs, and gives many examples of the Circassians who held the highest positions at the Ottoman court.

The diaspora historian A. Jureiko points out the abundance of Circassians in the ruling stratum of the Ottoman state: “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 diaspora historian, Hasan 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 Hasan Pasha Cezairli, who in 1776 became Kapudan Pasha - commander-in-chief of the naval forces of the empire.

In 1789, the Circassian military leader Hasan Pasha Meyyit served as 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 reformer Sultan Selim III (1789-1807), who played an important role in the war with Bonaparte. The closest associate of Kuchuk Hussein Pasha was Mehmed Khosrev Pasha, originally from Abadzekhia. In 1812 he became kapudan pasha and held this post 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 Russian general Ya.S. Proskurov, who traveled around Turkey in 1842-1846. and met Hasan Pasha, “a natural Circassian, taken to Constantinople from childhood, where he was raised.”

According to the research of many scientists, the ancestors of the Circassians (Adygs) took an active part in the formation of the Cossacks of Ukraine and Russia. Thus, N.A. Dobrolyubov, analyzing the ethnic composition of the Kuban Cossacks at the end of the 18th century, pointed out that it partly 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 allows us to assume that these Cossacks, after the liquidation of the Sich, went to Turkey because of their common faith, which means we can also assume that these Cossacks are partly of non-Slavic origin. Light is shed on the problem by Semeon Bronevsky, who, referring to historical news, wrote: “In 1282, the Baskak of the Tatar of the Kursk principality, calling Circassians from Beshtau or Pyatigorye, populated a settlement with them under the name of Cossacks. These, having copulated with Russian fugitives, committed robberies everywhere for a long time, hiding from searches above them in the 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, due to the fact that most of them were Cherkasy breed, forming a robber republic, which later became famous under the name of the Zaporozhye Cossacks.”

About the further history of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, the same Bronevsky reported: “When the Turkish army came to Astrakhan in 1569, then Prince Mikhailo Vishnevetsky was called from the Dnieper from Circassia with 5,000 Zaporozhye Cossacks, who, having combined with the Don Cossacks, won a great victory on the dry route and at sea They defeated the Turks in the boats. Of these Circassian Cossacks, most 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 Pyatigorye, this circumstance could have caused there is a reason to call Kabardians generally Ukrainian residents who fled from Russia, as we find mention of this in our archives.” From Bronevsky’s information we can conclude that the Zaporozhye Sich, formed in the 16th century in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, i.e. “down the Dnieper,” and until 1654, which was a Cossack “republic,” waged a stubborn struggle against the Crimean Tatars and Turks, and thereby 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 Zaporozhye Cossacks, which formed the backbone of the Kuban Cossacks, consisted partly of the descendants of the Circassians who were once taken “from the Beshtau or Pyatigorsk region,” not to mention the “Circassians who voluntarily left the Kuban.” It should be especially emphasized that with the resettlement of these Cossacks, namely in 1792, the intensification of the colonialist policy of tsarism in the North Caucasus, and in particular in Kabarda, began.

It should be emphasized that the geographical location of the Circassian (Adyghe) lands, especially Kabardian ones, which had the most important military-political and economic significance, was the reason for their involvement in the orbit of political interests of Turkey and Russia, predetermining to a large extent the course of historical events in this region from 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 (Adygs) with the Moscow state, which later turned into a military-political alliance. The marriage of Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 1561 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, further aggravated the relations of the Kabardian princes, the feuds between whom did not subside until the conquest of Kabarda. Its internal political situation and fragmentation were further aggravated by interference in the Kabardian (Circassian) affairs of Russia, the Porte and the Crimean Khanate. In the 17th century, as a result of civil strife, Kabarda split into Greater Kabarda and Lesser Kabarda. The official division occurred in the mid-18th century. In the period from the 15th to the 18th centuries, 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 was never able to use the opportunity provided to unify 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 given instructions to “beware most of all of the unification of the highlanders,” for which it is necessary to “try to kindle the fire of internal discord between them.”

According to the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi 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 Crimea. In 1779, 1794, 1804 and 1810 there were major uprisings of Kabardians against the seizure of their lands, the construction of Mozdok fortresses and other military fortifications, luring away subjects and for other compelling reasons. They were brutally suppressed by tsarist troops led by generals Jacobi, Tsitsianov, Glazenap, Bulgakov and others. Bulgakov alone in 1809 ruined 200 Kabardian villages to the ground. At the beginning of the 19th century, the whole of Kabarda was engulfed in a plague epidemic.

According to scientists, the Caucasian War began for the Kabardians in 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 to the Black Sea coast.

By the beginning of the war, the lands of the Circassians (Adygs) 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 moved exclusively to the northern slopes of the Caucasus Range, into the Kuban basin, and then Terek, extending to the southeast for about another 350 km.

“The Circassian lands...” wrote Khan-Girey in 1836, “extend 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 extended to the very the confluence of the Sunzha and the Terek River. The width is different and lies from the above-mentioned rivers to the south at noon along the valleys and slopes of mountains in different curvatures, having from 20 to 100 versts in distance, thus forming a long narrow strip, which, starting from the eastern corner formed by the confluence of the Sunzha with the Terek, then expands then shrinks again, following west down the Kuban to the shores of the Black Sea.” It should be added that along the Black Sea coast the Circassians occupied an area of ​​about 250 km. At its widest point, the lands of the Circassians extended from the shores of the Black Sea 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 greatly in order to expand again in the territory of Greater Kabarda to More than 100 kilometers.

(To be continued)

The information is compiled on the basis of archival documents and scientific works published on the history of the Circassians (Adygs)

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

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

Jacques-Victor-Edouard Thébout 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 – beginning of the 16th century). Life and country of the 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. P.46-47.

Heinrich-Julius Klaproth. Travels around 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. P.257-259.

Jean-Charles de Besse. Travel to 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 12th-19th centuries. Nalchik, 1974.S. 334.

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

S.H. Khotko. Essays on the history of the Circassians from the Cimmerian era to the Caucasian War. St. Petersburg University Publishing House, 2001, pp. 148-164.

Ibid., p. 227-234.

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

“Notes about Circassia, composed by Khan-Girey, part 1, St. Petersburg, 1836, l. 1-1v.//V.K. Gardanov “The social system of the Adyghe peoples.” Ed. “Science”, Main Editorial Board of Oriental Literature. M., 1967. pp. 19-20.