The Circassians, also known as the Cherkess or the Adyghe (Adyghe and , ), are a Northwest Caucasian ethnic group native to Circassia, a region and former country in the North Caucasus. As a consequence of the 19th-century Russo-Circassian War and the Circassian genocide, most Circassians were exiled from their homeland and scattered in what was then the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey, Southeastern Europe and the Middle East). The two Circassian languages natively spoken by the Circassian people are western Adyghe and eastern Kabardian.Aydın, Şamil Emre (2015), Çerkes Diyalektleri The Ubykh language went extinct with the 1992 death of its last speaker, Tevfik Esenç.
The vast majority of Circassians are Muslim; Sunni Islam became the dominant religion during the 17th century, following a long period of Islamisation. Circassia has been repeatedly invaded since ancient times; its isolated terrain coupled with the strategic value external societies have placed on the region, have greatly shaped the Circassian national identity as a whole.
The Circassian flag consists of a green field charged with 12 gold stars and, in the centre, three crossed arrows. The stars represent the 12 Circassian tribes: the Abzakh, the Besleney, the Bzhedugh, the Hatuqay, the Kabardians, the Mamkhegh, the Natukhaj, the Shapsugh, the Chemirgoy, the Ubykh, the Yegeruqway, and the Zhaney.
Circassians have played major roles in areas where they settled: in Turkey, those of Circassian origin have had massive influence, being instrumental in the Turkish War of Independence and among the elites of Turkey's intelligence agency.Çerkeslerin MİT İçindeki Yeri In Jordan, they founded the capital city Amman, and continue to play a major role in the country. In Syria, they served as the volunteer guards of the Allies upon their entry into the country and still occupy high positions. In Libya, they serve in high military positions. In Egypt, they were part of the ruling class. The largest Circassian clan in the country also contributed to Egyptian and Arabic cultural literary, intellectual, and political life starting with the reign of Muhammad Ali Pasha in Egypt and continuing to the modern day: the Abaza family.
In the Soviet Union, historical Circassia was divided into the republics of Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, Krasnodar Krai, and southwestern parts of Stavropol Krai. Accordingly, Circassians have been designated as Adygeans in Adygea, Kabardians in Kabardino-Balkaria, Cherkess in Karachay-Cherkessia, and Shapsug in Krasnodar Krai; all four are essentially the same people. Today, approximately 800,000 Circassians remain in historical Circassia, while 4,500,000 live elsewhere, mostly in Turkey.
Ethnonyms Adyghe
The Circassians refer to themselves as Adyghe (also transliterated as Adyga, Adiga, Adige, Adığe, Adyge, Adygei). According to one view, the name derives from Atyghe () meaning "high [in altitude]" to signify a mountaineer, as the Circassian people have lived in and near the mountains for thousands of years.
The medieval Circassian people known as Zygii were called "Adzakha" in the Bosporus inscriptions, leading to a theory that their endonym was originally Adzigha (), which eventually evolved into Adyghe.
Circassian, Cherkess
The word Circassian ( ) is an exonym, Latinized from Russian Cherkess (; ), which is of debated origin.Douglas Harper, Etymonline states:
"1550s, in reference to a people people of the northern Caucasus along the Black Sea, from Circassia, Latinized from Russian Cherkesŭ, which is of unknown origin. Their name for themselves is Adighe. Their language is non-Indo-European. The race was noted for the "fine physical formation of its members, especially its women" [Century Dictionary], who were much sought by neighboring nations as concubines, etc." The term, in Russian, was traditionally applied to all Circassians before Soviet times, but it has since usually referred only to Circassians living in northern Karachay-Cherkessia, a federal subject of Russia, where they are indigenous and were about 12% of the population in 2010.Всероссийская перепись 2010, Итоги Т. 4. – Табл. 1. Национальный состав населения (скачать: ) In English, it still refers to all Circassians.
The origin of the term "Circassian" is disputed. One view is that its root stems from Turkic languages, and means "head choppers" or "warrior killers", because of the Circassians' battle practices.Yamisha, Jonty. The Circassians: An Introduction Other sources argue that the term comes from Mongolian Jerkes, meaning "one who blocks a path". Some believe it comes from the ancient Greek name of the region, Siraces. According to another view, its origin is Persian and combines two parts, kar ("mountain") and kās ("region", in Pahlavi), meaning "mountainous region". The spelling Cherkess may be an abbreviation of Persian Chahār-kas ("four people"), denoting four tribes. Ali ibn al-Athir (died c. 1232/3) and Ibn Khaldun (died 1406) used the term Jahārkas, but the Persian hypothesis remains uncertain.
In early Russian sources, Circassians are called Kasogi, but one view holds that the modern term "Cherkes" derives from Kerket, the name of one of the ancient Circassian tribes.
In languages spoken geographically close to the Caucasus, the native people originally had other names for the Circassians (such as Georgian: ჯიქი, Jiqi), but with Russian influence, the name has been settled as Cherkess. It is the same or similar in many world languages that cite these languages.
The Encyclopaedia Islamica adds: "The Cherkess: the Kabardians and the western Adyghe people share a common language, which is spoken by the north-western Caucasian people, and belongs to the family known as Abkhazian-Adyghe".
In Medieval Oriental and European texts, the Adyghe people were known by the name Cherkess/Circassians. In Persian sources, Charkas/Cherkes is used to refer to the "actual" Circassians of the northwest Caucasus, and in some occasions as a general designation for Caucasians who live beyond Derbent (Darband).
Soviet policy
Despite a common self-designation and a common Russian name,S. A. Arutyunov. "Conclusion of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the ethnonym "Circassian" and the toponym "Circassia." 25 May 2010. Soviet authorities divided the nation into four different peoples and applied four designations to Circassians remaining in the historic lands of Circassia: Kabardian, Circassians of Kabardino-Balkaria (Circassians speaking the Kabardian language, one of two indigenous peoples of the republic) Cherkess (), Circassians of Karachay-Cherkessia (Circassians speaking the Cherkess, i.e. Circassian, language, one of two indigenous peoples of the republic who are mostly Besleney Kabardians. The name "Cherkess" is the Russian form of "Circassian" and was used for all Circassians before Soviet times.) Shapsug, the indigenous historical inhabitants of Shapsugia. They live in the Tuapse District and the Lazarevsky City District (formerly the Shapsug national district) of Sochi, both in Krasnodar Krai and in Adygea.
History Origins Genetically, the Adyghe have shared ancestry partially with neighboring peoples of the Caucasus, with some influence from other regions. The most prevalent SNP haplotype among all Circassian tribes is G2-YY1215 (43%); others are R1a-M198* (13%), G2-YY9632 (9%), and J2-M172* (7%), sharing a single common ancestor 3,000 years ago, with the largest demographic growth between 2,000 and 1,500 years ago. Prevalence of the G2-YY1215 haplogroup is higher in the Western Caucasus and decreases to the east, while G2-YY9632 has the opposite tendency. R1a-M198* is shared with Balkars, Karachays and Kuban Cossacks.
The Circassian language, also known as Cherkess, is in the Northwest Caucasian language family. Archaeological findings, mainly of dolmens in the northwest Caucasus region, indicate a megalithic culture.
The ancestors of present-day Circassians are known as the Sinti-Maeotian tribes.General İsmail Berkok, Tarihte Kafkasya,İstanbul,1958, s.135-136.Turabi Saltık, Sindika Krallığı, Jineps, Ocak 2007, s.5.Tamara V.Polovinkina,Çerkesya, Gönül Yaram, Ankara, 2007, s.21-45. Archaeological research shows that these tribes were the indigenous people of the Caucasus.Генрих Ананенко,Сыд фэдагъа Синдикэр?,Адыгэ макъ gazetesi,07.01.1992.V.Diakov-S.Kovalev,İlkçağ Tarihi, Ankara,1987, s.345-355,506-514. Some researchers have claimed there may be links between Circassians and Indo-European-speaking communities, and some have argued that there are connections between Circassians and Hatti, who are from ancient Anatolian peoples,Prof.Dr. ĞIŞ Nuh (yazan), HAPİ Cevdet Yıldız (çeviren). Adigece'nin temel sorunları-1. Адыгэ макъ,12/13 Şubat 2009 but these theories are not widely accepted. According to genetic tests performed on Circassians, their closest relatives are Ingush, Chechens, Georgians and Abkhazians.
Pseudoscientific claims Turkish nationalist groups and proponents of modern-day Pan-Turkism have claimed that the Circassians are of Turkic origin, but no scientific evidence supports this claim, and it has been strongly denied by ethnic Circassians, impartial research, linguists, and historians around the world. The Circassian language does not share notable similarities to the Turkish language, except for borrowed words. According to various historians, the Circassian origin of the Sind-Meot tribes refutes the claim that the Circassians are of Turkic ethnic origin.
German racial theorists, after comparing skull shapes, declared that Europeans, North Africans, and Caucasians were of a common race, termed "Caucasian" or later "Caucasoid". Scientific racism emphasized the so-called "superior beauty" of the Circassian people, referring to them as "how God intended the human race to be", leading to the 18th century stereotype of the Circassian beauty.
Medieval period
Feudalism began to emerge among Circassians by the 4th century. As a result of Armenian, Greek, and Byzantine influence, Christianity spread throughout the Caucasus between the 3rd and 5th centuries.The Penny Magazine. London, Charles Knight, 1838. p. 138.Minahan, James. One Europe, Many Nations: a Historical Dictionary of European National Groups. Westport, USA, Greenwood, 2000. p. 354. During that period, Circassians (known at the time as Kassogs) began to accept Christianity as a national religion, but did not abandon all elements of their indigenous religious beliefs. Circassians established many states, but could not achieve political unity. From around 400, wave after wave of outsiders began to invade the lands of the Adyghe people, who were also known as the Kasogi (or Kassogs) at the time. They were conquered first by the Bulgars (who originated on the Central Asian steppes). Outsiders sometimes confused the Adyghe people with the similarly named Utigurs (a branch of the Bulgars). After the Khazar state dissolved, the Adyghe people were integrated around the end of the 1st millennium AD into the Kingdom of Alania. Between the 10th and 13th centuries, Georgia had influence on the Adyghe Circassian peoples. In the medieval era, there was a Circassian kingdom called Zichia (; ) or Zekchia.Колли Л. Кафа в период владения ею банком св. Георгия (1454—1475) // Известия Таврической Ученой Архивной комиссии. № 47. Симферополь, 1912. С. 86
In 1382, Circassian slaves took the Mamluk throne, the Burji dynasty took over and the Mamluks became a Circassian state. The Mongols, who started invading the Caucasus in 1223, destroyed some of the Circassians and most of the Alans. The Circassians lost most of their lands during the ensuing Golden Horde attacks and had to retreat to the back of the Kuban River. In 1395, Circassians fought violent wars against Tamerlane, and although they won the wars, Tamerlane plundered Circassia.