Ethnonyms

The Circassians refer to themselves as Adyghe (also transliterated as Adyga,Adyge, Adygei, Adyghe, Attéghéi). The name is believed to derive from atté“height” to signify a mountaineer or a highlander, and ghéi “sea”, signifying “a people dwelling and inhabiting a mountainous country near the sea coast”, or “between two seas”.

The exonym Circassians (ser-kass-ee-uhnz) is occasionally applied to Adyghe and Abaza from the North Caucasus.The nameCircassian represents a Latinisation of Siraces, the Greek name for the region, called Shirkess by Khazars & later Cherkess, theTurkic name for the Adyghe, and originated in the 15th century with medieval Genoese merchants and travellers to Circassia.

The Turkic peoples  and Russians call the Adyghe Cherkess. Folk etymology usually explains the name Cherkess as “warrior cutter” or “soldier cutter”, from the Turkish words çeri (soldier) and kesmek (to cut), so that Cherkess would mean “soldier-cutter”.^{[citation needed]}

Despite a common self-designation and a common Russian name,^[34] Soviet authorities applied four designations to Circassians:^{[citation needed]}

• Kabardian, Circassians of Kabardino-Balkaria (Circassians speaking the Kabardian language^[36]), one of two indigenous peoples of the republic.
• Cherkess (Adyghe: Шэрджэс Šărdžăs), Circassians of Karachay-Cherkessia (Circassians speaking the Cherkess, i.e. Circassian, language^[37]), 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.
• Adyghe, the indigenous population of the Kuban including Adygea and Krasnodar Krai.^[38]
• Shapsug, the indigenous historical inhabitants of Shapsugia. They live in the Tuapse District and the Lazarevsky City District(formerly the Shapsugsky National District) of Sochi, both in Krasnodar Krai and in Adygea.

Russian Invasion of Circassia

Map of the expulsion of Circassians to the Ottoman Empire

Circassia was a small independent nation on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea. For no reason other than ethnic hatred, over the course of hundreds of raids the Russians drove the Circassians from their homeland and deported them to the Ottoman Empire. At least 600,000 people lost their lives to massacre, starvation, and the elements while hundreds of thousands more were forced to leave their homeland. By 1864, three-fourths of the population was annihilated, and the Circassians had become one of the first stateless peoples in modern history.

— Walter Richmond, The Circassian Genocide 

Via: wikipedia

The last struggle

The Circassians did not hesitate to react to this policy. They even met with Russian tsar and presented their own conditions, making clear they were open to negotiations. However, the Russians had already made their decision. The region was besieged by over a hundred thousand Russian soldiers. The Circassians were forced out of their homes, their villages were set on fire, and tens of thousands of people were massacred.

Around 20,000 Circassian resistance fighters gathered in Kbaada on May 21, 1864. They were surrounded by around 100,000 Russian soldiers. In the end, the Circassians chose martyrdom above surrender. The rivers flowing through the nearby Acepsu valley to the Black Sea turned red with the blood of Circassians. Meanwhile, the Russian tsar Alexandre declared that day a national holiday marking the Russian victory.

Russia gained complete control of the region by May 21st 1864. Michel, who was commissioned by his brother Sharin as the Grand duke of Caucasus, made this public announcement in the month of August to the people of the western Caucasus: “If the Caucasus isn’t abandoned within a month’s time, the whole population will be exiled to different regions as Russia’s prisoners.” Like this, the Circassians’ great tragedy began.

The last struggle

Circassians plant 150 seedlings to mark 150 years in exile (worldbulletin.net)

The Circassians did not hesitate to react to this policy. They even met with Russian tsar and presented their own conditions, making clear they were open to negotiations. However, the Russians had already made their decision. The region was besieged by over a hundred thousand Russian soldiers. The Circassians were forced out of their homes, their villages were set on fire, and tens of thousands of people were massacred.

Caucasus peoples gather in Istanbul to mark 150 years of exile. The Caucasus Peoples Congress elected a new leader and urged unity in the stuggle for an independent Caucasia. (worldbulletin.net)

Around 20,000 Circassian resistance fighters gathered in Kbaada on May 21, 1864. They were surrounded by around 100,000 Russian soldiers. In the end, the Circassians chose martyrdom above surrender. The rivers flowing through the nearby Acepsu valley to the Black Sea turned red with the blood of Circassians. Meanwhile, the Russian tsar Alexandre declared that day a national holiday marking the Russian victory.

Russia gained complete control of the region by May 21st 1864. Michel, who was commissioned by his brother Sharin as the Grand duke of Caucasus, made this public announcement in the month of August to the people of the western Caucasus: “If the Caucasus isn’t abandoned within a month’s time, the whole population will be exiled to different regions as Russia’s prisoners.” Like this, the Circassians’ great tragedy began.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. With the exception of the Natukhay and Shapsegh tribes, all Circassians were organized into four castes: princes (pshi ), nobles (warq ), freemen (tlfaquat’l; tlkhwaquat’l in Kabardian), and slaves or vassals (pshit’l ). Within these rigid strata, various families had rankings. The princes organized the overall wealth (storing and distributing surplus) and external relations of their village. They conducted raids and warfare, drawing upon the fighting skills of the nobles. The freemen practiced agriculture, animal husbandry, and small industry. The slaves, usually prisoners of war, served the princes and nobles as servants and workers. Today this old system survives merely as a tradition of origin for families. Its dissolution was precipitated by the emigration of most of the freemen and slaves in 1864, with the princes and nobles primarily staying in the Caucasus. There is a tradition that this emigration followed a bout of internecine warfare between the social castes after the defeat by the Russians. The most important form of social organization among the present-day Circassians of the Russian Federation consists of the Circassian Council (Adyghe-khaasa). This is composed of elders from all the various Circassian groups, and its cultural and social authority transcends the boundaries of the three political regions to encompass all Circassians living in or near the Caucasus. In 1989 it was influential in dissuading many Circassian youth from going south to help their Abkhaz kinsmen in the fighting between the latter and the Georgians. Furthermore, in 1990, to bolster the council’s cultural role and perhaps to reward it for its prudence, Moscow granted the council a sum of several million rubles to encourage the growth of Circassian cultural institutions and activities throughout the Caucasus.

Political Organization. The prince presided over a village and promoted village cohesion with feasts, bestowing honor among individuals by assigning to them the position of t’hamata, master of ceremonies. Outside the village the highest level of organization was the tribe. The tribes were the Ubykh, the Natukhay, the Shapsegh, the Hakuchi, the Abadzekh, the Bzhedukh, the Hatukay, the Yegerukhay, the Chemgwi (earlier Kemirgoy), the Mamkhet, the Makhochey, the Besleney, and the Kabardians. The Bzhedukh consisted of two subtribes, the Khamych and the Chercheney. These tribes themselves had rankings, with the Kabardians being ranked high because of their cultural and political influence and the Ubykhs being ranked high because of old religious status, whereas the Shapseghs and Natukhays were looked down upon because of their lack of a caste system and their involvement in trade. Tribes had councils of princes, and grand councils could be called involving more than one tribe. Tribes were based on fictive kinship, such as Besleney, “Those of (Prince) Beslen,” or regional identity, such as Abadzekh, “Those in the region of the Abaza.” Others may reflect ancient cases of assimilation, as with the Natukhay, “White-Eyed [light-eyed] Ones,” perhaps Circassianized Crimean Goths, or the Shapsegh, “Pointed Head or Hat Ones,” perhaps an old Alanic tribe.

Social Control. A body of oral, traditional law tightly governed conduct. Furthermore, rules of etiquette were extremely important: these usually consisted of hospitality coupled with a conversational discretion that bordered on taciturnity. The wrong words could ruin social face and engender bloody conflict. The princes and nobles practiced fosterage with their slaves or vassals. It was a great honor for a vassal to rear a child of his prince or noble. The child was returned to his biological home at maturity. The greatest honor for a vassal was for such a mature child to choose to stay in the house of the slave, to become a qan, “one who remained.” Such fosterage formed a fictive blood link between slave and master.

Conflict. A Circassian was never without his dagger, and few things were more important to him than his weapons. This reflected the prevalence of the blood feud. Indeed, the word “vengeance” (tlish’ezhen, “to make blood again”) must take the marker of inalienable possession in West Circassian. The blood feud, in turn, sprang from the khabza (custom, law) that any death inflicted upon a member of another clan, regardless of whether it was intentional or accidental, had to be avenged by a corresponding death. The obligation of blood feud extended to the protection of one’s guests as well as to one’s “milk brother,” a fictive-kinship bond. Indeed, blood feud obligations could be abrogated by a man of one clan putting his lips to the breast of a woman of the other, thereby forming a fictive-kin link of milk brotherhood between the two warring groups. Blood feud obligations were temporarily suspended during times of war, so that armies could be assembled. Women tended to be outside the blood feud. Injuries were recompensed by money, the amount being determined by a council of elders or by the prince. Theft of livestock within the clan was intolerable; material goods could be stolen by stealth, but it was a disgrace to be caught. This reflected the relative contempt for material possessions. In fact, if a fellow clan member asked for some item, one was obligated to give it. In this way, material goods tended to circulate among the Community. In matters of dispute, the council of elders, headed by the prince, interpreted khabza to reach a settlement. Such decisions were usually obeyed since the dreaded blood feud was the most frequent alternative. A husband could mete out punishment for violations within the sphere of the family. Women enjoyed great respect and status in that they could halt the bloodiest fights merely by dropping their kerchief between the combatants. A maiden could also bestow her kerchief upon a favored youth, in classic feudal manner, so that he could act as her champion in acts of valor and adventure.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. The Circassians have been Sunni Muslims for the past three or four hundred years, though as late as the first half of the nineteenth century some of the woodland Abadzekh seem to have retained a form of Christianity. The Circassianized Armenians of Armavir (Yermedls) are Christian, and there were some Jewish Circassians in the bodyguard of Chaim Weizmann, the founder of Zionism. Nevertheless, many pagan relics are to be found in their oral traditions, particularly the heroic Nart sagas or Nart epics, which are myths of great antiquity with many striking parallels to the mythologies of ancient India, Greece, and Scandinavia. Herein are a host of pagan gods, each dedicated to one simple function, such as the god of cattle, the god of forests, the god of the forge, a female fertility figure, etc. The gods held Olympian banquets, led by their own t’hamata, at which they drank a sacred brew, sana (wine). They conducted war and intrigues. The gods themselves had gods, but these were nameless. Also evident from the folklore is a belief that the universe was self-creating, that the world had no boundary and is made up of nine layers. In the myths are numerous monsters, cyclopean giants, lizard men, demons, giant eagles, and dragons. Heroes are defined by slaying these monsters, by thrusting their weapons into all nine layers of the earth and then by being the only ones capable of extricating them again, and by their prodigious appetites and thirsts. Certain groves and large trees were held to be sacred.

Various individuals were thought to be warlocks or witches, with the power of the evil eye and control over the weather and the well-being of livestock. A woman could not cross a man’s path if she was carrying an empty pail without running the risk of being labeled a witch. There was a belief in ghosts as well, demonic forms that lurked in cemeteries. Eclipses of the sun were thought to be caused by a devil.

Religious Practitioners. Old engravings show that the prince conducted religious ceremonies among the Christian Abadzekh. Today the community elects an imam.

Ceremonies. Some Circassians would shoot arrows at nearby lightning bolts and then look for blood to see if they had made a hit. The Abadzekhs conducted a dance around a tree to the god of thunder, offering sana “(the Peaceful One)”. Abadzekh princes would also sacrifice cattle before the cross. Other rites seem to have been conducted in sacred groves or before a sacred tree. Funerals were accompanied by wailing among the women. The deceased’s clothes were displayed, and, if a man, his weapons were also laid out. Much effort was expended to retrieve for burial in tribal soil the bodies of those killed on raids. Today the usual Muslim holidays and rituals are observed.

Medicine. Traditional medicine was the provenance of the women, who were highly esteemed for their skills and knowledge. Healing and medicinal springs were also prized; They were associated with a warrior princess, Amazan, “the Forest Mother” (the source of the Amazon myth), who was skilled in medicine and from whose blood the first healing spring arose.

Death and the Afterlife. After a life spent largely outdoors, Circassians viewed paradise as a comfortable, well-stocked room. The more virtuous the life led, the bigger and more sumptuous the room of eternity. It was said that the afterlife room of an evil man would be so small that he would not be able to turn over in it. From the Nart sagas, the realm of the dead appears to have been under the grave mound. The souls of the dead were guarded from supernatural depredations by a little old man and woman. Links with the dead were maintained by setting a place for them at the table for one full year after death. Feasts were held in their memory and toasts were offered to them by the t’hamata. A particularly illustrious warrior could serve as the head of a t’lawuzhe (“the successors to a man”) and thereby be remembered by name even if his lineage did not achieve the status of a clan.