Who is the author of the history of the Adyghe people. Circassians or Adyghes, Adyghe ancestors of Ukrainians. Much becomes clear. The main occupations of the Circassians

The Adyghe people belong to the Adyghe peoples. Initially, the Adyghe tribes had many other names: Zikhs, helmets, Kasogs, Circassians, Kerkets and Meots. Also, historical data point to other ethnonyms of the Adyghe people - Dandri, Sind, Doskhi, Agra and others. The Adyghe sign "seedlets" confirms the belonging of the people to the Cossack society.

That is why some call the Circassians Kasogi or Khazars, as a derivative of the word "scythe". Today, many Adyghe people living in the Caucasus preserve ancient customs and grow long braids.

Culture and life of the Adyghe people

In ancient times, the Circassians lived in large family settlements, in which there were more than 100 inhabitants. At the same time, it was possible to meet very small family communities of 10 people. From time immemorial, the head of the family was the father, and at the time of his absence, all duties passed to the eldest son. Women never resolved important issues and did not even have the right to sit at the same table with the stronger sex in order to taste cooked food. At that moment, while men hunted, fought, traded, women cleaned the house, raised children, and cooked food. Young girls from an early age were trained in needlework, housekeeping and other women's duties. Boys were trained in military affairs from an early age.

The dwellings of the Circassians were built from tree branches. In such buildings, the foundation was not used to the point that the house could be quickly built and just as quickly assembled - in wartime this was simply necessary. On the floor in their homes, the Adygs built a hearth, which gave them warmth and food. If guests came to the house, a special room was allocated for them - a kunatsk, and in wealthy communities, entire houses were erected for guests.

The national clothes of the Circassians were very colorful and picturesque. Women wore floor-length dresses and harem dresses. A beautiful belt was knitted at the waist, and the dress itself was decorated with various embroidery. Such a silhouette and style of the dress emphasized the beauty of every woman.

But the men's suit was even more striking. Men wore a beshmet, a cherkeska - a long caftan without sleeves and with a cutout on the chest - a hood, a cloak and a hat. Sockets for cartridges were sewn on the Circassian. Wealthy and powerful Circassians wore white Circassians, and ordinary men wore black ones.

Lamb was the national and favorite dish of the Circassians, and there was practically no bread in the houses. People ate food of their own production - cheese, butter, milk and fruits.

The Adyghe people were famous for their embroidery skills. They beautifully decorated their clothes with golden threads. Many made beautiful goblets from bull horns, decorating them with silver and gold. Warfare was reflected in the craftsmanship of creating saddles for horses, they were very durable and light. Also, the Adyghe people are masters of making ceramic dishes - cups, jugs and plates.

Traditions and customs of the Adyghe people

The traditions of the Circassians are connected with their way of life and the very attitude towards it. It is impossible not to say about the wedding customs of this people. Weddings were played exclusively according to class equality. The young prince could not marry a simple girl - only a princess.

As a rule, the wife was alone, but in some families polygamy was allowed. Both in the female and in the male line there was one rule - the elder should be the first to tie the knot. The groom's friend was looking for the bride, after which, the groom's family paid the bride's family with dowry. Most often, horses, sheep and other animals were used as kalym. If an Adyg entered into a marriage, then this marriage should be eternal. Theft of the bride, or rather kidnapping, was quite common among the Circassians. This custom took place in a rather joking manner, and the whole family knew about the impending abduction.

Another interesting Adyghe custom is atalism. According to this custom, parents could give their minor child to be raised in another family, and he could return to his home only when he reached the age of majority. The main goal of this custom is not education, but a friendly union between families.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(To be continued)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ibid, p. 227-234.

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

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

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archaeological culture Language Religion Racial type Related peoples Origin

Adygs(or Circassians listen)) is the common name of a single people in Russia and abroad, divided into Kabardians, Circassians, Ubykhs, Adyghes and Shapsugs.

Self-name - Adyghe.

Numbers and diasporas

The total number of Adygs in the Russian Federation according to the 2002 census is 712 thousand people, they live on the territory of six subjects: Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, Krasnodar Territory, North Ossetia, Stavropol Territory. In three of them, the Adyghe peoples are one of the "titular" nations, the Circassians in Karachay-Cherkessia, the Adyghes in Adygea, the Kabardians in Kabardino-Balkaria.

Abroad, the largest diaspora of the Circassians is in Turkey, according to some estimates, the Turkish diaspora numbers from 2.5 to 3 million Circassians. The Israeli diaspora of Circassians is 4 thousand people. There are the Syrian diaspora, the Libyan diaspora, the Egyptian diaspora, the Jordanian diaspora of the Circassians, they also live in Europe, the USA and in some other countries of the Middle East, however, the statistics of most of these countries do not give accurate data on their number of Adyghe diasporas. The estimated number of Adygs (Circassians) in Syria is 80 thousand people.

There are some in other CIS countries, in particular, in Kazakhstan.

Modern languages ​​of the Adygs

To date, the Adyghe language has retained two literary dialects, namely Adyghe and Kabardino-Circassian, which are part of the Abkhaz-Adyghe group of the North Caucasian family of languages.

Since the 13th century, all these names have been supplanted by the exoethnonym - Circassians.

Modern ethnonymy

Currently, in addition to the common self-name, in relation to the Adyghe sub-ethnic groups, the following names are used:

• Adyghes, which includes the following sub-ethnonyms: Abadzekhs, Adamians, Besleneys, Bzhedugs, Egerukays, Mamkhegs, Mahoshevs, Temirgoevs (KIemguy), Natukhays, Shapsugs (including Khakuchis), Khatukays, Khegayks, Zhaneevs (Zhane), Guai e, chebsin (Tsopsyne ), adele.

Ethnogenesis

Zikhs - so called in languages: common Greek and Latin, Circassians are called Tatars and Turks, they call themselves - “ adiga».

Story

Main article: History of the Circassians

Fight against the Crimean Khanate

Regular Moscow-Adyghe ties began to be established back in the period of Genoese trade in the Northern Black Sea region, which took place in the cities of Matrega (now Taman), Kopa (now Slavyansk-on-Kuban) and Kaffa (modern Feodosia), etc., in which a significant part of the population were Adygs. At the end of the 15th century, along the Don route, caravans of Russian merchants constantly came to these Genoese cities, where Russian merchants made trade deals not only with the Genoese, but with the highlanders of the North Caucasus who lived in these cities.

Moscow expansion to the south I could not to develop without the support of ethnic groups that considered the basin of the Black and Azov Seas to be their ethnosphere. These were primarily the Cossacks, Don and Zaporozhye, whose religious and cultural tradition - Orthodoxy - brought them closer to the Russians. This rapprochement was carried out when it was beneficial to the Cossacks, especially since the prospect of plundering the Crimean and Ottoman possessions as allies of Moscow met their ethnocentric goals. On the side of the Russians, part of the Nogais, who swore allegiance to the Moscow state, could come forward. But, of course, first of all, the Russians were interested in supporting the most powerful and strong West Caucasian ethnic group, the Adygs.

During the formation of the Moscow principality, the Crimean Khanate delivered the same troubles to the Russians and Adygs. For example, there was the Crimean campaign against Moscow (1521), as a result of which the Khan's troops burned Moscow and captured more than 100 thousand Russians, for sale into slavery. Khan's troops left Moscow only when Tsar Vasily officially confirmed that he was a tributary of the Khan and would continue to pay tribute.

Russian-Adyghe ties were not interrupted. Moreover, they adopted forms of joint military cooperation. So, in 1552, the Circassians, together with the Russians, Cossacks, Mordovians, and others, took part in the capture of Kazan. The participation of the Circassians in this operation is quite natural, given the tendencies that emerged by the middle of the 16th century among some of the Circassians towards rapprochement with the young Russian ethnos, which was actively expanding its ethnosphere.

Therefore, the arrival in Moscow in November 1552 of the first embassy from some Adyghe sub-ethnic groups it was most appropriate for Ivan the Terrible, whose plans were in the direction of the advance of the Russians along the Volga to its mouth, to the Caspian Sea. Alliance with the most powerful ethnic group S.-Z. K. was needed by Moscow in its struggle with the Crimean Khanate.

In total, three embassies from the northwest visited Moscow in the 1550s. K., in 1552, 1555 and 1557. They consisted of representatives of the western Circassians (Zhaneev, Besleneev, etc.), eastern Circassians (Kabardians) and Abaza, who turned to Ivan IV with a request for patronage. They needed patronage primarily to fight the Crimean Khanate. Delegations from S.-Z. K. met with a favorable reception and secured the patronage of the Russian tsar. From now on, they could count on the military and diplomatic assistance of Moscow, and they themselves were obliged to appear at the service of the Grand Duke-Tsar.

Also under Ivan the Terrible, he had the second Crimean campaign against Moscow (1571), as a result of which the Khan's troops defeated the Russian troops and again burned Moscow and captured more than 60 thousand Russians as prisoners (for sale into slavery).

Main article: Crimean campaign against Moscow (1572)

The third Crimean campaign against Moscow in 1572, with the financial and military support of the Ottoman Empire and the Commonwealth, as a result of the Molodinsky battle, ended with the complete physical destruction of the Tatar-Turkish army and the defeat of the Crimean Khanate http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_at_Molodyakh

In the 70s, despite the unsuccessful Astrakhan expedition, the Crimeans and the Ottomans managed to restore their influence in the region. Russians were forced out of it for more than 100 years. True, they continued to consider the West Caucasian highlanders, Circassians and Abaza, their subjects, but this did not change the essence of the matter. The highlanders had no idea about this, just as the Asian nomads did not suspect in their time that China considers them to be its subjects.

The Russians left the North Caucasus, but entrenched themselves in the Volga region.

Caucasian war

Patriotic War

List of Circassians (Circassians) - Heroes of the Soviet Union

The question of the genocide of the Circassians

new time

The official registration of most of the modern Adyghe villages dates back to the 2nd half of the 19th century, that is, after the end of the Caucasian War. To improve the control of the territories, the new authorities were forced to resettle the Circassians, who founded 12 auls in new places, and 5 in the 20s of the XX century.

Religions of the Circassians

culture

Adyghe girl

Adyghe culture is a little-studied phenomenon, the result of a long period of time in the life of the people, during which culture has experienced various internal and external influences, including long-term contacts with the Greeks, Genoese and other peoples, long-term feudal civil strife, wars, mahadzhirstvo, social, political and cultural upheavals. The culture, while changing, has basically survived, and still demonstrates its openness to renewal and development. Doctor of Philosophical Sciences S. A. Razdolsky, define it as “a thousand-year-old worldview socially significant experience of the Adyghe ethnic group”, which has its own empirical knowledge about the world around it and transmits this knowledge at the level of interpersonal communication in the form of the most significant values.

moral code, called Adygage, acts as a cultural core or the main value of the Adyghe culture; it includes humanity, reverence, reason, courage, and honor.

Adyghe etiquette occupies a special place in culture as a system of connections (or a channel of information flows), embodied in a symbolic form, through which the Circassians enter into relations with each other, store and transmit the experience of their culture. Moreover, the Circassians developed etiquette forms of behavior that helped to exist in the mountainous and foothill landscape.

Respectfulness has the status of a separate value, it is the borderline value of moral self-consciousness and, as such, it manifests itself as the essence of genuine self-value.

Folklore

Behind 85 years before, in 1711, Abri de la Motre (French agent of the Swedish King Charles XII) visited the Caucasus, Asia and Africa.

According to his official reports (reports), long before his travels, that is, before 1711, in Circassia they had the skills of mass smallpox inoculation.

Abri de la Motre left a detailed description of the procedure for vaccination among the Adygs in the village of Degliad:

The girl was taken to a little boy of three years old, who was ill with this disease and whose pockmarks and pimples were beginning to fester. The old woman performed the operation, as the oldest members of this sex are reputed to be the most intelligent and knowledgeable, and they practice medicine as the oldest of the other sex practice the priesthood. This woman took three needles tied together, with which she, firstly, made a prick under the spoon of a little girl, secondly in the left breast against the heart, thirdly, in the navel, fourthly, in the right palm, fifthly, into the ankle of the left leg, until blood flowed, with which she mixed the pus extracted from the pockmarks of the patient. Then she applied dry leaves of the barn to the pricked and bleeding places, tying two skins of newborn lambs to the drill, after which the mother wrapped her in one of the leather covers that make up, as I said above, the bed of the Circassians, and thus wrapped she took her to yourself. I was told that she was to be kept warm, fed only porridge made from caraway flour, with two thirds of water and one third of sheep's milk, she was not allowed to drink anything but a refreshing decoction made from ox's tongue (Plant), a little licorice and a barn (Plant), three things not uncommon in the country.

Traditional surgery and bonesetting

About Caucasian surgeons and chiropractors, N. I. Pirogov wrote in 1849:

“Asian doctors in the Caucasus cured absolutely such external injuries (mainly the consequences of gunshot wounds), which, in the opinion of our doctors, required the removal of members (amputation), this is a fact confirmed by many observations; it is known throughout the Caucasus that the removal of limbs, the cutting out of crushed bones, is never undertaken by Asian doctors; of the bloody operations performed by them to treat external injuries, only the cutting of bullets is known.

Crafts of the Circassians

Blacksmithing among the Circassians

Professor, doctor of historical sciences, Gadlo A. V., about the history of the Adygs in the 1st millennium AD. e. wrote -

Adyghe blacksmiths in the early Middle Ages, apparently, had not yet broken their ties with the community and had not separated from it, however, within the community they already constituted a separate professional group, ... Blacksmithing during this period was mainly focused on meeting the economic needs of the community ( plowshares, scythes, sickles, axes, knives, overhead chains, skewers, sheep shears, etc.) and its military organization (horse equipment - bits, stirrups, horseshoes, girth buckles; offensive weapons - spears, battle axes, swords, daggers, arrowheads, defensive weapons - helmets, chain mail, shield parts, etc.). What was the raw material base of this production, it is still difficult to determine, but, not excluding the presence of our own smelting of metal from local ores, we will point out two iron ore regions, from where metallurgical raw materials (semi-finished products - kritsy) could also come to Adyghe blacksmiths. This is, firstly, the Kerch Peninsula and, secondly, the upper reaches of the Kuban, Zelenchukov and Urup, where clear traces of ancient raw iron smelting.

Jewelery among the Adyghes

“Adyghe jewelers possessed the skills of casting non-ferrous metals, soldering, stamping, making wire, engraving, etc. Unlike blacksmithing, their production did not require bulky equipment and large, hard-to-transport stocks of raw materials. As shown by the burial of a jeweler in a burial ground on the river. Durso, metallurgists-jewelers could use not only ingots obtained from ore, but also scrap metal as raw materials. Together with their tools and raw materials, they freely moved from village to village, more and more detached from their community and turning into migrant artisans.

gunsmithing

Blacksmiths are very numerous in the country. They are almost everywhere gunsmiths and silversmiths, and are very skillful in their profession. It is almost incomprehensible how they, with their few and insufficient tools, can make excellent weapons. The gold and silver ornaments, which are admired by European weapon lovers, are made with great patience and labor with meager tools. Gunsmiths are highly respected and well paid, rarely in cash, of course, but almost always in kind. A large number of families are exclusively engaged in the manufacture of gunpowder and receive a significant profit from this. Gunpowder is the most expensive and most necessary commodity, without which no one here can do without. Gunpowder is not particularly good and inferior even to ordinary cannon powder. It is made in a rough and primitive way, therefore, of low quality. There is no shortage of saltpeter, as saltpeter plants grow in great numbers in the country; on the contrary, there is little sulfur, which is mostly obtained from outside (from Turkey).

Agriculture among the Circassians, in the 1st millennium AD

The materials obtained during the study of the Adyghe settlements and burial grounds of the second half of the 1st millennium characterize the Adyghes as settled farmers who have not lost their coming from Meotian times plow farming skills. The main agricultural crops cultivated by the Circassians were soft wheat, barley, millet, rye, oats, industrial crops - hemp and, possibly, flax. Numerous grain pits - repositories of the early medieval era - cut through the strata of early cultural strata in the settlements of the Kuban region, and large red clay pithoi - vessels intended mainly for storing grain, constitute the main type of ceramic products that existed in the settlements of the Black Sea coast. Almost at all settlements there are fragments of round rotary millstones or whole millstones used for crushing and grinding grain. Fragments of stone stupas-croupers and pestle-pushers were found. Finds of sickles are known (Sopino, Durso), which could be used both for harvesting grain and for mowing fodder grasses for livestock.

Animal husbandry among the Circassians, in the 1st millennium AD

Undoubtedly, cattle breeding also played a prominent role in the economy of the Circassians. The Circassians bred cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. The burials of war horses or parts of horse equipment repeatedly found in the burial grounds of this era indicate that horse breeding was the most important branch of their economy. The struggle for herds of cattle, herds of horses and fat lowland pastures is a constant motif of heroic deeds in the Adyghe folklore.

Animal husbandry in the 19th century

Theophilus Lapinsky, who visited the lands of the Adyghes in 1857, wrote the following in his work “The Mountaineers of the Caucasus and their liberation struggle against the Russians”:

Goats are numerically the most common domestic animal in the country. The milk and meat of the goats, owing to the excellent pastures, are very good; goat meat, which in some countries is considered almost inedible, is tastier here than lamb. The Circassians keep numerous herds of goats, many families have several thousand of them, and it can be considered that there are more than one and a half million of these useful animals in the country. The goat is only under the roof in winter, but even then it is driven out into the forest during the day and finds some food for itself in the snow. Buffaloes and cows are plentiful in the eastern plains of the country, donkeys and mules are found only in the southern mountains. Pigs used to be kept in large numbers, but since the introduction of Mohammedanism, the pig as a pet has disappeared. Of the birds they keep chickens, ducks and geese, especially turkeys are bred a lot, but the Adyg very rarely takes the trouble to take care of poultry, which feeds and breeds at random.

horse breeding

In the 19th century, about the horse breeding of the Circassians (Kabardians, Circassians), Senator Philipson, Grigory Ivanovich reported:

The highlanders of the western half of the Caucasus then had famous horse factories: Sholok, Tram, Yeseni, Loo, Bechkan. The horses did not have all the beauty of pure breeds, but they were extremely hardy, faithful in their legs, they were never forged, because their hooves, according to the Cossacks, were as strong as bone. Some horses, like their riders, had great fame in the mountains. So for example the white horse of the plant Tram was almost as famous among the highlanders as his master Mohammed-Ash-Atadzhukin, a fugitive Kabardian and a famous predator.

Theophilus Lapinsky, who visited the lands of the Adyghes in 1857, wrote the following in his work “The Highlanders of the Caucasus and their liberation struggle against the Russians”:

Previously, there were many herds of horses owned by wealthy residents in the Laba and Malaya Kuban, now there are few families that have more than 12 - 15 horses. But on the other hand, there are few who do not have horses at all. In general, we can assume that on average there are 4 horses per household, which will amount to about 200,000 heads for the whole country. On the plains, the number of horses is twice as large as in the mountains.

Dwellings and settlements of the Circassians in the 1st millennium AD

The intensive settlement of the indigenous Adyghe territory throughout the second half of the 1st millennium is evidenced by numerous settlements, settlements and burial grounds found both on the coast and in the plain-foothill part of the Trans-Kuban region. The Adygs who lived on the coast, as a rule, settled in unfortified settlements located on elevated plateaus and mountain slopes far from the coast in the upper reaches of rivers and streams flowing into the sea. The trading settlements that arose in the ancient period on the seashore in the early Middle Ages did not lose their significance, and some of them even turned into cities protected by fortresses (for example, Nikopsis at the mouth of the Nechepsuho River near the village of Novo-Mikhailovsky). The Adygs who lived in the Trans-Kuban region, as a rule, settled on elevated capes hanging over the floodplain valley, at the mouths of rivers flowing into the Kuban from the south or at the mouths of their tributaries. Until the beginning of the 8th century fortified settlements prevailed here, consisting of a citadel-fortification fenced with a moat and a settlement adjoining it, sometimes also fenced with a moat from the floor side. Most of these settlements were located on the sites of old Meotian settlements abandoned in the 3rd or 4th century. (for example, near the village of Krasny, near the villages of Gatlukay, Tahtamukay, Novo-Vochepshiy, near the farm. Yastrebovsky, near the village of Krasny, etc.). At the beginning of the 8th century the Kuban Adygs also begin to settle in unfortified open settlements, similar to the settlements of the Adygs of the coast.

The main occupations of the Circassians

Theophilus Lapinsky, in 1857, wrote the following:

The predominant occupation of the Adyghe is agriculture, which gives him and his family a means of subsistence. Agricultural tools are still in a primitive state and, since iron is rare, very expensive. The plow is heavy and clumsy, but this is not only a peculiarity of the Caucasus; I remember seeing equally clumsy agricultural implements in Silesia, which, however, belongs to the German Confederation; six to eight bulls are harnessed to the plow. The harrow is replaced by several bundles of strong thorns, which somehow serve the same purpose. Their axes and hoes are pretty good. On the plains and on the less high mountains, large two-wheeled carts are used to transport hay and grain. In such a cart you will not find a nail or a piece of iron, but nevertheless they hold on for a long time and can carry from eight to ten centners. On the plains, a cart is for every two families, in the mountainous part - for every five families; it is no longer found in the high mountains. In all teams only bulls are used, but not horses.

Adyghe literature, languages ​​and writing

The modern Adyghe language belongs to the Caucasian languages ​​of the western group of the Abkhaz-Adyghe subgroup, Russian - to the Indo-European languages ​​of the Slavic group of the eastern subgroup. Despite the different language systems, the influence of Russian on Adyghe is manifested in a fairly large amount of borrowed vocabulary.

• 1855 - Adyghe (Abadzekh) educator, linguist, scientist, writer, poet - fabulist, Bersey Umar Khapkhalovich - made a significant contribution to the development of Adyghe literature and writing, compiling and publishing in March 14, 1855 the first Primer of the Circassian language(in Arabic script), this day is considered the "Birthday of modern Adyghe writing" served as an impetus for Adyghe enlightenment.

• 1918 - the year of the creation of the Adyghe alphabet based on Arabic graphics.
• 1927 - Adyghe writing was translated into Latin.
• 1938 - Adyghe writing was translated into Cyrillic.

Main article: Kabardino-Circassian writing

Links

see also

Notes

1. Maksidov A. A.
2. Turkiyedeki Kurtlerin SayIsI! (Turkish) Milliyet(June 6, 2008). Retrieved June 7, 2008.
3. National composition of the population // Population census of Russia 2002
4. Israeli site IzRus
5. Independent English Studies
6. Russian Caucasus. A book for politicians / Ed. V. A. Tishkova. - M.: FGNU "Rosinformagrotech", 2007. p. 241
7. A. A. Kamrakov. Features of the development of the Circassian diaspora in the Middle East // Publishing House "Medina".
8. st.st. Adygs, Meots in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia
9. Skylak of Karyanda. Perippus of the inhabited sea. Translation and comments by F.V. Shelova-Kovedyaeva // Bulletin of Ancient History. 1988. No. 1. P. 262; No. 2. S. 260-261)
10. J. Interiano. Life and country of Zikhs, called Circassians. Remarkable Narrative
11. K. Yu. Nebezhev ADYGEZAN-GENOA PRINCE ZAHARIA DE GIZOLFI-OWNER OF THE CITY OF MATREGA IN THE 15TH CENTURY
12. Vladimir Gudakov. Russian way to the South (myths and reality
13. Hrono.ru
14. DECISION of the Supreme Council of the KBSSR dated 07.02.1992 N 977-XII-B "ON THE CONDEMNATION OF THE GENOCIDE OF THE ADYGES (CHERKESIANS) IN THE YEARS OF THE RUSSIAN-CAUCASUS WAR (rus.), RUSOUTH.info.
15. Diana b-Dadasheva. Adygs seek recognition of their genocide (Russian), Newspaper "Kommersant" (13.10.2006).

Look at the appearance of ancient Ukrainians and the subsection "Atamans of Kosh"
and all doubts about the origin of Ukrainians not from the white race will immediately disappear. Look at the vast majority of them

Ukrainians got all their attractive appearance from mixing with Russians.

COSSACKS AND Circassians: SEARCH FOR COMMON ROOTS

"Cherkasy are long-time residents of the Caucasus. Cherkasy appear in the history of Ukraine for the first time in 985, i.e. 20 years after the destruction of the Khazar state, which included Kasogs.
During the time of Vladimir Monomakh (about 1121), new crowds of Cherkasy settled on the Dnieper, driven by the Komans from the Don, where they "cossacked" along with the rabble of many other tribes. They served our princes for money in their civil strife. Then they Russified, adopted the Christian faith and became known under the name of the Cossacks, first Ukrainian, and then Zaporozhye.

A special speech is about the Cherkasy - the descendants of the Yas-Bulgars and the Turkic ancestors of the Zaporizhzhya and Don Cossacks. Cherkasy adopted Orthodoxy and became Slavic, but back in the 17th century. they distinguished themselves from Ukrainians and Russians. Here are just two of the many testimonies. In 1654, the hetman's envoy to the words of the Crimean Khan: “How ... your hetman and all you Cherkasy forgot my friendship and advice?” - replies: “What ... is your royal friendship and advice? You came ... to us, Cherkassy, ​​to help against the Polish king, and you ... only profited from Polish and ... Cherkasy polonyans, hired yourself full with your military people and became rich ... Cherkasy did not inflict any help ” . . Or here is another appeal of the Crimean Khan: "And now ... those Cossacks, Cherkasy." the Don and Black Sea Bulgars-Yases found themselves in the field of influence of two ethnonospheres - Russian and Volga-Bulgarian, which led to a split in their own Bulgaro-Yassky ethnonoosphere. One part of them became Slavic and became part of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples, while the other part reunited with their relatives, the Volga Bulgars.
"In 1282, Baskak Tatarsky, from the Kursk principality, having called Circassians from Beshtau (Pyatigorye), inhabited the settlement with them under the name of Cossacks. But they committed robberies and robberies, until finally, Oleg, Prince of Kursk, by permission of the Khan, ruined their homes ", beat many of them, and the rest fled. These latter, copulating with Russian fugitives, repaired robberies for a long time. Their crowded gang went to the city of Kanev to Baskak, who appointed them a place of stay down the Dnieper. Here they built a town for themselves and called its Cherkassk-on-Dnieper, due to the fact that most of them were the Cherkasy breed, constituting a robber republic, which later became famous under the name of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks ... ". S. Bronevsky emphasizes this idea once again: “In the 13th century, the Circassians captured Kerch in the Crimea, made frequent raids, both on this peninsula and in other European countries. These gangs of Cossacks originated from them (that is, the Circassians).

Facts and only facts!

Let's start with linguistics!

The Ukrainian HATA (Turkic word) is built from adobe (a mixture of clay, manure and straw) (also a Turkic word), this alone shows where this technology was taken from.
How is the house enclosed? That's right, TYNOM (this is also a Turkic word)
How do they decorate the HOUSE surrounded by TYN? Correctly KYLYM (also a Turkic word).
What do Ukrainians wear? men? That's right, Turkic trousers, Turkic wide belts and hats.
Ukr. women wear PLAKHTA (also Turkism) and Turkic NAMYSTO.
What kind of army do Ukrainians have? Correct KOZAKI (also Turkism), what do they look like?
Just like the Pecheneg Turks, (which, by the way, Svyatoslav copied in his appearance), later the Polovtsians and Circassians looked the same: a tuft of hair not shaved at the back of the head, a sign of belonging to the Turkic military class, a Turkic earring in the ear (meaning what kind of son you are in family, if the only one, they took care of you), in the mouth LYULKA (Turkism) stuffed with TYUTYUN (Turkism) in the hands of BANDUR (Turkism). In what military units are the Cossacks?
In KOSHAH (Turkism). Their symbol is BUNCHUK (Turkism).
The Ukrainian HAY "let" (for example, hi live independent Ukraine) is related to the Kabardian khei "want".
GAYDAMAK - right-bank gangs of robbers, FROM TURKISH GAYDE-MAK - TO CONFUSE.
kurkul, kavun, kosh, kilim, bull, maidan, cauldron, kobza, kozak, leleka, nenka, hamanets, axe, ataman, bunchuk, chumak, kokhana, kut, domra, tyn, kat, hut, farm, nenka, tattoo, ruh, surma and richly something else - - all these are TURKIC WORDS!!!
THERE ARE MORE THAN 4000 TURKIC WORDS IN UKRAINIAN MOV!!!

Ukrainian surnames

The ending - KO has the meaning of “son” (kyo) in the Adyghe language, that is, in Ukraine, surnames were formed in the same way as in Russia, only in Russia “SON OF PETROV”, and the son remained simply Petrov (just like in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic , Slovakia), then in Ukraine they said: whose son is Petren's son, i.e. Petren-KO (in Turkic, Adyghe Son of Peter), etc., the same Turkic roots have surnames in -UK, -UK, (Turkic Gayuk , Tayuk, Kuchuk) Ukrainian Kravchuk, Mykolaichuk, etc.

In addition, a number of Ukrainian surnames remained absolutely Turkic Buchma, Kuchma (in Turkic it is a high pointed hat)!!!

Such a common Ukrainian surname as Shevchenko is of Adyghe origin, this surname appeared just at the time when the Kasogov and Cherkes tribes appeared in the Dnieper Cherkasy (hence the city of Cherkasy). It goes back to the word "sheudzhen", which the Circassians used to designate their Christian priests. Under the pressure of Islam, the Sheudzhens emigrated with part of the Circassians to Ukraine. Their descendants were naturally called "Shevdzhenko", "Shevchenko", it is known that in Adyghe "KO" means a descendant, a son. Another very common surname Shevchuk goes back to the Adyghe surname Shevtsuk. Mazepa is a Circassian surname, in the same form it exists in the Caucasus.

Compare these Adyghe and Tatar surnames with Ukrainian ones:
Kulko, Gerko, Zanko, Hadjiko, Kushko, Beshuko, Heishko, Shafiko, Nathko, Bahuko, Karahuko, Khazhuko, Koshroko, Kanuko, Hatko (c) (Hatk'o, "son of Hyat")
Maremuko - lit.: "son of holy Friday."
Tkheschoko - "son of God".
The famous Kabardian (Circassian) prince - Kemryuk.
Anchuk, Shevtsuk, Tatruk, Anshuk, Tleptseruk, the famous surname Khakmuchuk, Gonezhuk, Mashuk, Shamray, Shakhray.
Tatar khans - Tyuzlyuk, Kuchuk, Payuk, Kutlyuk, Konezhuk, Tayuk, Barkuk, Yukuk, Buyuruk.
Who is the Nobel Prize winner??? - Turk Orhan Pamuk. Almost our Kuzmuk.

There are many already Russified surnames, i.e. with the addition of -ov, for example:
Abroko - Abrokovs., Berokyo - Borokovs. Eguynokyo - Egunokov.

Now to Ukrainian toponymy

What do the "typically Slavic" names of settlements in central and western Ukraine mean??? KAGARLYK, DYMER, BUCHA, UZIN - (Kiev region), UMAN, KORSUN, KUT, CHIGIRIN, CHERKASY - (Cherkasy region), BUCHACH - (Ternopil region), TURKA, SAMBOR, BUSK - (Lviv region), BAKHMACH, ICHNYA - (Chernihiv region), BURSHTYN, KUTY, KALUSH - (Ivano-Frank. Oyul.), KhUST - (Carpathian region), TURIYSK - (Volyn region), AKHTYRKA, BURYN - (Sumy region), ROMODAN - (Poltava region, the names of the villages Abazivka, Obezivka in the Poltava region, come from the Circassian nickname Abaza), KODYMA, GAYSAN - (Vinnitsa region), SAVRAN - (Kirovograd region), IZMAIL, TATARBUNARY, ARTSIZ and a huge number? In Russia, there are also Turkic names of settlements, but the Russians settled foreign lands in the Urals, Siberia, and the North, and naturally left other people's already existing names.
What does it all say???
And he says that Kiev, having fallen into disrepair already in the 12th century, when the center of Russian life moves north along with the population of Russia, fleeing from the nomadic steppe for the forests, a new process of ethnogenesis begins on the territory of southern Russia, the remnants of the glades and northerners are mixed with numerous Turkic already semi-sedentary tribes - the remnants of the Pechenegs, Polovtsians, Torks, Berendeys. Later, Tatars and Nogai are added to this melting pot. A mixed Slavic-Turkic ethnic group arises, called the "Tatar people", and later called the Ukrainians.

Russians are closer to long-faced Caucasians, and Ukrainians are closer to Central Asian chubby Turks - this is known.

They were also engaged in fishing and hunting. Local handicraft production, primarily ceramics, developed. Trade relations were maintained with the countries of the Ancient East and the ancient world. The main population of the Kuban and Azov regions in the first millennium BC. e. was in the stage of decomposition of the primitive communal system, but the Meotian tribes did not reach the formation of the state. Significantly higher was the level of development among the tribes of the Sinds, who already in ancient times experienced the process of the formation of class relations. The offensive policy of the slave-owning Bosporan kingdom led in the 4th century. BC e. to the loss of independence by the Sinds and their subordination to the Bosporus. In the first centuries A.D. e. the largest tribe that occupied a significant territory of the Black Sea coast were the Zikhs.

In III-X centuries. ancient tribal names in the Northwestern Caucasus are gradually disappearing. Already in n. e. Circassians become known under the name "Zikhi". The process of formation of the Adyghe people was complicated by numerous ethnic mixtures and external cultural influences. In ancient times, the Scythians played a well-known role in the formation of the Adyghe people, and in the early Middle Ages, the Alans. The invasion of the Huns, who defeated the Bosporus, delayed the development of the Kuban tribes.

During the VI-X centuries. Byzantium spreads its political influence on the Circassians and spreads Christianity among them. The Circassians entered into early communication with the Slavs.

In the 10th century, the Circassians occupied vast territories from the Taman Peninsula in the west to Abkhazia in the south. It was at this time that they enter into trade and economic relations with Russia through Tmutarakan. It was the closest and most important shopping center. However, these ties were broken at the beginning of the 13th century. Tatar-Mongolian invasion. The Adygs became part of the Golden Horde, although they did not completely obey it, they fought stubborn resistance against the Tatar conquerors.

In Russian chronicles they are known as "kosogov". The Circassians were in the squad of the Chernigov-Tmutarakan prince Mstislav and took part in campaigns (XI century). In the early Middle Ages, the Circassians and Abkhazians even had their own episcopal sees and dioceses. In the spread of Christianity among the Circassians, in addition to Tmutarakan, Georgia also played a significant role. As a result of the fall of Byzantium and the Georgian feudal kingdom of the Bagratids, as a result of the expansionist policy of Turkey and its vassal of the Crimean Khanate, Christianity in the Western Caucasus fell into complete decline. Tatar-Mongol invasion in the XIII century. slowed down the formation of the Adyghe people. Beginning around the thirteenth century. by the 14th century the Circassians are in the process of establishing early feudal relations. Among a number of Adyghe tribes, the princely elite "pshi" stood out, which sought to turn free peasants into dependence. From the 14th century in the Russian chronicles, the name of the Circassians "Cherkasy" borrowed, apparently through the Tatars from the Georgians, appears, later taking the form "Circassians". This word probably comes from the name of one of the ancient tribes - Kerkets.

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The exhausting centuries-old struggle with the Golden Horde, and later with the Crimean Khanate and Turkey, had a heavy impact on the economic and cultural development of the Circassians. From historical sources, legends, songs, it is clear that the Turkish sultan and the Crimean khans waged an aggressive war against the Circassians for more than two centuries. As a result of this war, some tribes, such as the Khagaks, were completely exterminated, while others, such as the Tapsevs, constituted only an insignificant tribe among the Shapsugs.

A new stage in the relations between the Circassians and Russia begins in the middle of the 16th century. during the time of Ivan the Terrible, during the period when the Russian centralized state was taking shape. Some Adyghe tribes have repeatedly turned to Moscow for support against the Crimean khans. At the end of the XVIII century. The Crimean Khanate was destroyed. On the right bank of the middle course of the Kuban River, Cossacks, immigrants from the Don, settled. In 1791 - 1793. the right bank of the lower reaches of the Kuban River was occupied by people from Zaporozhye, who received the name of the Black Sea Cossacks. The Russian-Ukrainian population turned out to be a direct neighbor of the Circassians. The Russian cultural influence on the Circassians in the field of economy and life has greatly increased.

In the XVI century. and the first half of the 19th century. Adygea was a country with a semi-feudal, semi-patriarchal way of life. The economic structure of society was already determined by the dominance of feudal relations. These relations did not lead to the unification of the disparate Adyghe lands into a single state entity, but they contributed to the development of external relations, the rise of the domestic economy, especially agriculture. Its leading branch was animal husbandry of the meat and dairy direction. As before, field farming occupied the second place after animal husbandry among the Adygs. The most ancient grain crops of the Circassians were millet and barley.

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Attaching great importance to Russian-Adyghe relations in the interests of strengthening the southern borders of the Russian state, Ivan IV in 1561 married the daughter of the Kabardian prince Temryuk Idarov Kuchenya. In Moscow, she was baptized and became the Russian Empress Maria. Repeatedly, through diplomatic and military measures, Russia provided assistance to the Adygs in the fight against enemies.

In the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries Circassians were the main population of two territorial-political formations of the Caucasus - Circassia and Kabarda. Circassia covered a vast expanse of land from the northwestern tip of the Main Caucasian Range to the middle reaches of the Urup River. In the north, the border ran along the Kuban River from its mouth to its confluence with the Laba River. The southwestern border of Circassia stretches along the Black Sea coast from Tamanidoreka Shah. Kabarda in the first half of the 19th century It was located in the Terek River basin, approximately from the Malka River in the west and northwest to the Sunzha River in the east, and was divided into Bolshaya and Malaya. In the 18th century, its borders reached the upper reaches of the river in the west. Kuban.

The Circassians at that time were divided into a number of ethnic groups, the largest of which were the Shapsugs, Abadzekhs, Natukhais, Temirgoevs, Bzhedugs, Kabardians, Besleneys, Khatukais, Makhoshevs, Egerukhais and Zheneevs. The total number of Circassians reached 700-750 thousand people. Agriculture and animal husbandry remained the leading sectors of the Circassian economy. The ratio of their specific gravity was determined by both geographical and soil-climatic conditions.

Since 1717, the Islamization of the mountaineers of the Caucasus was elevated to the rank of the state policy of the Ottoman Empire, carried out by Davlet-Girs and Kyzy-Girey. The penetration of the new religion into the environment of the Circassians was associated with considerable difficulties. Only at the end of the XVIII century. Islam has taken deep roots in the North Caucasus. In 1735, at the direction of the Sultan, the Crimean army again invaded Kabarda, which marked the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war. The peace treaty, signed by Russia and the Ottoman Empire in Iasi at the end of 1791, confirmed the terms of the Kuchuk-Kaynarji treaty.

Crimea and Kabarda were recognized as possessions of Russia. In the 30s. 19th century Tsarist Russia began to create military posts on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, which in 1839 were combined into a coastline. The Black Sea coastline brought terrible disasters to the Circassians. In October 1853, the Crimean War began, in which Russia was opposed by England, France, the Ottoman Empire and Sardinia. The eviction of the highlanders to the Ottoman Empire is the last page of the annals of the Caucasian War. Hundreds of thousands of highlanders who became victims of the cold political calculation of tsarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire left their homeland. In May 1864, the last centers of mountaineer resistance on the Black Sea coast were liquidated. The bloody war is over. The Caucasian war cost the highlanders tens of thousands of dead, hundreds of thousands excommunicated from their homeland.

In 1864, the Trans-Kuban Circassians were included in the administrative and political system of the Russian Empire.

The path to the proclamation of the Republic of Adygea as part of the Russian Federation was difficult and difficult. On April 8, 1920, a special section for Muslim affairs was created under the subdivision for national affairs of the department of the Administration of the Kuban Region. The section was faced with the task of mediating between the authorities and the population, carrying out explanatory work among the mountain population, in particular, among the highlanders-Circassians of the Maikop, Yekaterinodar, Batalpashinsky departments and the Tuapse district, where more than 100 thousand people of the indigenous population lived. On July 21, 1920, the Military Council of the IX Red Army and the Kuban-Chernomorsky Revolutionary Committee issued an order to form a temporary mountain section under the board of the Kubcherrevkom, which carried out a lot of organizational work to convene the first congress of the highlanders of the Kuban and the Black Sea. At this congress, the Gorsky executive committee was created from representatives of the working Adygs of the Kuban and the Black Sea region, with rights equal to the provincial executive committees to manage the mountain population with its subordination horizontally to the regional executive committee and vertically to the People's Commissariat of Nationalities. The III Mountain Congress (December 7-12) in Krasnodar decided to create the Mountain District Executive Committee of the Kuban and the Black Sea and instructed it to develop the issue of allocating the highlanders of the Kuban and the Black Sea to an autonomous region. On July 27, 1922, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a resolution on the formation of the Circassian (Adyghe) Autonomous Region. On August 24, 1922, it was then renamed the Adygei (Cherkess) Autonomous Region. Since that time, the Kuban Circassians began to be officially called Adyghe.

The proclamation of the autonomy of Adygea made it possible for the Adyghe people to create their own national-state formation, to exercise their right to national self-determination, contributed to the strengthening of economic and political ties with more economically developed regions of the country, and developed the economic and cultural life of the people.

December 7-10, 1922 in a. Khakurinokhabl held the 1st Regional Congress of Soviets of Adygea, where he was elected the executive committee of the Adygea (Cherkess) Autonomous Region. Shahan-Girey Hakurate became its chairman.

At the request of this congress, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR in May 1923 approved the conclusion of the commission on the establishment of the boundaries of the Adygei Autonomous Region. Thus, according to this conclusion, the Adyghe region was divided into two districts: Psekunsky and Farsky. Since then, the boundaries of the region have changed several times. In 1924, five districts were created as part of Adygea. The regional center was Krasnodar. On April 10, 1936, by the Decree of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Maykop became the center of the Adygei Autonomous Region. According to the same decree, the Giaginsky district and the Khansky village council were included in Adygea. However, according to the Constitution of the RSFSR, the Adygei Autonomous Region, like other such national-autonomous entities, was part of the region (in this case ~ Krasnodar).

On July 3, 1991, at a joint meeting of the Russian Parliament, a law was adopted on the transformation of the Adygei Autonomous Region into a republic that is part of the RSFSR.

In the current socio-political and economic situation, the increase in the state-legal status of the Adyghe Autonomous Region contributes to the realization of not only the national needs of the people whose name is associated with the creation of autonomy, but also the economic and cultural potential of the republic for the benefit of all peoples living on its territory. Life has shown that the region cannot develop further without having independent vital management structures. This became especially felt in the conditions of transition to market relations.

Thus, the Republic of Adygea today is one of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, that is, it voluntarily became part of the Russian Federation on the basis of the signing of the Federative Treaty. According to Article 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of Adygea, the sovereignty of the republic extends to its entire territory. It has all the fullness of state power, except for the rights it voluntarily delegates to Russia on the basis of concluded agreements. Adygea became a republic (within the Russian Federation) in 1991. The President of the Republic, the State Council - Khase were elected, the Cabinet of Ministers was formed. The first President of the Republic - Aslan Alievich Dzharimov.