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Adygs(or Circassians listen)) - the general name of a single people in Russia and abroad, divided into Kabardins, Circassians, Ubykhs, Adygeis and Shapsugs.
Self-name - Adyghe.
The total number of Circassians in the Russian Federation according to the 2002 census is 712 thousand people, they live in 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 Adyghe people in Adygea, the Kabardians in Kabardino-Balkaria.
Abroad, the largest diaspora of Circassians is in Turkey; according to some estimates, the Turkish diaspora numbers from 2.5 to 3 million Circassians. The Israeli Circassian diaspora numbers 4 thousand people. There is a Syrian diaspora, Libyan diaspora, Egyptian diaspora, Jordanian Adyghe diaspora, they also live in Europe, the USA and some other countries in the Middle East, but the statistics of most of these countries do not provide accurate data on the number of Adyghe diasporas. The estimated number of Circassians (Circassians) in Syria is 80 thousand people.
There are some in other CIS countries, in particular in Kazakhstan.
At present, 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Since the 13th century, all these names have been replaced by an exoethnonym - Circassians.
Currently, in addition to the common self-name, the following names are used in relation to the Adyghe subethnic groups:
Zikhi - so called in the languages: common Greek and Latin, while the Circassians are called Tatars and Turks, call themselves - “ adiga».
Main article: History of the Circassians
Regular Moscow-Adyghe connections began to be established during 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 significant part of the population were Circassians. At the end of the 15th century, caravans of Russian merchants constantly came along the Don Road to these Genoese cities, where Russian merchants made trade deals not only with the Genoese, but with the mountaineers of the North Caucasus who lived in these cities.
Moscow expansion to the south I could not develop without the support of ethnic groups that considered the basin of the Black and Azov Seas to be their ethnosphere. These were primarily 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 Moscow's allies suited their ethnocentric goals. Some of the Nogais who swore allegiance to the Moscow state could take the side of the Russians. But, of course, first of all, the Russians were interested in supporting the most powerful and powerful Western Caucasian ethnic group, the Circassians.
During the formation of the Moscow principality, the Crimean Khanate caused the Russians and Circassians the same troubles. For example, there was a Crimean campaign against Moscow (1521), as a result of which the khan’s troops burned Moscow and captured more than 100 thousand Russians to be sold into slavery. The 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 subethnic groups It could not have been more opportune for Ivan the Terrible, whose plans were in the direction of the Russians advancing along the Volga to its mouth, to the Caspian Sea. Union with the most powerful ethnic group N.-W. Moscow needed K. in its fight against the Crimean Khanate.
In total, in the 1550s, three embassies from the North-West visited Moscow. K., in 1552, 1555 and 1557. They consisted of representatives of the Western Circassians (Zhaneevtsev, Besleneevtsy, etc.), eastern Circassians (Kabardians) and Abazinians, who turned to Ivan IV with a request for patronage. They needed patronage primarily to fight the Crimean Khanate. Delegations from North-West K. met with a favorable reception and secured the patronage of the Russian Tsar. From now on, they could count on military and diplomatic assistance from Moscow, and they themselves were obliged to appear in the service of the Grand Duke-Tsar.
Also, under Ivan the Terrible, he had a 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 (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 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as a result of the Battle of Molodin, ended in the complete physical destruction of the Tatar-Turkish army and the defeat of the Crimean Khanate http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Molody
In the 70s, despite the unsuccessful Astrakhan expedition, the Crimeans and 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 Western Caucasian highlanders, the Circassians and Abazins, their subjects, but this did not change the essence of the matter. The mountaineers had no idea about this, just as at one time the Asian nomads had no idea that China considered them its subjects.
The Russians left the North Caucasus, but gained a foothold in the Volga region.
List of Circassians (Circassians) - Heroes of the Soviet Union
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 control of the territories, the new authorities were forced to resettle the Circassians, who founded 12 auls in new places, and in the 20s of the 20th century - 5.
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 the culture experienced various internal and external influences, including long-term contacts with the Greeks, Genoese and other peoples, long-term feudal feuds, wars, Mukhadzhirism, social, political and cultural shocks. The culture, while changing, is still fundamentally preserved, and still demonstrates its openness to renewal and development. Doctor of Philosophy S. A. Razdolsky defines it as “a thousand-year worldview of socially significant experience of the Adyghe ethnic group,” having its own empirical knowledge about the world around us and transmitting this knowledge at the level of interpersonal communication in the form of the most significant values.
The moral code, called Adygag'e, acts as the cultural core or main value of the Adyghe culture; it includes humanity, respect, reason, courage and honor.
Adyghe etiquette occupies a special place in culture as a system of connections (or channel of information flows), embodied in a symbolic form, through which the Circassians enter into relationships with each other, store and transmit the experience of their culture. Moreover, the Circassians developed etiquette forms of behavior that helped them exist in the mountain and foothill landscapes.
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 true self-worth.
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 communications (reports), long before his travels, that is, before 1711, Circassia had the skills to mass inoculate smallpox.
Abri de la Motray left a detailed description of the smallpox vaccination procedure among the Circassians in the village of Degliad:
The girl was referred to a little boy of three years old who was sick with this disease and whose pockmarks and pimples began to fester. The old woman performed the operation, since the oldest members of this sex have a reputation for being 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, injected the little girl in the stomach, 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 began to flow, with which she mixed pus extracted from the patient’s pockmarks. Then she applied dry leaves of the cowshed to the pricked and bleeding places, tying two skins of newborn lambs with a drill, after which the mother wrapped her in one of the leather blankets that, as I said above, make up the Circassian bed, and thus wrapped she took her to to yourself. I was told that she was to be kept warm, fed only porridge made from cumin flour, with two-thirds water and one-third sheep's milk, given nothing to drink except a cool infusion made from ox tongue (Plant), a little licorice and cowshed (Plant), three things quite common in the country.
About Caucasian surgeons and chiropractors N.I. Pirogov wrote in 1849:
“Asian doctors in the Caucasus cured 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 also known throughout the Caucasus that taking away members and cutting out crushed bones is never undertaken by Asian doctors; Of the bloody operations they perform to treat external injuries, only cutting out bullets is known.”
Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Gadlo A.V., about the history of the Circassians in the 1st millennium AD. e. wrote -
Adyghe blacksmiths in the early Middle Ages, apparently, had not yet severed their connection with the community and had not separated from it, however, within the community they already constituted a separate professional group... Blacksmithing production in this period was focused mainly on meeting the economic needs of the community ( ploughshares, scythes, sickles, axes, knives, chains, skewers, sheep shears, etc.) and its military organization (horse equipment - bits, stirrups, horseshoes, girth buckles; offensive weapons - spears, battle axes, swords, daggers, arrowheads; protective weapons - helmets, chain mail, shield parts, etc.). It is still difficult to determine what the raw material base of this production was, but, without 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 be supplied to Adyghe blacksmiths. These are, firstly, the Kerch Peninsula and, secondly, the upper reaches of the Kuban, Zelenchuk and Urup, where they were discovered obvious traces of ancient cheese-making iron smelting.
“Adyghe jewelers had the skills of casting non-ferrous metals, soldering, stamping, making wire, engraving, etc. Unlike blacksmithing, their production did not require bulky equipment and large, difficult-to-transport supplies of raw materials. As shown by the burial of a jeweler in a burial ground on the river. Durso, metallurgists and jewelers could use not only ingots obtained from ore, but also scrap metal as raw materials. Together with their tools and raw materials, they moved freely from village to village, increasingly breaking away from their community and turning into otkhodnik artisans.”
Blacksmiths are very numerous in the country. They are almost everywhere weapon and silversmiths and are very skilled in their profession. It is almost incomprehensible how they, with their few and insufficient tools, can make excellent weapons. The gold and silver jewelry that is admired by European gun lovers is 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 engaged exclusively in the manufacture of gunpowder and receive significant profits from it. Gunpowder is the most expensive and most necessary commodity, without which no one here can do. The gunpowder is not particularly good and is inferior even to ordinary cannon powder. It is made in a crude and primitive way, and therefore is of low quality. There is no shortage of saltpeter, as saltpeter plants grow in large quantities in the country; on the contrary, there is little sulfur, which is mostly obtained from outside (from Turkey).
Materials obtained during the study of Adyghe settlements and burial grounds of the second half of the 1st millennium characterize the Adyghes as settled farmers who have not lost their Maeotian times plow farming skills. The main agricultural crops cultivated by the Circassians were soft wheat, barley, millet, rye, oats, and industrial crops - hemp and, possibly, flax. Numerous grain pits - repositories of the early medieval era - cut through the strata of early cultural strata at the settlements of the Kuban region, and large red clay pithos - vessels intended mainly for storing grain, constitute the main type of ceramic products that existed in the settlements of the Black Sea coast. Almost all settlements contain fragments of round rotary millstones or entire millstones, which were used for crushing and grinding grain. Fragments of stone crusher mortars and pusher pestles were found. There are known finds of sickles (Sopino, Durso), which could be used both for harvesting grain and for mowing fodder grass for livestock.
Undoubtedly, cattle breeding also played a prominent role in the Adyghe economy. The Adygs raised 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 rich lowland pastures is a constant motif of heroic deeds in Adyghe folklore.
Theophilus Lapinsky, who visited the lands of the Circassians in 1857, wrote the following in his work “The Highlanders 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 goats, due to excellent pastures, is very good; goat meat, which in some countries is considered almost inedible, is tastier here than lamb. The Adygs keep numerous herds of goats, many families have several thousand of them, and it can be assumed that there are over one and a half million of these useful animals in the country. The goat is only under a 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 abound in the eastern plains of the country; donkeys and mules are found only in the southern mountains. They used to keep a lot of pigs, but since the introduction of Mohammedanism the pig has disappeared as a domestic animal. Among the birds they keep are chickens, ducks and geese, turkeys are especially widely bred, but the Adyg very rarely takes the trouble to take care of poultry, which feeds and breeds at random.
In the 19th century, about horse breeding of the Circassians (Kabardians, Circassians), Senator Philipson, Grigory Ivanovich reported:
The mountaineers of the western half of the Caucasus then had famous horse studs: Sholok, Tram, Yeseni, Loo, Bechkan. The horses did not have all the beauty of pure breeds, but they were extremely hardy, loyal on their feet, and were never shod, because their hooves, as the Cossacks called them “cup-shaped,” were as strong as bone. Some horses, like their riders, had great fame in the mountains. For example, the white horse of the factory Tram was almost as famous among the mountaineers as his owner Mohammed-Ash-Atajukin, a fugitive Kabardian and famous predator.
Theophilus Lapinsky, who visited the lands of the Circassians 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 in the possession of wealthy residents in Laba and Malaya Kuban, now there are few families that have more than 12 - 15 horses. But there are also few who have no horses at all. In general, we can assume that on average there are 4 horses per yard, which will amount to about 200,000 horses for the entire country. On the plains the number of horses is twice as large as in the mountains.
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 discovered 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 villages located on elevated plateaus and mountain slopes far from the coast in the upper reaches of rivers and streams flowing into the sea. The market settlements that arose in the ancient period on the seashore did not lose their significance in the early Middle Ages, and some of them even turned into cities protected by fortresses (for example, Nikopsis at the mouth of the Nechepsukho River in the area of the village of Novo-Mikhailovskoye). The Adygs who lived in the Trans-Kuban region, as a rule, settled on elevated capes overhanging 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. Here, fortified settlements predominated, consisting of a citadel fortification surrounded by a moat and an adjacent settlement, sometimes also fenced on the floor side by a moat. Most of these settlements were located on the sites of old Meotian settlements abandoned in the 3rd or 4th centuries. (for example, near the village of Krasny, near the villages of Gatlukai, Takhtamukai, Novo-Vochepshiy, near the village of Yastrebovsky, near the village of Krasny, etc.). At the beginning of the 8th century. the Kuban Circassians also begin to settle in unfortified open settlements, similar to the settlements of the Circassians of the coast.
Teofil Lapinsky, in 1857, recorded the following:
The primary occupation of the Adyghe is agriculture, which provides him and his family with a means of livelihood. Agricultural implements are still in a primitive state and, since iron is rare, are very expensive. The plow is heavy and clumsy, but this is not only a feature of the Caucasus; I remember that I saw equally clumsy agricultural implements in Silesia, which, however, belongs to the German Confederation; six to eight oxen are harnessed to the plow. The harrow is replaced by several bunches of strong spikes, which somehow serve the same purpose. Their axes and hoes are pretty good. On the plains and on lower 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 last a long time and can carry from eight to ten centners. On the plain there is a cart for every two families, in the mountainous part - for every five families; it is no longer found in high mountains. All teams use only oxen, not horses.
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 number of borrowed vocabulary.
Main article: Kabardino-Circassian writing
Ukrainians got all their attractive appearance from mixing with Russians.
Special attention is paid to the Cherkassy - the descendants of the Yas-Bulgars and the Turkic ancestors of the Zaporozhye and Don Cossacks. Cherkassy adopted Orthodoxy and became glorified, but back in the 17th century. they distinguished themselves from Ukrainians and Russians. We will cite only two of the many pieces of evidence. In 1654, the hetman’s envoy responded to the words of the Crimean Khan: “How... did your hetman and all of you Cherkasy forget my friendship and advice?” - answers: “What... is your princess’s friendship and advice? You came... to us, the Cherkasy people, to help against the Polish king, and you... just took advantage of the Polish and... Cherkasy populians, got your fill with your military men and got rich... did not do any help to the Cherkassy people.” . . Or here’s another appeal from the Crimean Khan: “And now... those Cossacks, Cherkassy.” The Don and Black Sea Bulgar-Yasses found themselves under the influence of two ethno-spheres - Russian and Volga-Bulgar, which led to a split in their own Bulgar-Yass ethno-sphere. One part of them became glorified and became part of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples, while the other reunited with their relatives, the Volga Bulgars.
“In 1282, Baskak Tatarsky, from the Kursk principality, summoned Circassians from Beshtau (Pyatigorye), populated a settlement with them under the name of Cossacks. But they committed robberies and robberies, until finally, Oleg, Prince of Kursk, with the permission of the khan, destroyed their homes , he beat many of them, and the rest fled. These latter, copulating with the Russian fugitives, carried out robberies for a long time. Their crowded gang went to the city of Kanev to Baskak, who assigned them a place of stay below the Dnieper. Here they built a town for themselves and named it. his Cherkassk-on-Dnieper, for the reason that most of them were Cherkassy breed, forming a predatory republic which later became famous under the name of the Zaporozhye 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. From them (that is, the Circassians) came these bands of Cossacks.
The Ukrainian HATA (Turkic word) is built from adobe (a mixture of clay, manure and straw) (also a Turkic word) from this alone it is clear where this technology was taken from.
How do they fence the HOUSE? That's right, TYNOM (this is also a Turkic word)
How do they decorate a HUT 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 PLAKHTU (also a Turkicism) and the Turkic NAMYSTO.
What kind of army do the Ukrainians have? That's right KOZAKS (also a Turkism), what do they look like?
Just like the Pecheneg Turks (whom, by the way, Svyatoslav copied in his appearance), the Polovtsians and Circassians subsequently looked the same: an unshaven tuft of hair on 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, then they took care of you), in the mouth there is a cradle (Turkism) stuffed with TYUTYUN (Turkism) in the hands of a BANDURA (Turkism). What military units do the Cossacks belong to?
IN KOSHY (Turkism). Their symbol is BUNCHUK (Turkism).
The Ukrainian HAI “let” (for example, khai is alive and independent Ukraine) is related to the Kabardian hei “to want.”
GAYDAMAK - right bank gangs of robbers, FROM TURKISH GAYDE-MAK - TO CONFUSE.
kurkul, kavun, kosh, kilim, bugai, maidan, kazan, kobza, kozak, leleka, nenka, gamanets, axe, ataman, bunchuk, chumak, kokhana, kut, domra, tyn, kat, hut, farm, nenka, tattoo, rukh, surma and much more - all these are TURKIC WORDS!!!
THERE ARE MORE THAN 4000 TURKIC WORDS IN UKRAINIAN MOVE!!!
Ending - KO has the meaning “son” (kyo) in the Adyghe language, that is, in Ukraine surnames were formed exactly the same as in Russia, only in Russia “SON OF PETROV”, and the son disappeared and remained simply Petrov (the same as in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic , Slovakia), then in Ukraine they said: whose son is Petren son, i.e. Petren-KO (in Turkic, Adyghe Son of Peter), etc., the same Turkic roots have surnames in - YUK, -UK, (Turkic Gayuk , Tayuk, Kuchuk) Ukrainian Kravchuk, Mykolaichuk, etc.
In addition, a number of Ukrainian surnames remained absolutely Turkic Buchma, Kuchma (in Turkic this is a tall, pointed hat)!!!
Such a common Ukrainian surname as Shevchenko is of Adyghe origin; this surname appeared just at the time when the Kasogov and Cherkess tribes appeared in the Dnieper Cherkassy (hence the city of Cherkasy). It goes back to the word “sheudzhen”, which the Adygs used to designate their Christian priests. Under the onslaught 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 descendant, son. Another very common surname Shevchuk goes back to the Adyghe surname Shevtsuk. Mazepa is a Circassian surname; it exists in the same form in the Caucasus.
Compare these Adyghe and Tatar surnames with Ukrainian ones:
Kulko, Gerko, Zanko, Khadzhiko, Kushko, Beshuko, Kheishko, Shafiko, Nathko, Bahuko, Karakhuko, Khazhuko, Koshroko, Kanuko, Khatko (c) (Khatko, “son of Khyat”)
Maremuko - lit.: "son of Holy Friday."
Thyeshoko - “son of God.”
The famous Kabardian (Circassian) prince is Kemryuk.
Anchuk, Shevtsuk, Tatruk, Anshuk, Tleptseruk, the famous surname Khakmuchuk, Gonezhuk, Mashuk, Shamray, Shakhrai.
Tatar khans - Tyuzlyuk, Kuchuk, Payuk, Kutlyuk, Konezhuk, Tayuk, Barkuk, Yukuk, Buyuruk.
Who is the Nobel Prize laureate??? - Turk Orhan PamUK. Almost our Kuzmuk.
There are many already Russified surnames, that is, with the addition of - ov, for example:
Abroko - Abrokovs., Barokyo - Borokovs. Eguynokyo - Egunokov.
What do the “typically Slavic” names of settlements in central and western Ukraine mean??? KAGARLYK, DYMER, BUCHA, UZIN - (Kiev region), UMAN, KORSUNN, KUT, CHIGIRIN, CHERKASSY - (Cherkassy region), BUCHACH - (Ternopil region), TURKA, SAMBOR, BUSK - (Lviv region), BAKHMACH, ICHNYA - (Chernigov 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), KODIMA, GAYSAN - (Vinnitsa region), SAVRAN - (Kirovograd region), IZMAIL, TATARBUNARY, ARTSYZ and a huge number of others? In Russia, too, there are Turkic names for settlements, but the Russians settled foreign lands in the Urals, Siberia, and the North and naturally left foreign names that already existed.
What does this all mean???
And it says that Kyiv, having fallen into desolation already in the 12th century, when the center of Russian life moved north along with the population of Rus' fleeing from the nomadic steppe for the forests, a new process of ethnogenesis began on the territory of southern Rus', the remnants of glades and northerners mixed with numerous Turkic already semi-sedentary tribes - the remnants of the Pechenegs, Polovtsians, Torks, Berendeys. Later, Tatars and Nogais are added to this melting pot. A mixed Slavic-Turkic ethnic group emerged, called “Tatar people”, and later called Ukrainians.
Russians are closer to long-faced Caucasians, and Ukrainians are closer to Central Asian round-faced Turks - this is known.
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Adygs(or Circassians listen)) - the general name of a single people in Russia and abroad, divided into Kabardins, Circassians, Ubykhs, Adygeis and Shapsugs.
Self-name - Adyghe.
The total number of Circassians in the Russian Federation according to the 2002 census is 712 thousand people, they live in 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 Adyghe people in Adygea, the Kabardians in Kabardino-Balkaria.
Abroad, the largest diaspora of Circassians is in Turkey; according to some estimates, the Turkish diaspora numbers from 2.5 to 3 million Circassians. The Israeli Circassian diaspora numbers 4 thousand people. There is a Syrian diaspora, Libyan diaspora, Egyptian diaspora, Jordanian Adyghe diaspora, they also live in Europe, the USA and some other countries in the Middle East, but the statistics of most of these countries do not provide accurate data on the number of Adyghe diasporas. The estimated number of Circassians (Circassians) in Syria is 80 thousand people.
There are some in other CIS countries, in particular in Kazakhstan.
At present, 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 replaced by an exoethnonym - Circassians.
Currently, in addition to the common self-name, the following names are used in relation to the Adyghe subethnic groups:
Zikhi - so called in the languages: common Greek and Latin, while the Circassians are called Tatars and Turks, call themselves - “ adiga».
Main article: History of the Circassians
Regular Moscow-Adyghe connections began to be established during 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 significant part of the population were Circassians. At the end of the 15th century, caravans of Russian merchants constantly came along the Don Road to these Genoese cities, where Russian merchants made trade deals not only with the Genoese, but with the mountaineers of the North Caucasus who lived in these cities.
Moscow expansion to the south I could not develop without the support of ethnic groups that considered the basin of the Black and Azov Seas to be their ethnosphere. These were primarily 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 Moscow's allies suited their ethnocentric goals. Some of the Nogais who swore allegiance to the Moscow state could take the side of the Russians. But, of course, first of all, the Russians were interested in supporting the most powerful and powerful Western Caucasian ethnic group, the Circassians.
During the formation of the Moscow principality, the Crimean Khanate caused the Russians and Circassians the same troubles. For example, there was a Crimean campaign against Moscow (1521), as a result of which the khan’s troops burned Moscow and captured more than 100 thousand Russians to be sold into slavery. The 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 subethnic groups It could not have been more opportune for Ivan the Terrible, whose plans were in the direction of the Russians advancing along the Volga to its mouth, to the Caspian Sea. Union with the most powerful ethnic group N.-W. Moscow needed K. in its fight against the Crimean Khanate.
In total, in the 1550s, three embassies from the North-West visited Moscow. K., in 1552, 1555 and 1557. They consisted of representatives of the Western Circassians (Zhaneevtsev, Besleneevtsy, etc.), eastern Circassians (Kabardians) and Abazinians, who turned to Ivan IV with a request for patronage. They needed patronage primarily to fight the Crimean Khanate. Delegations from North-West K. met with a favorable reception and secured the patronage of the Russian Tsar. From now on, they could count on military and diplomatic assistance from Moscow, and they themselves were obliged to appear in the service of the Grand Duke-Tsar.
Also, under Ivan the Terrible, he had a 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 (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 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as a result of the Battle of Molodin, ended in the complete physical destruction of the Tatar-Turkish army and the defeat of the Crimean Khanate http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Molody
In the 70s, despite the unsuccessful Astrakhan expedition, the Crimeans and 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 Western Caucasian highlanders, the Circassians and Abazins, their subjects, but this did not change the essence of the matter. The mountaineers had no idea about this, just as at one time the Asian nomads had no idea that China considered them its subjects.
The Russians left the North Caucasus, but gained a foothold in the Volga region.
List of Circassians (Circassians) - Heroes of the Soviet Union
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 control of the territories, the new authorities were forced to resettle the Circassians, who founded 12 auls in new places, and in the 20s of the 20th century - 5.
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 the culture experienced various internal and external influences, including long-term contacts with the Greeks, Genoese and other peoples, long-term feudal feuds, wars, Mukhadzhirism, social, political and cultural shocks. The culture, while changing, is still fundamentally preserved, and still demonstrates its openness to renewal and development. Doctor of Philosophy S. A. Razdolsky defines it as “a thousand-year worldview of socially significant experience of the Adyghe ethnic group,” having its own empirical knowledge about the world around us and transmitting this knowledge at the level of interpersonal communication in the form of the most significant values.
The moral code, called Adygag'e, acts as the cultural core or main value of the Adyghe culture; it includes humanity, respect, reason, courage and honor.
Adyghe etiquette occupies a special place in culture as a system of connections (or channel of information flows), embodied in a symbolic form, through which the Circassians enter into relationships with each other, store and transmit the experience of their culture. Moreover, the Circassians developed etiquette forms of behavior that helped them exist in the mountain and foothill landscapes.
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 true self-worth.
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 communications (reports), long before his travels, that is, before 1711, Circassia had the skills to mass inoculate smallpox.
Abri de la Motray left a detailed description of the smallpox vaccination procedure among the Circassians in the village of Degliad:
The girl was referred to a little boy of three years old who was sick with this disease and whose pockmarks and pimples began to fester. The old woman performed the operation, since the oldest members of this sex have a reputation for being 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, injected the little girl in the stomach, 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 began to flow, with which she mixed pus extracted from the patient’s pockmarks. Then she applied dry leaves of the cowshed to the pricked and bleeding places, tying two skins of newborn lambs with a drill, after which the mother wrapped her in one of the leather blankets that, as I said above, make up the Circassian bed, and thus wrapped she took her to to yourself. I was told that she was to be kept warm, fed only porridge made from cumin flour, with two-thirds water and one-third sheep's milk, given nothing to drink except a cool infusion made from ox tongue (Plant), a little licorice and cowshed (Plant), three things quite common in the country.
About Caucasian surgeons and chiropractors N.I. Pirogov wrote in 1849:
“Asian doctors in the Caucasus cured 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 also known throughout the Caucasus that taking away members and cutting out crushed bones is never undertaken by Asian doctors; Of the bloody operations they perform to treat external injuries, only cutting out bullets is known.”
Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Gadlo A.V., about the history of the Circassians in the 1st millennium AD. e. wrote -
Adyghe blacksmiths in the early Middle Ages, apparently, had not yet severed their connection with the community and had not separated from it, however, within the community they already constituted a separate professional group... Blacksmithing production in this period was focused mainly on meeting the economic needs of the community ( ploughshares, scythes, sickles, axes, knives, chains, skewers, sheep shears, etc.) and its military organization (horse equipment - bits, stirrups, horseshoes, girth buckles; offensive weapons - spears, battle axes, swords, daggers, arrowheads; protective weapons - helmets, chain mail, shield parts, etc.). It is still difficult to determine what the raw material base of this production was, but, without 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 be supplied to Adyghe blacksmiths. These are, firstly, the Kerch Peninsula and, secondly, the upper reaches of the Kuban, Zelenchuk and Urup, where they were discovered obvious traces of ancient cheese-making iron smelting.
“Adyghe jewelers had the skills of casting non-ferrous metals, soldering, stamping, making wire, engraving, etc. Unlike blacksmithing, their production did not require bulky equipment and large, difficult-to-transport supplies of raw materials. As shown by the burial of a jeweler in a burial ground on the river. Durso, metallurgists and jewelers could use not only ingots obtained from ore, but also scrap metal as raw materials. Together with their tools and raw materials, they moved freely from village to village, increasingly breaking away from their community and turning into otkhodnik artisans.”
Blacksmiths are very numerous in the country. They are almost everywhere weapon and silversmiths and are very skilled in their profession. It is almost incomprehensible how they, with their few and insufficient tools, can make excellent weapons. The gold and silver jewelry that is admired by European gun lovers is 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 engaged exclusively in the manufacture of gunpowder and receive significant profits from it. Gunpowder is the most expensive and most necessary commodity, without which no one here can do. The gunpowder is not particularly good and is inferior even to ordinary cannon powder. It is made in a crude and primitive way, and therefore is of low quality. There is no shortage of saltpeter, as saltpeter plants grow in large quantities in the country; on the contrary, there is little sulfur, which is mostly obtained from outside (from Turkey).
Materials obtained during the study of Adyghe settlements and burial grounds of the second half of the 1st millennium characterize the Adyghes as settled farmers who have not lost their Maeotian times plow farming skills. The main agricultural crops cultivated by the Circassians were soft wheat, barley, millet, rye, oats, and industrial crops - hemp and, possibly, flax. Numerous grain pits - repositories of the early medieval era - cut through the strata of early cultural strata at the settlements of the Kuban region, and large red clay pithos - vessels intended mainly for storing grain, constitute the main type of ceramic products that existed in the settlements of the Black Sea coast. Almost all settlements contain fragments of round rotary millstones or entire millstones, which were used for crushing and grinding grain. Fragments of stone crusher mortars and pusher pestles were found. There are known finds of sickles (Sopino, Durso), which could be used both for harvesting grain and for mowing fodder grass for livestock.
Undoubtedly, cattle breeding also played a prominent role in the Adyghe economy. The Adygs raised 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 rich lowland pastures is a constant motif of heroic deeds in Adyghe folklore.
Theophilus Lapinsky, who visited the lands of the Circassians in 1857, wrote the following in his work “The Highlanders 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 goats, due to excellent pastures, is very good; goat meat, which in some countries is considered almost inedible, is tastier here than lamb. The Adygs keep numerous herds of goats, many families have several thousand of them, and it can be assumed that there are over one and a half million of these useful animals in the country. The goat is only under a 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 abound in the eastern plains of the country; donkeys and mules are found only in the southern mountains. They used to keep a lot of pigs, but since the introduction of Mohammedanism the pig has disappeared as a domestic animal. Among the birds they keep are chickens, ducks and geese, turkeys are especially widely bred, but the Adyg very rarely takes the trouble to take care of poultry, which feeds and breeds at random.
In the 19th century, about horse breeding of the Circassians (Kabardians, Circassians), Senator Philipson, Grigory Ivanovich reported:
The mountaineers of the western half of the Caucasus then had famous horse studs: Sholok, Tram, Yeseni, Loo, Bechkan. The horses did not have all the beauty of pure breeds, but they were extremely hardy, loyal on their feet, and were never shod, because their hooves, as the Cossacks called them “cup-shaped,” were as strong as bone. Some horses, like their riders, had great fame in the mountains. For example, the white horse of the factory Tram was almost as famous among the mountaineers as his owner Mohammed-Ash-Atajukin, a fugitive Kabardian and famous predator.
Theophilus Lapinsky, who visited the lands of the Circassians 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 in the possession of wealthy residents in Laba and Malaya Kuban, now there are few families that have more than 12 - 15 horses. But there are also few who have no horses at all. In general, we can assume that on average there are 4 horses per yard, which will amount to about 200,000 horses for the entire country. On the plains the number of horses is twice as large as in the mountains.
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 discovered 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 villages located on elevated plateaus and mountain slopes far from the coast in the upper reaches of rivers and streams flowing into the sea. The market settlements that arose in the ancient period on the seashore did not lose their significance in the early Middle Ages, and some of them even turned into cities protected by fortresses (for example, Nikopsis at the mouth of the Nechepsukho River in the area of the village of Novo-Mikhailovskoye). The Adygs who lived in the Trans-Kuban region, as a rule, settled on elevated capes overhanging 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. Here, fortified settlements predominated, consisting of a citadel fortification surrounded by a moat and an adjacent settlement, sometimes also fenced on the floor side by a moat. Most of these settlements were located on the sites of old Meotian settlements abandoned in the 3rd or 4th centuries. (for example, near the village of Krasny, near the villages of Gatlukai, Takhtamukai, Novo-Vochepshiy, near the village of Yastrebovsky, near the village of Krasny, etc.). At the beginning of the 8th century. the Kuban Circassians also begin to settle in unfortified open settlements, similar to the settlements of the Circassians of the coast.
Teofil Lapinsky, in 1857, recorded the following:
The primary occupation of the Adyghe is agriculture, which provides him and his family with a means of livelihood. Agricultural implements are still in a primitive state and, since iron is rare, are very expensive. The plow is heavy and clumsy, but this is not only a feature of the Caucasus; I remember that I saw equally clumsy agricultural implements in Silesia, which, however, belongs to the German Confederation; six to eight oxen are harnessed to the plow. The harrow is replaced by several bunches of strong spikes, which somehow serve the same purpose. Their axes and hoes are pretty good. On the plains and on lower 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 last a long time and can carry from eight to ten centners. On the plain there is a cart for every two families, in the mountainous part - for every five families; it is no longer found in high mountains. All teams use only oxen, not horses.
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 number of borrowed vocabulary.
Main article: Kabardino-Circassian writing
Adyghe is the common self-name of the ancestors of modern Adyghe, Kabardians and Circassians. The surrounding peoples also called them Zikhs and Kasogs. The origin and meaning of all these names is a controversial issue. The ancient Circassians belonged to the Caucasian race.
The history of the Circassians is endless clashes with hordes of Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, Bulgars, Alans, Khazars, Magyars, Pechenegs, Polovtsians, Mongol-Tatars, Kalmyks, Nogais, Turks.
In 1792, with the creation by Russian troops of a continuous cordon line along the Kuban River, the active development of the western Adyghe lands by Russia began.
At first, the Russians fought, in fact, not with the Circassians, but with the Turks, who at that time owned Adygea. Following the conclusion of the Treaty of Adriapolis in 1829, all Turkish possessions in the Caucasus passed to Russia. But the Circassians refused to transfer to Russian citizenship and continued to launch attacks on Russian settlements.
Only in 1864 did Russia take control of the last independent territories of the Circassians - the Kuban and Sochi lands. A small part of the Adyghe nobility by this time had transferred to the service of the Russian Empire. But most of the Circassians - over 200 thousand people - wanted to move to Turkey.
The Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid II settled refugees (Mohajirs) on the desert border of Syria and other border areas to combat Bedouin raids.
This tragic page in Russian-Adyghe relations has recently become the subject of historical and political speculation in order to put pressure on Russia. Part of the Adyghe-Circassian diaspora, with the support of certain Western forces, demands a boycott of the Olympics in Sochi if Russia does not recognize the resettlement of the Adygs as an act of genocide. After which, of course, lawsuits for compensation will follow.
Adygea
Today, the bulk of the Circassians live in Turkey (according to various sources, from 3 to 5 million people). In the Russian Federation, the number of Circassians as a whole does not exceed 1 million. There are also considerable diasporas in Syria, Jordan, Israel, the USA, France and other countries. They all retain the consciousness of their cultural unity.
Adygs in Jordan
***
It just so happened that the Circassians and the Russians have been measuring their strength for a long time. And it all began in ancient times, about which “The Tale of Bygone Years” tells. It is curious that both sides - Russian and mountain - talk about this event in almost the same words.
The chronicler puts it this way. In 1022, the son of St. Vladimir, the Tmutorokan prince Mstislav went on a campaign against the Kasogs - that’s what the Russians called the Adygs at that time. When the opponents lined up opposite each other, the Kasozh prince Rededya said to Mstislav: “Why are we destroying our squad? Go out to the duel: if you win, you will take my property, my wife, my children, and my land. If I win, I’ll take everything you have.” Mstislav replied: “So be it.”
The opponents laid down their weapons and began to fight. And Mstislav began to grow weak, for Rededya was great and strong. But the prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos helped the Russian prince overcome the enemy: he struck Rededya to the ground, and, taking out a knife, stabbed him. The Kasogs submitted to Mstislav.
According to Adyghe legends, Rededya was not a prince, but a mighty hero. One day, the Adyghe prince Idar, having gathered many warriors, went to Tamtarakai (Tmutorokan). The Tamtarakai prince Mstislau led his army to meet the Circassians. When the enemies got closer, Rededya came forward and said to the Russian prince: “In order not to shed blood in vain, defeat me and take everything I have.” The opponents took off their weapons and fought for several hours in a row, not yielding to each other. Finally Rededya fell, and the Tamtarakai prince struck him with a knife.
The death of Rededi is also mourned by the ancient Adyghe funeral song (sagish). True, in it Rededya is defeated not by force, but by cunning:
Grand Duke of the Uruses
When you threw it to the ground,
He longed for life
He took out the knife from his belt,
Under your shoulder blade insidiously
stuck it in and
Oh, woe, he took out your soul.
According to Russian legend, Rededi's two sons, taken to Tmutorokan, were baptized under the names of Yuri and Roman, and the latter allegedly married the daughter of Mstislav. Later, some boyar families elevated themselves to them, for example the Beleutovs, Sorokoumovs, Glebovs, Simskys and others.
***
For a long time, Moscow, the capital of the expanding Russian state, has attracted the attention of the Circassians. Quite early, the Adyghe-Circassian nobility became part of the Russian ruling elite.
The basis of the Russian-Adyghe rapprochement was the joint struggle against the Crimean Khanate. In 1557, five Circassian princes, accompanied by a large number of soldiers, arrived in Moscow and entered the service of Ivan the Terrible. Thus, 1557 is the year of the beginning of the formation of the Adyghe diaspora in Moscow.
After the mysterious death of the formidable king’s first wife, Queen Anastasia, it turned out that Ivan was inclined to consolidate his alliance with the Circassians with a dynastic marriage. His chosen one was Princess Kuchenei, daughter of Temryuk, the eldest prince of Kabarda. At baptism she received the name Mary. In Moscow they said a lot of unflattering things about her and even attributed the idea of the oprichnina to her.
Ring of Maria Temryukovna (Kucheney)
In addition to his daughter, Prince Temryuk sent his son Saltankul to Moscow, who was baptized Mikhail and granted a boyar status. In fact, he became the first person in the state after the king. His mansions were located on Vozdvizhenskaya Street, where the building of the Russian State Library is now located. Under Mikhail Temryukovich, high command positions in the Russian army were occupied by his relatives and compatriots.
Circassians continued to arrive in Moscow throughout the 17th century. Usually the princes and the squads accompanying them settled between Arbatskaya and Nikitinskaya streets. In total, in the 17th century, in Moscow with a population of 50 thousand, there were up to 5,000 Circassians at the same time, most of whom were aristocrats.
For almost two centuries (until 1776), the Cherkasy house with a huge courtyard stood on the territory of the Kremlin. Maryina Roshcha, Ostankino and Troitskoye belonged to the Circassian princes. Bolshoi and Maly Cherkassky lanes still remind us of the time when the Circassian Circassians largely determined the policy of the Russian state.
Bolshoi Cherkassky Lane
***
However, the courage of the Adygs, their dashing horsemanship, generosity, and hospitality were as famous as the beauty and grace of the Adygs women. However, the position of women was difficult: they carried out the most difficult housework in the field and at home.
The nobles had a custom of giving their children at an early age to be raised by another family, by an experienced teacher. In the teacher's family, the boy went through a harsh school of hardening and acquired the habits of a rider and a warrior, and the girl acquired the knowledge of a housewife and a worker. Strong and tender bonds of friendship were established between the pupils and their teachers for the rest of their lives.
Since the 6th century, the Circassians were considered Christians, but made sacrifices to pagan gods. Their funeral rites were also pagan, they adhered to polygamy. The Adygs did not know the written language. They used pieces of cloth as money.
Over the course of one century, Turkish influence made a huge change in the life of the Circassians. In the second half of the 18th century, all Circassians formally converted to Islam. However, their religious practices and views were still a mixture of paganism, Islam and Christianity. They worshiped Shibla, the god of thunder, war and justice, as well as the spirits of water, sea, trees, and elements. Sacred groves were especially respected by them.
The Adyghe language is beautiful in its own way, although it has an abundance of consonants and only three vowels - “a”, “e”, “y”. But for a European to master it is almost unthinkable due to the abundance of sounds unusual for us.
“In Greek and Latin, the Circassians callThey are called “Zikhs”, and in their own language their name is “Adyge”.
GeorgInteriano
Italian traveler XVV.
The origin of the Adyghe goes back to the times oflen... their chivalrous feelings, their morals are patriarchaltheir purity, their strikingly beautiful features place them undoubtedly to the first rank of the free peoples of the Caucasus.”
Fr. Bodenstedt
Die Volker des Kaukasus und ihre Freiheitskampfe gegen die Russen, Paris, 1859, S. 350.
"Based on what I have seen, I must considerto describe the Circassians, taken en masse, as the people mostbest-bred I've ever seen orwhich I have read anything about."
James Stanislaus Bell
Journal of a Residence in Circassia During the Years 1837, 1838, 1839, Paris, 1841, p. 72.
“Courage, intelligence, remarkable beauty: nature to themgave everything, and what I especially admired in their character was the cold and noble dignity that neverwas not refuted and which they combined with feelingsmost chivalrous and with ardent love of national freedom."
M-me Hommaire de Hell
VoyagedansIesSteppesdelamerCaspienne et dans la Russie meridionale, 2 eed., Paris, 1868, p. 231.
“Circassian nobly represents the latestthe remnants of that knightly and warlike spirit thatwho shed so much brilliance on the peoples of the Middle Ages.”
L. s., r. 189.
“The historical past of the people, character and peculiaritiesthe features of its centuries-old culture determine thethe coefficient of scientific interest in this people and their culture. In this sense, the Circassians are verya wonderful object for researchers of the history of Kavka-for history in general and cultural history in particular. They belong to the oldest main population of the Caucasus andthe primary inhabitants of Europe."
The oldest period of the Stone Age (Paleolithic) ha-characterized in Circassia by the burial of the dead with bent knees and covering them with ocher, and the end of the Neolithic by the presence of megaliths - dolmens and menhirs. There are more than 1,700 dolmens here. Their character, foundthey contain inventory (Maikop, Tsarskaya village, now No-free, Kostroma, Vozdvizhenskaya, etc.) in the eracopper brings them closer to the Thuringian, so-called Schnurkeramik Zivilisation . EthnicityThe builders of dolmens are still unknown. It is easier to identify the authors of a newer era in the Kuban - the Bronze Age. This culture completely coincides with the Danube,which is called Band Ceramics . Almost all archaeologists this is attributed to Band Keramik Thracians and Illyrianspeople who inhabited the Danube basin, the Balkans, the AncientGreece and a significant part of Asia Minor (Troy, Phrygia,Bithynia, Mysia, etc.).
Historical data confirms the language of archaeologicalgy: ancient Circassian tribes bear Thracian namesand are found in the Balkans.
It is also known that ancient Circassia constitutes the mainnew Bosphorus kingdom around the Kerch Strait,bore the name “Cimmerian Bosphorus”, and kimme-the rians are considered by many ancient authors alsoThracian tribe.
According to scientists, the ancient history of the Circassiansbegins with the period of the Bosphorus Kingdom, formingwhich took place shortly after the collapse of the Cimmerian Empire around 720 BC . under the pressure of the Scythians.
According to Diodorus Siculus, at first they ruledBosphorus "old princes" with the capital Phanagoria, near Taman. But the real dynasty is founded in 438 BC R. X . Spartok, originally from the "old princes". Thracianthe name Spartok is a completely normal phenomenon in FranceCo-Cimmerian character of the local population.
The power of the Spartokids was not immediately established at all times.village of Circassia. Levkon I (389-349) is called “kingdom”warring" over the Sinds, Torets, Dandars and Psessians. Under Perisad I (344-310), son of Leukon I, list of sub- the power of the king of the peoples of ancient Circassia is done her: Perisad I bears the title of king of the Sinds, Maits (Meots) and Fatei.
In addition, one inscription from the Taman Peninsulaemphasizes that Perisad I ruled all the lands betweenthe extreme borders of the Tauri and the borders of the Caucasianlands, i.e. Maits (including Fatei), as well as Sinds (in theirincluding the Kerkets, Torets, Psseses and other Circassian tribes na) constituted the main population of the Bosphorus kingdom. Only the southern coastal Circassians: Achaeans, Heniokhs andSanigs are not mentioned in the inscriptions, but in any casein the era of Strabo, they were also part of the kingdom, while retaining their princes, the “skeptuchi.” Howeverother Circassian tribes retained their autonomy and had their own princes, such as the Sinds and Dardans. In general, the Sinds occupied special place in the kingdom. Auto-their role was so broad that they had their own currency coin with the inscription "Sindoi". In general, judging by coins of the cities of the Bosphorus, ancient Circassia usedmonetary unity.
Next to the king - archon, with autonomous princesCircassia, with a legate in Tanais (at the mouth of the Don), urbanmanagement indicates the high development of bosphorussky society. At the head of the city was the mayor,representative of the central government, and a board, somethinglike a city council.
The social structure of the Bosphorus kingdom is a high level of development with an enlightened monarchy, with administrative decentralization, with well-organizedcalled merchant unions, served with the aristocracyloy and business, with a healthy agricultural population. Never has Circassia prospered so culturally and economically.mikically, as during the Spartokids in IV and III centuries. BC Kings The Bosphorus was not inferior in splendor and wealth to modern onesto them monarchs. The country represented the last outpostAegean civilization in the northeast.
All trade in the Sea of Azov and a significant parttrade in the Black Sea was in the hands of the Bosporus Panticapaeum on the Kerch Peninsula served as the main port for import, and Phanagoria and other cities of Circassiancoastlines were mainly exported. South of Tsemez(Sundzhuk-Kale) export items included: fabrics,famous in the ancient world, honey,wax, hemp, wood for building ships and dwellings, furs,leather, wool, etc. Ports north of Tsemez exportedmainly grain, fish, etc. Here in the country of the Maitsthere was a granary that fed Greece. Average exportit reached 210,000 hectoliters in Attica, i.e. halfthe bread she needs.
Another source of wealth for the Bosphorian-Circassiansthere was fishing. To the east of the Sea of Azov there werefish salting centers and wholesale warehouses.
Along with this, industry was also developed, especially the production of ceramics, bricks and tiles.The items imported from Athens were wine, olivecow oil, luxury goods and jewelry.
French consul in Crimea Peysonel (1750-1762) writes that the ancient Circassians did not engage inonly cattle breeding, arable farming and fishing, but they also had developed gardening, horticulture, beekeepingfarming and handicraft production in the form of blacksmithingbusiness, saddlery, tailoring, cloth making,Buroks, leather, jewelry, etc.
The economic level of the inhabitants of Circassia will be discussed later.Today is evidenced by the size of the trade that they conducted with the outside world. Average annual exportfrom Circassia only through the ports of Taman and Kaplu was:80-100 thousand centners of wool, 100 thousand pieces of cloth, 200thousand ready-made burkas, 50 - 60 thousand ready-made trousers, 5-6thousand ready-made Circassians, 500 thousand sheep skins, 50 - 60 thousand. rawhide, 200 thousand pairs of bull horns. Then he walkedfur goods: 100 thousand wolf skins, 50 thousand cow skinsnykh, 3 thousand bear skins, 200 thousand pairs of boar tusks; beekeeping products: 5-6 thousand centners good-go and 500 centners of cheap honey, 50 - 60 thousand okka wax, etc.
Import into Circassia also testified to the highstandard of living. Silk and paper fabrics, velvet, blankets, bath towels, linen, threads,paints, rouge and whitewash, as well as perfumes and incense, morocco,paper, gunpowder, gun barrels, spices, etc.
Let us note by the way that the English traveler EdMund Spencer, who visited Circassia in the first quarterlast century, and comparing it with the ancient one, he writes that in Anapa there were more than 400 stores, 20 largewood warehouses, 16 grain dumps, etc. In addition to black-kesov, Turks, Armenians, Greeks, Genoese lived here, 50Lyaks, 8 Jews, 5 French, 4 Englishmen. Every year inMore than 300 large ships visited the port of Anapaforeign flags. About the size of trade in the citycould be judged at least by the annual sale of canvas,which was sold annually in the amount of 3,000,000 piastres,of which 2,000,000 came from England. It is typical that the total amount of trade turnover in Circassiawith Russia did not exceed 30,000 rubles at that time. It is forbiddenforget also that trade with foreign countries was not carried outonly through Anapa, but also through other ports, such as Ozersk, Atshimsha, Pshat, Tuapse.
Since the time of Satur I the Greeks used the Bosphorusspecial benefits, but the Bosphorians also had in Athensits advantages. In parallel with trade relationsCultural ties between both countries also developed.Ancient Circassians took part in the Olympic Games inGreece, during the Panathenaic festivals and were crowned inAthens with a golden crown. The Athenians awarded honorary citizenship to a number of Bosphorus kings; at public meetingsnyahs of the golden crown (So crowned with goldenthe crowns were Levkon I, Spartok II and Perisad). Leukon and Perisades entered the Greeks’ gallery of famous statesmen.dedicatory husbands and their names were mentioned in Greek schools.
By the end of the 2nd century BC . Bosphorus enters the stripcrises caused by pressure from the Scythians, usjust that Perisad I had to hand over my crownMithridates the Great (114 or 113 BC) X.). From this moment the Roman period of the Bosphorus reign beginsva. The kings of the latter seek the protection of Rome, but the populationhostile to foreign interference in its affairs. SomeThe first Circassian tribes: Heniokhs, Sanigs and Zikhi depend from Rome of the era of Hadrian.
Around the middle of the 3rd century. after R. X . Germanic tribesHeruls and Goths or Borans invade the Bosporus kingdom quality
Circassia's nominal connection with Rome continued even when Byzantium took its place.
During the Greek and Roman periods, the religion of the ancientsCircassians was Thraco-Greek. In addition to the cults of Apolloon, Poseidon, especially the lunar goddess, etc., byread the great goddess mother (like the Phrygians Cybele),and the thunder god is the supreme god, corresponding to the Greek Zeus.
It is interesting to note that the Circassians revered:Tlepsh - God the blacksmith; Psethe - God of life; Thagolej - God of fertility; Amish - God of animals; Mazythe - God of the forests Trakho R. Literature about Circassia and the Circassians, “Bulletin of the Instituteon the Study of the USSR", No. 1 (14), Munich, 1955, p. 97.
The author does not touch here on the prehistoric era, traces of which were found in the Kuban, since there is a fundamental labor - Fr. Hancar, Urgeschichte Kaukasiens, Wien, Verlag v. Anton Schroll & Co.; Leipzig, Verlag Heinrich Keller clothed the tent he erected on the top of Parnassus. This tent was stolen by Hercules from the Circassian Amazons, etc.
