Circassia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A map of Circassia from 1840

Circassia, also known as Cherkessia in Russian, is a region in Caucasia. Historically it comprised the southern half of the current Krasnodar Territory and most of the interior of the current Stavropol Territory, but now only refers to a portion of the Karachay-Cherkessia Republic, Adyghe Republic and Kabardino-Balkaria Republic of the Russian Federation.

The historical region is named after the traditional inhabitants, the Circassians (they prefer Adyghe or Adiga), who now make up only a small minority of the population of the area. A larger population is in the tiny Republic of Adygea of the Russian Federation which is entirely surrounded by Krasnodar Krai.

The Circassian diaspora is a community of people (and their descendants) who were expelled from the historical Circassia in the late 19th Century after a series of uprisings against Russian Imperial rule. They are found in various areas of the old Ottoman Empire, including Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kosovo (until they were repatriated in 1998, after receiving threats from the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army^[1]), Egypt (Circassians were part of the Mamluk armies), and Israel (in the villages of Kfar Kama and Rehaniya, since 1880), and even as far afield as Upstate New York and New Jersey in the United States.

[edit] See also

• Circassians
• Circassian beauties

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Jaimoukha, Amjad, The Circassians: A Handbook, London: Routledge, New York: Routledge & Palgrave, 2001.