CIRCASSIA. The name of Circassia is given to all that western part of the Caucasian territory which is situated on the Black Sea, and bounded by the lands of the Cossacks, the Caucasians, the Lesghians, the Georgians, the Imeretians, and Mingrelians. This district, however, includes not only Circassia proper, but also the great and little Kabardah, Abasia, and the land of the Ossetes. The Circassians inhabit only that part of the country which is bounded by the Black Sea, and the rivers Sotsha, Laba, and the lower Kouba. The territory of Circassia towards the S.W. is exceedingly mountainous, and includes within its limits the Elburz, the Mainevari, and several of the loftiest parts of the Caucasian range. Towards the N.W. the mountains gradually decline in elevation; and the range of the Black Mountains between the Black Sea and the Kouba consists of a number of rounded hills, very moderate in height. Towards the N. and the N.E., a great number of small rivers descend rapidly from the mountains, and form in their course many pleasant and fertile valleys. On the coast of the Black Sea, along the river Kouba, and even in many of the interior parts of the country, several Russian forts have been erected in order to maintain the power of the Czar in these regions. The climate in the north-western part of Circassia is very insalubrious; as the water of the rivers, which are generally broad and shallow, frequently becomes stagnant in hot weather, and produces fatal fevers. In the more elevated portions of the country situated to the S.E., where the atmosphere is colder, the climate is much more favourable to health.
The Circassians, or Tschirkessians, are termed by themselves Adighé, or the noble. In the patriarchal simplicity of their manners, the mental qualities with which they are endowed, the beauty of form and regularity of feature by which they are distinguished, they surpass most of the other tribes of the Caucasus. They have long been celebrated for their warlike and intrepid character, their independence, their hospitality to strangers, and that love of country which they have manifested in their determined resistance to an almost overwhelming power during the period of a long and desolating war. They exhibit in their manners a strange mixture of chivalrous sentiment and of savage customs. The government under which they live is a peculiar form of the feudal system. The free Circassians are divided into three distinct ranks, the princes or pschi, the nobles or work, (Tartar usden), and the peasants or hokoll. Like the inhabitants of the other regions of the Caucasus, they are also divided into numerous families, tribes, or clans, some of which are very powerful, and carry on war against each other with great animosity. The slaves, of whom a large proportion are prisoners of war, are generally employed in the cultivation of the soil, or in the domestic service of some of the principal chiefs.
The will of the people is acknowledged to be the supreme source of authority; and every free Circassian has a right to express his opinion in those assemblies of his tribe in which the questions of peace and war, almost the only subjects which engage their attention, are brought under deliberation. The princes and nobles, the leaders of the people in war, and their rulers in peace, are only the administrators of a power which is delegated to them. Having no written laws, the administration of justice is regulated solely by custom and tradition; and in those tribes professing Mohammedanism, by the precepts of the Koran. The most aged and respected inhabitants of the various aouls or villages frequently sit in judgment, and their decisions are received without a murmur by the contending parties. The Circassian princes and nobles are professedly Mohammedans; but in their religious services many of the ceremonies of their former heathen and Christian worship are still preserved. The great body of the people have remained faithful to the worship of their ancient gods, Shible, the god of thunder, of war, and of justice, Tleps, the god of fire, and Seoseres, the god of water and of winds. Although the Circassians possess minds capable of the highest cultivation, the arts and sciences, with the exception of poetry and music, are completely neglected. They possess no written language. The wisdom of their sages, the knowledge they have acquired, and the memory of their warlike deeds, are preserved in verses, which are repeated from mouth to mouth, and descend from father to son.
The education of the young Circassian is confined to riding, fencing, shooting, hunting, and such exercises as are calculated to strengthen his frame, and prepare him for a life of active warfare. The only intellectual duty of the atalik or instructor, with whom the young men live until they have completed their education, is that of teaching them to express their thoughts shortly, quickly, and appropriately. One of their marriage ceremonies is very strange. The young man who has been approved by the parents, and has paid the stipulated price in money, horses, oxen, or sheep, for his bride, is expected to come with his friends fully armed, and to carry her off by force from her father's house. Every free Circassian has unlimited right over the lives of his wife and children. Although polygamy is allowed by the laws of the Koran, the custom of the country forbids it, and the Circassians are generally faithful to the marriage bond. The respect for superior age is carried to such an extent, that the young brother rises from his seat when the elder enters an apartment, and is silent when he speaks. Like all the other inhabitants of the Caucasus, the
Circassia. Circassians are distinguished for two very opposite qualities, the most generous hospitality, and implacable vindictiveness. Hospitality to the stranger is considered one of the most sacred duties. Whatever be his rank in life, all the members of the family rise to receive him on his entrance, and conduct him to the principal seat in the apartment. The host is considered responsible with his own life for the security of his guest, upon whom, even although his deadliest enemy, he would inflict no injury while under the protection of his roof. The chief who has received a stranger, also grants him an escort of horse to conduct him in safety on his journey, and confides him to the protection of those nobles with whom he may be on friendly terms. The law of vengeance is no less binding on the Circassian. The individual who has slain any member of a family is pursued with implacable vengeance by the relatives, until his crime be expiated by death. The murderer may, indeed, secure his safety by the payment of a certain sum of money, or by carrying off from the house of his enemy a newly-born child, bringing it up as his own, and restoring it when its education is finished. In either case, the family of the slain individual may discontinue the pursuit of vengeance without any stain upon its honour. The man closely followed by his enemy, who, on reaching the dwelling of a woman, has merely touched her hand, is safe from all further pursuit so long as he remains under the protection of her roof. The opinions of the Circassians regarding theft resemble those of the ancient Spartans. The commission of the crime is not considered so disgraceful as its discovery; and the punishment of being compelled publicly to restore the stolen property to its original possessor, amid the derision of his tribe, is much dreaded by the Circassian who would glory in a successful theft. The greatest stain upon the Circassian character is the custom of selling their children. The Circassian father willingly parts with his daughters, many of whom are bought by Turkish merchants for the harems of eastern monarchs. No degradation is implied in this transaction, and the young women themselves are generally willing partners in it. However contrary this custom may be to the ideas of Christian nations, it is certain that none of the more revolting features of American slavery are practically connected with it. Herds of cattle and sheep constitute the chief riches of the inhabitants. The princes and nobles, from whom the members of the various tribes hold the land which they cultivate, are the proprietors of the soil. Although the Circassians are desirous of devoting their attention to commerce, the warlike attitude which they are compelled, by the presence of the Russians, to maintain, has hitherto prevented them from cultivating any of the arts of peace.
The early periods of Circassian history are exceedingly obscure. Several Greek colonies appear to have been established at a remote period upon the coasts of the Black Sea, which were inhabited by savage tribes noted for their piratical expeditions. By these colonies commercial activity and regular government were to some extent introduced into that wild and uncultivated region. To them the Romans afterwards succeeded, who maintained their authority during the period of their power and prosperity. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the princes of Georgia were successful in reducing Circassia to the condition of a province of that kingdom. Thamar, one of the Georgian princes, is said by some to have been the first to introduce Christianity among the inhabitants, while by others it is maintained that the Christian faith was the prevailing religion from the fifth century. The Circassians having succeeded in the fifteenth century in throwing off the Georgian yoke, many of them settled on the coasts of the sea of Azof, where, coming in contact with the Tartars, they were subdued by the khans of the Crimea. In the middle of the sixteenth century, the Russian Czar, Ivan, I., having married a Circassian princess, assisted the people to throw off the Tartar yoke, and became master of a considerable portion of the country. But the Russian monarchs do not appear to have regarded its conquest as a matter of much importance, until the time of Peter the Great. That powerful monarch perceiving how much the possession of the Caucasus would contribute to his
political and commercial influence in western and central Asia, made an unsuccessful attempt to reduce it permanently under his dominion. Catherine II. pursued a similar line of policy. Georgia having been harassed by the successive invasions of the Persians and Turks, the prince of that country at last threw himself under the protection of the Russians, and became tributary to their power. The river Koubas being afterwards fixed as the southern boundary of the Muscovite empire, the Russians became ambitious of extending their dominion uninterruptedly to the extreme limits of Georgia. The Circassians, meanwhile, surrounded by Mohammedan nations, visited frequently by Turkish merchants, and galled over by the impressive eloquence of a fanatical devotee, the sheik Mansur, had embraced the faith of Islam, and acknowledged the Sultan as chief of their religion. In the wars which now took place between the Russians and the Turks, the latter used every exertion, by exciting the fanatical feelings of the Circassians against the infidels, to induce them to harass the Russians by frequent incursions into their territory. After having experienced the various fortunes of war, the Turks were worsted, and compelled by the treaty of Adrianople in 1829 to cede a considerable portion of their territory to the Czar. Assuming a right of political sovereignty which they had never possessed, Circassia was included in this cession. The Circassians refusing to acknowledge the right of the Sultan (whom they had never recognised as their sovereign) thus to dispose of their country, were now exposed to the hostility of the Russians, who determined to become masters of the territory on the coasts of the Black Sea, and indeed of the whole Caucasian region, by force of arms. This was the origin of that remorseless war which has been carried on with so much animosity under various leaders to the present day, and has cost the Russians an incredible amount of blood and treasure, and which is still apparently as far from ultimate settlement as it was at its commencement. See CAUCASUS.