Adygei

*Population estimates for 1994

The Adygei or Agyge (Adyghe) as they named themselves are the people who live mainly in the Adygei Autonomous Region, in the Karachai-Cherkess Autonomous Region of Russia, in the Krasnodar region, and partly in Turkey and Arabian countries. The Adygei sub-ethnic groups (the Abadzekh, the Beslenei, the Bzhedugi, the Mamkhegi, the Yeger-Ukai, the Makshei, the Natukhai, the Temirgoi, the Khaturkai) can easily be distinguished between.

They are not homogeneous as far as anthropology is concerned; however, they are referred to a different type of Balcan-Caucasus race. The language they speak is Adygei, as well as using Russian.

The ancestors of the Adygei inhabited the northwest Caucasus. After the Kabardins and later the Cherkess had separated from the Adygei community, they settled along the Black Sea coast and near the Kuban river. During that period, the Adygei tribes united and formed the Adygei nation. Then, in the sixteenth century, the Adygei joined Russia. The economic and cultural processes that took place in the nineteenth century promoted the ethnic consolidation of the Adygei. After the Adygei Autonomous Region had been formed, the consolidation of the Adygei increased.

Their traditional occupations was cattle breeding and gardening. The traditional culture was similar to the culture of the Kabardins. The family relationship of the Adygei people was of the Arabian type. For a long time, the Adygei living in the mountainous regions had preserved the tradition of large families and the women, mainly in the Manseg families, were oppressed. Their folklore, Nart epic, was highly developed.

The Adygei believers are of Muslim-Sunnite faith.