Cherkess

*Population estimates for 1994

“Cherkess” (also “Circassian”), the common name for the Adygei, was first mentioned in written records of the thirteenth century. This word is used to name the Adyg people of the Karachai-Cherkess Autonomous Region (including the Kabardin descendants who migrated to the Kuban territories at the beginning of the nineteenth century).

The Cherkess inhabit mountain valleys between rocky and chalk cliffs of the Caucasus and some foothills regions. “Cherkess” is the word used to call the descendants of Caucasian mountaineers who migrated to Turkey in the nineteenth century. They include the Adygei, Abkhaz, Ossetins and other people groups living in Turkey, Syria and other Middle East countries (total population – 150,000).

National clothes are solely used on holidays or during traditional ceremonies. Some elderly people have preserved old Cherkess songs. On holidays and festivals they often perform Cherkess dances and other national elements.

Islam is the national Cherkess religion.