[12][13][14][15][16] In the medieval era, Circassia was nominally ruled by an elected Grand Prince, but individual principalities and tribes were autonomous.

[8][9][18] Legally and internationally, the Treaty of Belgrade, which was signed between Austria and the Ottoman Empire in 1739, provided for the recognition of the independence of Eastern Circassia.

[27][28] One view is that its root stems from Turkic languages, and that the term means "head choppers" or "warrior killers" accounting for the successful battle practices of the Circassians.

Circassians themselves don't use the term "Circassia", and refer to their country as Адыгэ Хэку (Adıgə Xəku) or Адыгей (Adıgey).

Another historical name for the country was Zichia (Zyx or the Zygii), who were described by the ancient Greek intellectual Strabo as a nation to the north of Colchis.

[citation needed] Circassia's historical great range extended from the Taman Peninsula in the west, to the town of Mozdok in today's North Ossetia–Alania in the east.

In 1237, the Dominican monks Richard and Julian, as part of the Hungarian embassy, visited Circassia and the main city of this country Matrega, located on the Taman Peninsula.

The letter of Pope John XXII, addressed to the Grand Prince of Zichia (Circassia) Verzacht, dates back to 1333, in which the Roman pontiff thanked the ruler for his diligence in introducing the Catholic faith among his subjects.

[39][40][41][42] In 1827, Ismail Berzeg officially declared the military confederation of the Circassian tribes and by 1839 united a significant part of Circassia under his control.

Honorable combat was a big part of this culture, during hostilities, it was considered strictly unacceptable to set fire to homes or crops, especially bread, even from enemies.

[56] Known rulers of the region include: Turkish nationalist groups and proponents of modern day Pan-Turkism have claimed that the Circassians are of Turkic origin, but no scientific evidence has been published to support this claim and it has been strongly denied by ethnic Circassians,[76] impartial research,[77][78][79][80][81][82] linguists[83] and historians[84] around the world.

[99][100] During that period the Circassians (referred to at the time as Kassogs)[101] began to accept Christianity as a national religion, but did not abandon all elements of their indigenous religious beliefs.

Following the dissolution of the Khazar state, the Adyghe people were integrated around the end of the 1st millennium AD into the Kingdom of Alania.

The capital of this new Circassian state founded by Inal became the city of Shanjir, built in the Taman region where he was born and raised.

In a map published in 1882, Felitsin has shown great importance to Inal, and placed his grave in the Ispravnaya region in Karachay-Cherkessia, not in Abkhazia.

[118][119] At the end of the 15th century, a detailed description of Circassia and of its inhabitants was made by Genovese traveller and ethnographer Giorgio Interiano.

The Crimean Khan Kaplan-Giray barely managed to save his life, and was humiliated, all the way to his shoes taken, leaving his brother, son, field tools, tents and personal belongings.

Russian troops retaliated by destroying villages where resistance fighters were thought to hide, as well as employing assassinations, kidnappings and the execution of whole families.

[7] Because the resistance was relying on sympathetic villages for food, the Russian military also systematically destroyed crops and livestock and killed Circassian civilians.

[137] In a series of sweeping military campaigns lasting from 1860 to 1864... the northwest Caucasus and the Black Sea coast were virtually emptied of Muslim villagers.

Columns of the displaced were marched either to the Kuban [River] plains or toward the coast for transport to the Ottoman Empire... One after another, entire Circassian tribal groups were dispersed, resettled, or killed en masse.

[79] Although the main target of the genocide was the Circassians, some Abkhaz, Abazin, Chechen, Ossetian and other Muslim Caucasian[143] communities were also affected.

Considering these rates, calculations including those taking into account the Russian government's own archival figures, have estimated a loss 600,000–1,500,000.

Ivan Drozdov, a Russian officer who witnessed the scene at Qbaada in May 1864 as the other Russians were celebrating their victory remarked: On the road, our eyes were met with a staggering image: corpses of women, children, elderly persons, torn to pieces and half-eaten by dogs; deportees emaciated by hunger and disease, almost too weak to move their legs, collapsing from exhaustion and becoming prey to dogs while still alive.The Ottoman Empire regarded the Adyghe warriors as courageous and experienced.

For no reason other than ethnic hatred, over the course of hundreds of raids the Russians drove the Circassians from their homeland and deported them to the Ottoman Empire.

There are twelve historic Adyghe (Circassian: Адыгэ, Adyge) princedoms or tribes of Circassia (three democratic and nine aristocratic); Abdzakh, Besleney, Bzhedug, Hatuqwai, Kabardian, Mamkhegh, Natukhai, Shapsug, Temirgoy, Ubykh, Yegeruqwai and Zhaney.

[151] Circassian populations also exist in other countries, such as Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Serbia, Egypt and Israel, but are considerably smaller.

[156] Some Circassian tribes converted to Judaism in the past as a result of the settlement of approximately 20 thousand Jews in 8th-century Circassia, along with the relations established with the Turkic-Jewish Khazar Khaganate.

[159] In 815 AD, Islam arrived in Circassia with the efforts of two Arab preachers called Abu Ishaq and Muhammad Kindi, and the first Circassian Muslim community was established with a small amount of followers.

[160] Travelling Sufi preachers and the increasing threat of an invasion from Russia helped expedite the spread of Islam in Circassia.