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Post by fysaga on Jul 28, 2011 2:49:27 GMT 3
Hello fellow boardmembers. A friend of mine is of turkish-circassian heritage,and I would like to know some more of the genetic descent and culture of circassian people. Are they considered Steppe people or Causians,like Georgians ? Thanks in advance,best wishes.
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Post by H. İhsan Erkoç on Jul 28, 2011 13:58:43 GMT 3
They are one of the indigenious peoples of northwestern Caucasia. Some of them lived in the very southern edge of the Pontic-Caspian Steppes. Actually there is a misunderstanding with the name "Circassian". Originally, it is the name of the people known as Adyghe who live in northwestern Caucasia, but the name "Circassian" was also sometimes used for all peoples of the North Caucasus, including many non-Adyghe peoples and even sometimes Turkic peoples like the Qarachays and Balqars.
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Post by sarmat on Aug 1, 2011 6:25:10 GMT 3
This is an interesting question, actually. Because the name Circassians actually seems to originate from Turkic "Sherkesh," which probably was a quite spread name for a Kypchak-Tatar clan confederation in a Pre-pontic steppe. There is still a Sherkesh clan in the Small Juz of Kazakhs.
Most likely, due to high cultural influence of Kypchaks-Tatar over Adyge the name Circassians was applied to them. Interestingly, but the name that Russians used as a designation for North Caucasian tribes was "Mountain Tatars," Tatar was a lingua franca of Caucasus for a long time and cultural influences of Tatars were very visible as well...
However, no doubt, as Ihsan explained, Circassians are very ancient indigenous inhabitants of North Caucasus region. They just have been having very close interaction with Steppe people through out their history starting from Cimmerians and going all the way through to Tatars.
Traditional Circassian culture is very influenced by Steppans which included their ancient Nart epic and very strong tradition of horsemanship.
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Post by fysaga on Aug 2, 2011 1:39:06 GMT 3
Thank you for the interesting informations guys. Most of the things which were said I have already known,but not the tartar thing. Thanks again.
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Post by sarmat on Aug 2, 2011 3:07:59 GMT 3
Yeah, some words describing very distinctive examples of Circassian culture like papakha, aksakal, aul, etc. are of Turkic origin.
However, modern Circassians sometimes are very nationalistic and do not like talks about the Tatar influence...
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Post by Atabeg on Nov 4, 2011 14:56:21 GMT 3
They are one of the indigenious peoples of northwestern Caucasia. Some of them lived in the very southern edge of the Pontic-Caspian Steppes. Actually there is a misunderstanding with the name "Circassian". Originally, it is the name of the people known as Adyghe who live in northwestern Caucasia, but the name "Circassian" was also sometimes used for all peoples of the North Caucasus, including many non-Adyghe peoples and even sometimes Turkic peoples like the Qarachays and Balqars. yeah this is true one of my ex's said where circassian bla bla bla you know how they are no offence but "they're better than the rest" we speak a language wich turks dont understand... So I was curious... They spoke Kumyk at home LOL it's a Tatar dialect so She's Kumyk ... The fun part was when I replied haha you should have seen her face...
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Post by H. İhsan Erkoç on Nov 6, 2011 21:01:07 GMT 3
Yeah, unfortunately an important part of Caucasian Turkic peoples think they are Circassians too but in fact they are not. This is largely because in the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey, local Anatolian Turks had the habit of generalising people from where they came, not caring about ethnicity. Many Balkan turks were called "Greek", "Bulgarian", "Albanian", etc, many East Anatolian Turks (for example from Bayburt, Erzurum, Ağrı, etc) were called "Kurds", many Black Sea Turks were called "Laz" and many Turkic immigrants from Caucasia, such as the Qarachays, Balqars, Qumyqs, etc were called "Circassian".
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Post by hjernespiser on Nov 6, 2011 23:35:46 GMT 3
Sounds typical; like Magyars, Goths, Avars, Bulgars, etc. being called Scythian.
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Post by H. İhsan Erkoç on Nov 8, 2011 23:15:34 GMT 3
True, that is a nice comparison.
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