CIRCASSIA, or TCHERKESSIA, a mountainous region in the S. E. of Euro pean Russia, lying chiefly on the N. slope of the Caucasus, partly also on the S., and bounded on the W. by the Black Sea. Since the Russian revolution this terri tory forms part of the republics of Kuban and Georgia. The mountains, of which the culminating heights are those of Mount Elbruz, are intersected every where with steep ravines and clothed with thick forests, and the territory is principally drained by the Kuban and its tributaries. Its climate is temperate, its inhabitants healthy and long-lived. The people call themselves Adighe, the name Tcherkess (robbers) being of Tartar origin. They are divided into several tribes speaking widely-different dialects.
While they retained their independence their government was of a patriarchal character, but every free Circassian had the right of expressing his opinion in the assemblies. They possessed none but traditional annals and laws. Polygamy was permissible in theory, but not com mon. The duties of hospitality and vengeance were alike binding, and a Spartan morality existed in the matter of theft. Their religion, which is nomi nally Moslem, is in many cases a jumble of Christian, Jewish, and heathen tradi tions and ceremonies. As a race the
Circassians are comely, the men being prized by the Russians as warriors, and the women by the Turks as mistresses, a position generally desired by the women themselves.
The early history of Circassia is ob scure. Between the 10th and 13th cen turies it formed a portion of the empire of Georgia, but in 1424 the Circassians were an independent people, and at war with the Tartars of the Crimea, to whose khans, however, some were occasionally tributary. In 1705 the Tartars were de feated in a decisive battle, but shortly after the territorial encroachments of the Russians on the Caucasian regions began, and in 1829 the country was formally annexed by them. A heroic resistance was made by the Circassians under their leader Schamyl, and on being reduced to submission numbers of the inhabitants emigrated to the Turkish provinces. In the N. and E., however, tribes of the Cir cassian stock remain. The Circassians, properly so called, have been estimated variously to number from 150,000 to 500,000.