Introduction

A lot of people hear about the circassian but only few of them know who are the circassian. This blog contains information about their origins, where did they come from, their geographical location, their tribes, immigration, and their language. Also, it includes pictures about their dress (men and women's dress) and explanation about the material used in their dresses. Also it contains information about their marriage customs, their wedding ceremony, and some examples of their songs and dance.

Marriage Customs

Circassian usually get married by kidnapping, the groom wait the bride on the border of the village riding his horse. After that he should fire three shots as a sign to let the entire village know. The groom should be accompanied by two married women from his relatives, and they took the bride to one of those women's house. After that men should go to the bride home to let her father agree about the marriage.Usually the bride's family give their agreement. If not, the bride should go back to her home. After all the village know about the kidnapping , the groom should hold a big party with circassian songs and dances.

Circassians care about music alot. There are many musical instruments in their songs such as occordion, violin, and flute, but the most important one and its used in all songs is the Occordion.Circassians have two types of songs. The first one is for daily life, love, and imagination. The second one is for war, countries, and martyrs. Circassians have special rules of dancing. The first rule is that men and women involve in dancing, and they should dance together. The dance consist only from two people and it's for specific period of time. The dance can't start without a signal from the supervisor of the dance, and only the women who have the ability to end the dance.The second rule is that the married women should not dance Each song have different dance such as:

1 – Kafa : It's a fast dance

2- Zafako: Its a calm dance for old people.

3- Shahshan

4- Weg

5- Khoshamaf

Dress

Circassians have their own dress which considered the oldest dress in the world that have never changed. They designed their dress based on their life style. There are two types of the circassian dress. The first one for men and the second one for women. Men's dress is consistent with their way of living as horsemen and fighters. Men's dress consist from

1. Long jacket that made from thicj fabric and its usually black.
2. pants
3. White shirt
4. Boots
5. Head covor which called "Kalbak"
6. Belt
7. Dagger
   

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On the other hand, women’s clothes have several features such as unobtrusiveness, Beauty ,Contains a Embroidery from the circassian arts. It consist from :

1. The outer dree that made from velvet or satin. Its open from the front.



2. Shirt that have some incription on it. Its color should be diffrent from the outer dress color.



3. Belt that made from glod or selver.



4. Headdress that made from silk. They should put it over the hat

Those traditional dresses are not used any more. It's used only in the circassian bands or special occasions.

About Circassians

Circassians lived in the north Caucasus between the Black Sea in the West to the borders of the Chechen Republic in the East. The highest peak in the Caucasus is 5633 m which is called Mount Elburs. They consist from 12 tribes.Those tribes are represented as 12 starts in their flag.

1. Abadzeh:( Is the biggest circassian tribe , their number are 260 000).
   


2. Besleney:( They live in the valley of Big and Small Laba and on the coast of Urup)
   


3. Bzhedug:(They divided in 2 groups: those who lived close to the black Sea and those who lived in territory of Kuban river).
   


4. Yegeruqay:(They lived between rivers White and Laba).
   


5. Zhaney :( After the Russian war, this tribe was wholly destroyed).
   


6. Kabarday :( It is also the connecting point between the Western and Eastern Caucasus).


7. Mamheg:(They consist from three big families: Shnah , Mami, and Tlizhho).
   


8. Natuhay: ( The first tribe that establish trade connection with turkey).
   


9. Temirgoy:( is the strongest and most powerful tribe).
   


10. Ubyh: (This tribe is assumed to be fist mentioned in the sources of 5th-7th century as a tribe Bruh).
    


11. Shapsug :(They composed 2/3 of Circassian population).
    


12. Hatukay:(Is the smallest tribe).
    

The circassians have three main languages.

1- Adyghabza: This language is composed of two branches: eastern and western Adghabza. It consists from 52 letters. There are 500,00 circassians who spoke this language. This is a website dictionary that translate words from Arabic to Adyghabza and vice versa. Carcassian Dictionary

2- Abkhaz-Abaza: This language was spoken in the Abkhaz republic and in the Karachai-Cherkess republic. There are 100,00 people who spoke this language.

3- The Ubykh Language: It’s an extinct language; its no more exist since 7th of October 1992.

After the war Carcassian people immigrate to many countries. The table below shows the counties as well as the populatuion of carcassians in each country.

Place	Population
Turkey	2000,000
Russia	900,000
Jordan	126,000
Syria	30,000
Germany	15,000
USA	5000
Palastine	3000
Holland	2500