Adyghe People - The Adyghe Diaspora

The Adyghe Diaspora

Adyghe have lived outside the Caucasus region since the Middle Ages. They were particularly well represented in the Mamluks of Turkey and Egypt. In fact, the Burji dynasty which ruled Egypt from 1382 to 1517 was founded by Adyghe Mamluks.

Much of Adyghe culture was disrupted after their conquest by Russia in 1864. This led to a diaspora of the peoples of the northwest Caucasus, known as Muhajirism, mostly to various parts of the Ottoman Empire. And it was depicted in the Circassian Folklore (know to Circassians as Ghebzah) with the name (istambelak'kwa).

The largest Adyghe diaspora community today is in Turkey, especially in Samsun, Kahramanmaraş, Kayseri, Bandırma and Düzce.

Significant communities live in Jordan, Iraq, Syria (in Beer ajam and many other villages), Lebanon, Egypt, Israel (in the villages of Kfar Kama and Rehaniya—for more information see Circassians in Israel), Libya, and Macedonia. A number of Adyghe were introduced to Bulgaria in 1864-1865 but most fled after it became separate from the Ottoman Empire in 1878. On May 20, 2011 the Georgian parliament voted in a 95 to 0 declaration that Russia had committed genocide when it engaged in massacres against Circassians in the 19th Century.

A great number of Adyghe people have also immigrated to the United States and settled in Upstate New York, California, and New Jersey.

The small community from Kosovo expatriated to Adygea in 1998.

The total number of Adyghe people worldwide is estimated at 6 million.