Adyghe

The Adyghe historically dominated the mountainous region of the northwest Caucasus, in what is now Russia. The Russian conquest of the area and the great revolt between 1825 and 1864 caused one of the largest mass exoduses in modern history: about a million and a half Circassians left their homeland, most heading to Turkey and other parts of the Ottoman Empire, including the Middle East.

This forced displacement scattered the people into remaining communities across several countries, leaving only fragments of the original population in the Caucasus. Centuries earlier, under Georgian and Byzantine influence, many Adyghe had become Christians, but the growing Ottoman presence gradually replaced that faith with Islam.

Social life revolves around Xabze, a code of conduct passed down orally that governs everything from respect for elders and women to the rules of hospitality and conflict resolution. A council of elders and a regional coordinator help preserve these customs in the communities scattered across Anatolia.

Welcoming a visitor is considered an almost sacred duty: a guest is treated as a guest of the whole neighborhood, not only of the family hosting them. Even after generations living outside the Caucasus, many Adyghe maintain the language, traditional dances, and this social etiquette as central marks of their identity.

The great majority of the Adyghe identify as Sunni Muslim, a faith that became an inseparable part of Circassian identity over the centuries under Ottoman rule. For many, practicing Islam is as central to belonging to the people as speaking their own language or following Xabze.

This fusion of religion and ethnicity traces back to an older and more diverse past: centuries ago, under Georgian and Byzantine influence, entire communities of Circassians professed Christianity, a chapter now almost erased from the people’s collective memory. Even so, this Christian heritage shows that Adyghe identity was not born bound to Islam, but was shaped by successive layers of history and contact with neighboring empires.

The New Testament in Adyghe was published in the early 1990s and already circulates among speakers of the language, along with some books of the Old Testament translated since then. The complete translation of Scripture is still in progress. Among the Adyghe of Turkey, however, the everyday language is usually Turkish, and access to this biblical material in the ancestral language remains limited outside circles most connected to Circassian culture.

Being Adyghe is historically tied to being Muslim: embracing the Christian faith is usually seen as abandoning one’s own identity and betraying the people’s memory. The dispersal across the Ottoman Empire fragmented communities into small pockets far apart from one another, making any sustained contact with churches or believers difficult. Without a local Christian community as a reference point, every Adyghe who draws near to the gospel faces this path in isolation.

As a people scattered in small communities far from one another, the Adyghe lack spaces where the Christian faith can be lived out and shared in their own language and culture, without the implicit demand to stop being who they are. There is also no clear, accessible path by which an Adyghe interested in the gospel could learn more without exposing themselves to social rejection.

Christian television, radio, and the internet stand out as means this people already easily accesses in daily life, making them a valuable channel for the gospel message to reach them discreetly and respectfully.