Cherkess, Kabardian

The ancestors of the Kabardian Cherkess have inhabited the northwestern Caucasus for thousands of years, forming, together with other Circassian groups, one of the oldest nations of this crossing region between Europe and Asia. For centuries, they maintained their own kingdoms and confederations, with a strong military and diplomatic tradition that brought them into contact with neighboring empires.

In the 19th century, the long war fought against the Russian Empire ended in mass expulsion: most of the Circassian people were forced to leave their homeland for the Ottoman Empire, an episode that still deeply marks the collective memory today. Those who remained in the region rebuilt their lives under Russian and, later, Soviet rule, preserving their identity amid territorial divisions redrawn several times.

Traditionally tied to livestock raising and farming in the valleys and slopes of the Caucasus, the Kabardian Cherkess organize life around the extended family and bonds of honor passed down from generation to generation. Xabze, the code of conduct governing hospitality, respect for elders, and dispute resolution, remains present in daily life, even after decades of urban living and modernization.

Music, dance, and oral storytelling hold a central place in celebrations: string and wind instruments accompany sharply rhythmic dances, and the Nart sagas continue to be told as part of the people’s identity. Welcoming whoever arrives at the home is considered a duty of honor, not merely a courtesy.

The Kabardian Cherkess are today almost entirely Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school, a faith that took hold among the Circassians between the 17th and 18th centuries under Crimean Tatar and Ottoman influence, following a long period in which older religious practices, including traces of Christianity and traditional Caucasus beliefs, coexisted in the region and still leave marks on local customs.

Being Muslim today is deeply tied to being Cherkess: the Islamic faith functions as a marker of ethnic belonging, alongside Xabze, the pre Islamic honor code that continues to shape customs, celebrations, and family relationships even within a serious, everyday, orthodox Islamic practice.

Kabardian, this people’s language, is a written language with published literature, and portions of Scripture have already been translated: Bible portions have circulated since the early 1990s, and a New Testament in Kabardian was published during that period. A complete Bible in the language does not yet exist, however, and access to what has already been translated remains limited within Kabardian communities.

Among the Kabardian Cherkess, being Muslim is an inseparable part of who they are: abandoning Islam is seen as abandoning one’s own family and one’s own people. Add to this the historical association of Christianity with Russian culture, which colonized and expelled the Circassians in the past, making the Christian faith something perceived as foreign and even hostile. Authorities’ surveillance of religious activity coming from outside and wariness toward strangers make any open contact with the gospel rare.

Like many peoples of the Caucasus, the Kabardian Cherkess live under pressure to assimilate culturally, which threatens the continuity of the language and customs among younger generations growing up far from traditional villages. There is also a need for stable economic opportunities in the mountainous regions where they live.

Spiritually, the people lack simple access to the Scriptures in their own language and the presence of faith communities able to disciple new believers without exposing them to isolation from family and clan.