Adyghe (Circassians)

Local beliefs. Before the spread of world religions, local cults and rites connected with nature, economy and social life existed. Later ethnographic records do not provide grounds for reconstructing a single unchanging religion of all groups over thousands of years. Christianity in the Middle Ages. Christian ties formed through the Black Sea region and neighbouring Caucasus centres. Byzantine, Abkhaz and Alan influence, and later contacts with Genoese colonies, operated in different periods and in different territories. The spread of church institutions did not mean the disappearance of local rites. Coexistence of traditions. Travellers of the same period described the faith of Adyghe societies differently. This is explained by the unequal religious situation and by the combination of local ideas with Christian and Muslim practices. This picture is more complex than a sequential succession of three strictly separated eras. Paths of the spread of Islam. In the early modern period, contacts with the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire, preachers, trade and ties among the local nobility played an important role. The adoption of Islam proceeded gradually: a ruler's political decision did not equal the immediate conversion of every village. The 18th and 19th centuries. Islam strengthened at different rates. During the Caucasian War, Muslim norms acquired an additional unifying significance. The religious history of the western societies and of Kabarda should not be dated by a single common date. The Sunni tradition. The main historical Islamic tradition of the Adyghe is Sunni, predominantly of the Hanafi madhhab. This affiliation cannot automatically be transferred to every individual. Mosques, religious education and family rites constitute different sides of religious life. Khabze and religion. Adyghe khabze encompasses customs, norms of communication, respect and social behaviour. It is not identical to sharia and is not the precise name of a single religion of all Adyghe. In scholarly literature, the ethics of adygag'e and the etiquette forms of its expression are also distinguished. Orthodox Adyghe. The history of Orthodox Kabardian communities is connected, in particular, with Mozdok and the migrations of the 18th century. The existence of such communities shows that Adyghe identity is not reducible to a single confession. The Soviet period. Soviet anti-religious policy restricted religious institutions and public practice. Family and local traditions were preserved unevenly; secular culture became an important part of the lives of several generations. After the collapse of the USSR. Religious activity and discussion of the relationship between faith and customs resumed. Field research records Muslims, Christians of various denominations and secular positions. Local surveys of past years are not presented as contemporary statistics of all Adyghe and the diaspora.