Wiktionary
n. (plural of Circassian English)
Wikipedia
The Circassians ( Circassian: Адыгэхэр, Adygekher) are a Northwest Caucasian ethnic group native to Circassia, who were displaced in the course of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus in the 19th century, especially after the Russian–Circassian War in 1864. In its narrowest sense, the term "Circassian" includes the twelve Adyghe ( Circassian: Адыгэ, Adyge) tribes (three democratic and nine aristocratic), i.e. Abzakh, Besleney, Bzhedug, Hatuqwai, Kabardian, Mamkhegh, Natukhai, Shapsug, Temirgoy, Ubykh, Yegeruqwai, and Zhaney, each one representing a star on the green-and-gold Circassian flag. However, due to Soviet administrative divisions, Circassians were also designated as the following: Adygeans (Adyghe in Adygea), Cherkessians (Adyghe in Karachay-Cherkessia), Kabardians (Adyghe in Kabardino-Balkaria), Shapsugians (Adyghe in Krasnodar Krai) although all the four are essentially the same people residing in different political units.
The majority of Circassians are predominantly Sunni Muslim. The Circassians mainly speak the Circassian language, a Northwest Caucasian language with three main dialects and numerous sub-dialects. Many Circassians also speak Turkish, Russian, English, Arabic, and Hebrew, having been exiled by Russia to lands of the Ottoman Empire, where the majority of them today live. About 800,000 Circassians remain in historical Circassia (modern-day titular Circassian republics of Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia as well as the southern half of Krasnodar Krai and the southwestern part of Stavropol Krai), and others live in the Russian Federation outside these republics and krais. The 2010 Russian Census recorded 718,727 Circassians, of which 516,826 are Kabardian, 124,835 are Adyghe proper, 73,184 are Cherkess, and 3,882 Shapsug.
The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization estimated in the early 1990s that there are as many as 3.7 million "ethnic Circassian" diaspora (in over 50 countries), outside the titular Circassian republics (meaning that only one in seven "ethnic Circassians" live in the homeland), and that, of these 3.7 million, more than 2 million live in Turkey, 300,000 in the Levant (mostly modern-day Jordan and Syria) and Mesopotamia, and 50,000 in Western Europe and the United States.
Usage examples of "circassians".
You could never trust ragheads—Afghans or Circassians or Turks or whatever.
The Circassians were carrying rope-handled wooden crates between them.
The last of the Circassians had left for the forest, bent under their sacks of food.
Interesting use of indigenous assets, too—those Circassians and Russki partisans.
Tyansha had been the child of Circassians settled in Turkey, descendants of refugees from Russian conquest, chieftains and their followers.
They were Circassians, dirty Abduls, half-starved and so accustomed to being beaten on that we were viewed as no worse and no better than the Fritz or the Ivans.
We could have shot the Circassians, but that would have been a waste of some 2,000 bullets.
Those Circassians worked like the serfs they already were—for all they weren't yet wearing orange neck numbers—and then got out of our way under their own steam.
We did this by blasting out connecting walls and then setting a gang of the wild Circassians to clearing out the rubble.
She offered me a cup, along with a hunk of that very chocolate I'd stuffed into her hands moments before Eric banished the Circassians into the wilderness.
Just as Casca whirled toward him, a rock twice the size of a large man's fist flew from one of the defending Circassians and hit the Mameluke squarely between the shoulder blades.
In this, at length, her defender appeared to be overmatched, when the Circassians broke the ring, and separated the combatants, who were borne asunder in the rush.
With these Agrican, not distinguished in the crowd, entered the place, driving both Circassians and Cathayans before him, and the portcullis being dropped, he was shut in.
In this connection we can safely say, also, that the new crop of Circassians is looking extremely well.
One of the Circassians lifted the head of one Posleen, careful not to let any of the blood from the throat wound smear his red cherkessa.