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Abazins

Ethnic group in the Northwest Caucasus

Abazins
Summary

Ethnic group in the Northwest Caucasus

FieldValue
flagProposed Naval Jack of the Republic of Abkhazia.svg
flag_captionFlag of the Abazins
groupAbaza
Абаза
pop210,000 (est.)
region1Turkey
pop115,000–150,000
ref1
region2Russia
pop243,341
36,919
3,646
418
ref2
region3Egypt
pop35,000–15,000
region4Ukraine
pop4128
ref4
relsPredominantly Sunni Islam
langsAbaza, Russian, Arabic, Turkish
relatedAbkhazians, Circassians

Абаза

  • Karachay-Cherkessia
  • Stavropol Krai
  • Kabardino-Balkaria 36,919 3,646 418
Abazin country

The Abazin, Abazinians or Abaza (Abaza and Abkhaz: Абаза; Circassian: Абазэхэр; ; ; ) are an ethnic group of the Northwest Caucasus, closely related to the Abkhaz and Circassian peoples. Today, as a result of atrocities committed by Imperial Russia during the Circassian genocide, they live mostly in Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and in Karachay-Cherkessia and Stavropol Krai in the North Caucasus region of Russia. The Tapanta (:ru:Тапанта), a branch of the Abaza, lived between the Besleney and Kabardian princedoms on the upper Kuban.

Abaza people historically speak the Abaza language, a Northwest Caucasian language most closely related to Abkhaz, and more distantly related to the Ubykh and Circassian languages. There are two dialects of Abaza spoken in Karachay-Cherkessia: Ashkharua and Tapanta. The culture and traditions of the Abazin are similar to those of the Circassians. On many old maps Abazin territory is marked as part of Circassia (Adygea).

According to the 2010 Russian census, there were 43,341 Abazins in Russia.

Diaspora

An Abazin diaspora exists in Turkey, Egypt and in Middle Eastern countries such as Jordan and Syria, most of which are descendants of muhajirs from the Caucasian War with the Russian Empire.

There is a significant Abazin presence in Turkey. An estimated 150,000 Abaza live in the provinces of Eskişehir, Samsun, Yozgat, Adana, Kayseri, and Sakarya, as well as İzmit and İstanbul.

Most of them belong to Ashkharua clan that fought against the Tsarist army and emigrated to Turkey after losing the battle of Kbaada (Krasnaya Polyana in today's Sochi), whereas the Tapanta clan fought with the Russian forces.

[[Aziz Pasha Abaza]] of the Egyptian [[Abaza family]], the country's sole Abazin clan

A prominent example in Egypt is the Abaza family, a large Egyptian Abazin clan.

Culture

Historically, the Abazin engaged in animal herding and some farming.

The Abazins are dominantly Sunni Muslims. The Abazins first encountered Islam during their migrations to the Abazinia region via contact with the Nogais and other Muslim people. The Abazins adopted Islam via the influence of Muslim merchants and missionaries from the 16th to 19th centuries.

References

References

  1. "Ethnologue.com".
  2. "About number and composition population of Ukraine by data All-Ukrainian census of the population 2001". State Statistics Committee of Ukraine.
  3. "Abazinsky District, Karachay-Cherkessian Republic, Russia".
  4. (28 September 1998). "Arabs or Circassians, or a combination of both? Alobazah families in Egypt".
  5. Cole, Jeffrey. (2011). "Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia". ABC-CLIO.
  6. Akiner, Shirin. (1986). "Islamic Peoples Of The Soviet Union". Routledge.
  7. Olson, James Stuart. (1994). "An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires". Greenwood Publishing Group.
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

abazins ethnic-groups-in-turkey ethnic-groups-in-lebanon ethnic-groups-in-syria ethnic-groups-in-jordan ethnic-groups-in-egypt karachay-cherkessia stavropol-krai indigenous-peoples-of-the-north-caucasus muslim-communities-of-russia muslim-peoples-of-the-caucasus
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