[see muḥammad pas̲h̲a čerkes ]

, The name of Čerkes (in Turkish čerkas , perhaps from the earlier "kerkète", indigenous name: Adi̊g̲h̲e) is a general designation applied to a group of peoples who form, with the Abk̲h̲az [ q.v.], the Abaza (cf. Beskesek Abazā ) and the Ubək̲h̲, the north-west or Abasgo-Adi̊g̲h̲e branch of the Ibero-Caucasian peoples. The ancestors of the Čerkes peoples were known among the ancients under the names of Σινδοί, Κερχεταί, Ζιχγοί, Ζυγοί, etc., and lived on the shores of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea and in the plains of the Kuban to the south an…

, Čerkes Res̲h̲īd, and Čerkes Meḥmed Tewfīḳ, Turkish guerrilla leaders, sons of a Circassian farmer in Emre near Karacabey ( wilāyet of Bursa). Res̲h̲īd, the oldest, was born in 1869 (or 1877?—see T.B.M.M . 25ci yıldönümünü anıs [1945], 63), Edhem, the youngest, in 1883-4. Res̲h̲īd fought with the Ottoman forces in Libya and the Balkans, where he was "Deputy Commander in Chief" for the provisional government of Western Thrace (September 1913), and sat for Saruhan in ¶ the last Ottoman Chamber and the Ankara National Assembly. All three brothers took leading parts in the…

[see Čerkes , edhem ].

(d. 1034/1625), Ottoman Grand Vizier. Educated in the palace school or Enderūn [ q.v.], he reached the rank of silāḥdār and left the palace with the appointment of Beglerbegi of Damascus. In 1621 he is mentioned as the fifth Ḳubbe Wezīri̊ (Nāʿīmā, Taʾrīk̲h̲ , Istanbul 1280, ii, 208). Upon the execution of the Grand Vizier Kemānkes̲h̲ ʿAlī Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.] (14 Ḏj̲umādā II 1033/3 April 1624), Murād IV [ q.v.] forced him to accept the appointment of himself as successor. Čerkes Meḥmed Pas̲h̲a thus became commander-in-chief of the army sent to suppress the revolt of Abāzā Meḥmed Pas̲h̲a [see abāzā…

[see čerkes ].

[see čerkes ].

[see čerkes ]

[see Čerkes ].

[see čerkes ].

(called in Nog̲h̲ay Turkish, Ḳuman , in Čerkes, Phs̲h̲iz ), one of the four great rivers of the Caucasus (Rion, Kura, Terek and Ḳuban). It is about 450 miles long. It rises near Mount Elburz at a height of 13,930 feet. Its three constituents (K̲h̲urzuḳ, Ulu-Ḳam, Uč-Ḳulan) join together before reaching the defile through which the Ḳuban enters the plains (at a height of 1,075 feet). The Ḳuban at first runs through the wooded outer spurs of the mountains and then, taking a westerly di…

, a Turkic tribe of the North Caucasus. They call themselves Ḳaračayli̊ and are known as Ḳaračaylar in Turkish and Karačaitsi̊, or Karačaievtsi̊, in Russian. The Ḳaračay language belongs to the Ḳi̊pčaḳ branch of Turkic. According to the 1926 Russian census, ethnically there were 55,123 Ḳaračay and linguistically 55,349. In the 1959 census, the numbers recorded were 81,403 and 78,817 respectively. The Ḳaračay occupy the mountain valleys of the upper Kuban, Taberda, Zelenčuk, Laba and Podkumok rivers on the northern slopes of the Caucasus. Little is known of their history. Their …

, a Muslim people of the Caucasus. In Russian they are called Kabardintsi̊, in Turkish Kabartaylar; other designation, Käsäg. The name of the Kabards was first mentioned as Cheuerthei by Barbaro, who visited the Caucasus in 1436. Its etymology remains uncertain. The Kabard language belongs to the eastern branch of the Adi̊ghe (Čerkes) linguistic group, which is also referred to as “high Adi̊ghe”. According to the 1926 Soviet census, there were 139,925 Kabards ethnically and 138,925 linguistically. The census of 1939 records 164,000 Kabards. The Kabards live in the basin of Uppe…

, a town of north central Anatolia, lying some 160 km/100 miles east of Ankara on both sides of a tributary of the Delice Irmak (lat. 39° 50’ N., long. 34° 48’ E., altitude 1,320 m/4,330 feet). It was founded by members of the D̲j̲ebbārzāde/Čapanog̲h̲lu family (supposedly yoz means “pasture, herd”, while gat is a dialectal word for “town”). On record since 1116/1704, this dynasty, possibly of Mamalu-Türkmen background, constituted one of the major aʿyān lines of central Anatolia, controlling a territory far beyond its original power-base in the sand̲j̲aḳ of Bozoḳ ( wilāyet …

, the ancient Gerasa, a place in Transjordan situated south-east of the Ḏj̲abal ʿAd̲j̲lūn, in a well-wooded hilly district, standing on the bank of a small tributary of the Wādi ’l-Zarḳāʾ, the Wādi ’l-Dayr or Chrysoroas of the Greeks. Founded in the Hellenistic era at a centre of natural communications, later to be followed by Roman roads, it was captured by the Jewish leader Alexander Jannaeus in about 80 B.C., but freed by Pompey; it then belonged to the towns of the Decapolis, being incorpora…

, t., literally, “the 150 [undesirables]”. During the peace negotiations between the Allies and Turkey at Lausanne in 1923, Great Britain demanded that a general amnesty in Turkey should form part of the final settlement. The British were concerned that, otherwise, those inhabitants of Turkey who had been opposed to Muṣṭafā Kemāl and his nationalist movement in Anatolia would be persecuted. The Turkish delegation would not agree to an amnesty without exceptions, but it did not have at its disposal a l…

, Nīzīb , the Ottoman Turkish forms for modern Turkish Nizip, a town and district of southeastern Turkey, lying in the plain to the southeast of the Kurt Dağlari mountain chain on the Nizip river, a right-bank tributary of the Euphrates, 17 km/10 miles to the west of Birecik [see bīred̲j̲ik ], in lat. 37° 02′ N. and long. 37° 47′ E. at an altitude of 534 m/1750 feet. Nizīb and its surrounding district, extending to Kilis and the Syrian frontier, have long been famed for their extensive olive groves and sesame fields. Ewliyā Čelebi visited Nizīb in the 11th/17th cen…

, the name of one of three closely related peoples that inhabited the Northwest Caucasus, the other two being the Abk̲h̲āz [ q.v.] and Circassians [see čerkes ]. The Ubyk̲h̲, self-designation a-Tpakh, lived between the Black Sea shore and the watershed of the Great Caucasus near present-day Sochi; in the south they bordered on Abk̲h̲āzians, elsewhere on Circassians. The Ubyk̲h̲, Sunnī Muslims, were at least bilingual, also speaking Circassian and/or Abk̲h̲āz. Their language, originally closer to Abk̲h̲āz, moved towards Circas…

, Russian Azov; called Tana by the Italians after the ancient Tanaïs (the Old-Tana of Jos. Barbaro) is first found on an Italian map of 1306. The Turkish name Azaḳ has appeared on coins since 717/1317. First the Genoese around 1316, then the Venetians in 1332, established trade colonies in Azaḳ. It appears, however, to have remained essentially a Muslim-Tatar city which was administered by Tatar governors such as Muḥammad Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a about 1334, Sichi-beg in 1347 and 1349, Tolobey about 1358. A mint of the k̲h̲āns was active there as late as 1411. An emporium of th…

History. 1. For the early Islamic period up to the Mongol and Tīmūrid periods, see Vol. III, 343-50. 2. The period 1500-1800. Compared to previous and later epochs, these three centuries are among the least studied periods in the history of the Caucasus. The main reason for that lies not in the unavailability of sources but rather in their inaccessibility until the recent past. The Russian ¶ archives the most used ones are far from having been fully scrutinised. In the Ottoman archives, only the surface has been scratched, chiefly due to the efforts of French …