The Circassian Principality of Zhane

In the array of historical and archaeological sources, the ancient Meotians (мыутӀэхэр) are officially recognized by science as the direct ethnic ancestors of the modern Circassians.
Their settlement territory during its heyday covered the entire Eastern Azov Sea region, extending up to the mouth of the Don (Tanais).
Meotian heritage in the Azov region.
Historical Circassia in its ancient and medieval borders was inextricably linked with the shores of Maeotis (the Azov Sea).

• Geography of settlement: In the 1st millennium BC, the Meotian tribes occupied the basin of the Lower and Middle Kuban, the Eastern Azov region, and the Don delta. Archaeologists record numerous Meotian settlements in the area between the mouth of the Don and the right bank of the Kuban.
• Testimonies of ancient authors: The ancient Greek geographer Strabo explicitly stated that “the Meotians live by the lake itself [Maeotis].” Scylax of Caryanda (6th century BC) also localized the Meotians on the shores of the Azov Sea.
  Continuity: from the Meotians to the Circassians
  The connection between the ancient masters of the Azov region and the medieval Circassians is traced through a continuous cultural tradition.
• Ethnonymic bridge: In the early Middle Ages, the ancient names of the Meotian tribes (синды, досхи, псессы) were replaced by the collective name “зихи”, and then “касоги”. However, sources emphasize the direct continuity between the Sindo-Meotian culture and the early medieval culture of the Circassians.
  The Azov steppes up to the Don were not just a geographical periphery, but a zone of active life for the Circassian ethnos.
  Thus, the Azov region up to the Don is the historical cradle of the Circassian people, where the Meotian culture laid the foundation of Circassian civilization.
  The repeated expansion of the borders of historical Circassia (Адыгэ Хэку) in the 10th century to the north, up to the shores of the Don, represents a large-scale process that researchers often call the “Circassian Reconquista.” This is not just a geographical claim, but a fact recorded in sources of the centuries-old political and military dominance of the Circassian tribes in these steppes.

1. Geopolitical breakthrough: from the fall of Khazaria to the Golden Horde
   The first systemic evidence of the presence of the Circassians (касоги) in the Don region dates back to the 10th century. After the defeat of the Khazar Khaganate by the Kievan prince Svyatoslav in 985 and the fall of Belaya Vezha (Sarkel), located between the Volga and the Don, the Circassians had the opportunity to settle the steppe expanses.

• Battle of Belaya Vezha (965): Chronicle reports about Svyatoslav’s victory over the Yasy and касоги often localize this event precisely in the Lower Don region, where the Khazar administration had introduced a part of the Circassian population to guard the borders.
• Era of expansion (13th–15th centuries): From the end of the 13th century, against the background of the weakening of the Polovtsians and the disintegration of the Ulus of Jochi, Circassia began a continuous movement to the north. By the 14th–15th centuries, the “Circassian land” stretched east from the Don for an eight days’ journey, reaching the Caspian.

1. Evidence of the “Intermarium”: The Don as a border.
   Foreign observers and cartographers recorded the Don as the northern border of the Circassian world:

• Giosafat Barbaro (1438): Describing the internecine struggle of the Tatar khans, he noted that a huge army moving towards the mouth of the Don was forced to “bypass Circassia” (intorno apreso la Circassia), which emphasizes the significant access of the Circassian lands to the north.
• Giorgio Interiano (1502): In his work “The Life and Country of the Zikhi,” he directly points out that the “adiga” people live in the area from the river Tanais (Don) along the entire sea coast.
• Kazan princes (1445): The fact of the flight of the sons of Khan Ulugh Muhammad to the “Circassian land,” located in close proximity to the Lower Volga and Don, serves as another proof of Circassian control over these territories in the 15th century.

1. Military control and the “scorched earth” tactic
   Ownership of the steppes was confirmed by the ability of the Circassians to conduct large-scale military operations there:

• Confrontation with Timur (1395): To bleed the conqueror’s army, the Circassians used the tactic of total war, burning the meadows between the Don and the Kuban, which inflicted immense damage on Timur’s cavalry due to lack of fodder.
• Strike against the Great Horde (1498): Circassian cavalry detachments inflicted a crushing defeat on the Tatars of the Great Horde, forcing Khan Muhammad with all his nomad camps to retreat to the western bank of the Don.

1. Cartographic fixation
   Up to the beginning of the 18th century, European geography perceived Circassia as an extensive power:

• Map of Guillaume Delisle (1705): On the map “Europe,” Circassia is depicted as an impressive country occupying the entire space between the Don and the Caspian Sea, comparable in size to France.
• Herman Moll (1714): Characterized the Circassians as “a martial People, who have no fortify’d Towns, but trust to their Arms, and upon any Danger retire to the Mountains.”
  Up until the construction of the Caucasian Line, Circassian “parties” continued to penetrate to the banks of the Volga and the Don, considering these steppes their historical patrimony.
  The Zhane people (Zhane) are one of the most illustrious and powerful sub-ethnoses of the Circassian world, whose history is inextricably linked with the struggle for dominance in the Azov region and the northern steppes. In the late Middle Ages, they acted as a powerful military-political subject whose sovereignty was recognized by both European cartographers and Eastern chroniclers.
  Geography of settlement: from the Don to the Black Sea
  Historical sources unanimously confirm that in the 15th — early 16th centuries, the northern borders of Circassia, where the Zhane people dominated, reached the shores of the Don (Tanais).
  The Zhane people controlled the Taman Peninsula, where in the mid-18th century lived a numerous Circassian population engaged in fishing, trade, and crafts.
  Military-political influence and ties with the Don region.
  The influence of the Zhane people reached the Don and the Volga not only in the form of geographical borders but also through active military expansion.
• Raiding activity: Sultan Khan-Girey, relying on folklore, noted that the Zhane people were distinguished by special militancy, and their “brave raids often bathed the banks of the quiet Don and the majestic Volga with the blood of their inhabitants.” They challenged all neighbors to battle, including the Crimean Tatars and Nogais.
• Military potential: Evliya Çelebi (1666) reported that Greater Zhane could field an impressive cavalry army of 13,000 riders. The princes of Zhane considered themselves the senior princes of all Circassia, possessing the most branched genealogical tree.
• Relations with Muscovy: In the 1550s, the princes of Zhane (Sibok Kansauko, Mashuk Kanoko) were among the first of the Circassians to seek an alliance with Ivan IV to fight against Crimea, which marked the beginning of the formation of the Circassian diaspora in Moscow.
  Confrontation with Crimea.
  The possession of the steppes between the Kuban and the Don by the Zhane people became the cause of a centuries-old conflict with the Crimean Khanate.
• War with Sahib Giray: In 1539–1551, the Crimean Khan Sahib Giray launched a series of large-scale campaigns against the ruler of Zhane Kansavuk, accusing him of attacking Ottoman fortresses and stealing cattle. Despite defeats in open battles, the Zhane people continued their resistance using fortifications and moats.
  Joint military campaigns of the Circassians against Crimea.
  Military solidarity was manifested in the defense of strategic frontiers from Taman to the Terek.
• Struggle for Astrakhan (1532):
  The united Circassian contingents (led by the Circassians of Kabardia) took Astrakhan by storm to place an ally on the throne and neutralize the influence of Crimea in the Volga region.
• Defense of Taman: In the second half of the 16th century, the Kabardian Grand Prince Temryuk Idarov built a fortress in the area of Taman (the lands of Zhane) in order to jointly repel the attacks of Khan Devlet Giray with his western brothers.
• Campaigns of the 1550s-1560s: Russian chronicles record that the princes of Zhane and Kabardia (Sibok and Mashuk) jointly fought against Crimea, returning to their homeland with the order to continue to “operate against the Crimean Tsar.”

1. The era of the Battle of Kanzhal and the Treaty of Belgrade (18th century)
   In the 18th century, coordination reached its apogee in the face of an existential threat.

• Kanzhal triumph (1708): The defeat of the 40,000-strong Crimean-Ottoman army led by Kurgoko Atazhukin saved all of Circassia from enslavement and tribute. This success contributed to the growth of national consciousness and the recognition of Kabardia as a sovereign state.
• Battle of Zhyryshty (1731): The unification of the princes of Little and Greater Kabardia allowed to inflict a crushing defeat on the Crimean troops, which would have been impossible without the consolidation of the feudal elites.
• Battle of Ust-Labinsk (1761): The Temirgoy Bolotokov princes, acting in alliance with the бжедуги and бесленеевцы, defeated the Crimean corps, taking captive representatives of the highest Tatar nobility.
• By the beginning of the 19th century, the population of the Zhane people, which once numbered up to 200,000 people, catastrophically declined due to wars and plague epidemics. After 1864, only a few families remained of this once great tribe, and they themselves practically disappeared from the ethnic map of the Caucasus.
  Thus, the Zhane people were the “shield” of Circassia on its northwestern borders, maintaining control over the routes to the Don and Taman right up to the beginning of the massive colonial expansion of the empires.