Ep. 8 — The Religious Beliefs of the Circassian Nation: Their Characteristics, Origins and Development

Before Islam, before Christianity, the Circassians already had a name for what they believed. Tha khabza. The divine customs. In this episode we follow faith across six stages of Circassian history, from the totems of the mother clans to the day a Tsar handed a nation three choices.We get into Shortanov's catalogue of the Circassian gods, cosmic, local, female, protective, and mythical, and why Tlipsh, the god of iron, outlived every empire that came after him. We look at the Byzantine missionaries who raised churches along the Kuban and the Teberdi, and at the young Circassian nobles who rode to the church door, prayed from the saddle, and never once dismounted.Then the crescent arrives. Derbent falls in 642. The Circassian Mamluks, the Crimean Khans, the Naqshbandi Sufis, and Imam Shamil's deputy Muhammad Amin each leave their mark. In 1717 the priests are killed and their books are burned. In 1725 the Kabardians answer.And in 1861, Tsar Alexander II offers death without graves, exile, or the cross. An old man stands up and answers him.Drawn from the Historical Encyclopedia of the Circassian Nation by Dr. Muhammad Khair Mamser. Volume 1, Section 2, Chapter 3.Support the show