Circassians in Syria

Exile and resettlement[edit]

Circassians began a forced migration from their homeland in the Northwest Caucasus region to the Ottoman Empire following the Russian–Circassian War in 1864. While they originally settled in parts of Anatolia and the Balkans, they began emigrating to the empire's Syrian provinces (the Levant) in large numbers (about 70,000) after the Ottoman defeat in the Balkan War of 1877–78.^[10] That group of Circassians was mostly resettled by the Ottoman authorities as part of an effort to counterbalance increasing dissent by the local population in Syria, far from the capital Istanbul, with more loyal subjects of the empire. Many Circassians subsequently concentrated their residence in the Golan Heights and Transjordan regions, both part of the Province of Damascus at the time.^[2] At around this time, in the late 1870s, the influx of Circassians traveling through Damascus led to the establishment of a number of villages north of Homs and along the borders of the Syrian Desert, as well as in the area surrounding Damascus city itself, namely Marj al-Sultan and al-Dumayr. Circassians eventually abandoned the latter town.^[11]


Nearly all of the Circassian villages founded in Ottoman Syria were located on known conflict fronts, mostly involving the Druze and Bedouin tribes, including the 'Annizah and Al Fadl. Since the Circassians were militarily able to resist the khuwwa ("unofficial 'protection' tax") demanded of the local peasantry by various Bedouin tribes—which came at the detriment of government tax collection—they managed to make agreements to mutually benefit the two factions.^[12] Nonetheless, clashes still periodically occurred between the Circassians of the Golan and Ghouta (rural Damascus) regions and the Bedouin. The most severe local conflicts the Circassians engaged in at the time was with the often rebellious Druze, who dominated the area of Mount Hermon in the northern Golan Heights and the Jabal al-Druze region to the east. Historians have asserted that the Ottomans encouraged Circassian settlement in this particular region to serve as a pro-sultanate buffer between the two Druze-inhabited areas.^[13] In addition, Circassians generally favored residence in the Golan as compared to the city quarters because the area resembled the Caucasian ancestral lands with its wooded mountains, heavy rainfall and snow.^[14]


In the first decade of the 20th century the Ottoman government facilitated a wave of Circassian resettlement to the northern Euphrates River. They largely left the Caucasus on their own accord, fearing forcible conversion to the Russian Orthodox Church by Czarist forces. A Kabardian group initially settled in Raqqa, establishing their new settlement immediately west of the Arab-dominated town. Funds from the provincial treasury and local contributors enabled each immigrant family to own a plot of land, a two-room house, a horse stable, two oxen and five grain sacks. Talustan Anzor, the leader of this Kabardian faction, acquired prestige in the Raqqa District as a noted mediator of disputes. Together with Manbij and Khanasser, two other towns in the Euphrates valley, the Kabardian settlements were meant to serve as a strategic ring around Raqqa where the gendarmerie could be conveniently recruited.^[15]


In Circassian narratives of these years, there were rarely any negative words against the local Arab population, which welcomed the Circassian immigrants.^[16] Because of their Muslim religion, which was the dominant faith in Syria, and their arrival to the region well before the struggle for independence from the Ottomans and later the French, the Circassians played a role in the founding of the modern state of Syria and immediately became full citizens.^[17] However, because of the creation of a number of Circassian cavalry units within the French Army of the Levant, and particularly due to their role in quelling the Druze forces of Sultan Pasha al-Atrash during the Great Syrian Revolt (1925–27), relations with the Arab majority became somewhat tense in the early years of the republic. A minority of Circassians in the Golan Heights petitioned for autonomy from Damascus during the French Mandatory years.^[4][10][18]