Kabardin

Infobox Ethnic group
group=Kabardin


caption = A Kabardin family in the early 1900s.
poptime=600,000 - 1,000,000 (est) [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=kbd Kabard distribution] ]
popplace=Russia ( primarily in Kabardino-Balkaria), Turkey, Georgia
rels=Sunni Islam, Orthodox Christianity
langs=Kabardian, Russian
related= Adyghe, other "Circassian" peoples

Kabarda or Kabard are terms referring to a people of the northern Caucasus more commonly known by the plural term Kabardin (or "Kebertei" as they term themselves). Originally they (with Besleney tribe) comprised the semi-nomadic eastern branch of what was once the Adyghe tribal fellowship. Kabardin still consider themselves as a tribe of Adyghe. They speak Kabardian, a North West Caucasian language that represents the easternmost outpost of the Circassian language group.

They number around 520,000 in Russia [ [http://www.perepis2002.ru/content.html?id=11&docid=10715289081463 Population] ] (as of 2002), living mainly in Kabardino-Balkaria. Significant populations of Kabardin are found in Turkey and Georgia. There are also communities in the USA and the Middle East. Kabard villages in Turkey are concentrated on Uzunyayla plateau of Kayseri Province.

Most Kabardin are Sunni Muslims. However, Kabardin speakers living in Mozdoksky District in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania are Orthodox Christians.In August 1759 a Kabardian Muslim noble, Kurgoko Konchokin, was baptized with his entire family, taking the name "Andrei Ivanov" and filing a petition to the mayor of Kizliar town to "assign him a plot for settlement between the hamlets of Mozdok and Mekenem. In 1762 he was given the rank of Lieutenant colonel and given the name "Konchokin, prince of Cherkassy". It was Ivanov who founded the present town of Mozdok, where many muslim Kabardians settled and voluntarily converted to Orthodoxy. Their descendants number nearly 2,500 and constitute nearly half of the Mozdok Kabardian subgroup. Long before Ivanov, the Kabardian duke Sultan Idarov also converted to Orthodoxy in 1558.

References