It is
known that some Caucasian families migrated to Ottamand lands on their own will in the
first half of 1850s. Becoming a compulsory move during the Crimean War, this
migration reached its peak in three years between 1862-1865, and with intensive movements
during 1877-1878 and 1890-1908 periods, it continued until 1920s. We observe that there is
a close relation between the Ottoman-Russian relations and the intensivity of this
migration. This migration from Caucasia to Ottaman Land with a historical necessity is a
large population movement of large population which had a deep impact on social, ethnic
and religious composition of the Ottoman Empire. In the rich literature developed with
this migration, all the Turkish and Turanian origin tribes and groups were called
Caucasian or “Circassian” in general though their existent had been known.
Starting with Imam Mansur movement in 1783 and
developing continuously between 1829 and 1864, the Caucasian Sufism had a major role in
establishing a common identity among the Northeast Caucasian groups and had a great
success in gathering all the Caucasian Muslim societies around this same identity. So,
this general classification did not cause any problem.
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