Adyghe

Israel's Circassians are about 4,800 descendants of Adyghe refugees from the north-west Caucasus whom the Ottoman Empire settled in the Galilee in the 1870s, after Russia drove the Circassians from their homeland. They live in two villages, Kfar Kama, of Shapsug families, and Rehaniya, of Abzakh families, where children learn Adyghe at school alongside Hebrew, Arabic and English. Sunni Muslims who are neither Arab nor Jewish, they are the only Muslims in Israel whose men are conscripted into the army, and many serve in the police and border police. Their life follows the Adyghe Khabze code of honour, restraint and hospitality, and Kfar Kama, with its heritage centre, dances and Circassian cheese, was named one of the world's best tourism villages in 2022.

The Circassians of Jordan descend from Muslim refugees of the Russian conquest of the northwest Caucasus whom the Ottomans settled in the empty ruins of Amman in 1878, making them the founders of the modern capital. Families of the Shapsugh, Abzakh, Bzhedugh and Kabardian tribes make up one community of about 100,000 that lives in Amman, Wadi al-Seer, Na'ur, Sweileh, Zarqa, Russeifa and Jerash. Circassian horsemen in black cherkeska coats have guarded Jordan's kings since the 1920s, and the community holds reserved seats in parliament. Most now speak Arabic as their first language and only about one in six still speaks Circassian, but the Adyghe Xabze code of honour, folk dance and song, and community associations founded as early as 1932 keep a distinct identity alive.

Syria's Circassians descend from Muslim refugees driven out of the north-western Caucasus by Russia after 1864, whom the Ottoman authorities settled in the 1870s on the Golan, around Damascus and Homs and along the Euphrates frontier as a buffer against Bedouin raids. Families of the Abzakh, Shapsugh, Bzhedugh and Kabardian tribes make up one community of perhaps 75,000 to 150,000 that founded Quneitra and Marj al-Sultan, lost their Golan villages when Israel took the plateau in 1967, and now live mostly in the Rukn al-Din quarter of Damascus, where their charity association has kept dance, language classes and the Adyghe Khabze code of honour alive since 1948. Sunni Muslims who speak mainly Arabic today, they trace belonging through the father and encourage marriage within the community, and some families still refuse to eat Black Sea fish in memory of those who drowned in the exodus. Only Bir Ajam and Bariqa remain of the Golan villages, now under Israeli patrols, and many families have emigrated to Turkiye, Europe, North America and the Caucasus since 2011.