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April 10, 2005

Back to the Fun

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to a Circassian club here in Amman. We got to watch the a group of about 40 youth practicing traditional dances for the Jeresh festival this August. After that, we sat down to some traditional sweets and, of course, tea. We then got to view a video of their performances at last years Jeresh festival.

The best part, was seing the costumes that they wear while dancing. The Circassians were originally in Russia, near the Black Sea so their costumes are a mixture of Russian and western European with a Middle Eastern flair.

The Circassians are a Muslim people, whose Russian name (and Arabic name) is Cherkess. Known in antiquity, they inhabited the western side of the Caucasus and the Crimea. In 1829 the Ottoman Turks were forced to cede Circassia to Russia. At this time the Circassians occupied almost the entire area between the main Caucasian range, the Kuban River, and the Black Sea. After the Russian conquest of the area, about 400,000 Circassians migrated to Turkey. There are today large Circassian groups in Turkey, Syria, and Jordan.

Posted by rcollins at April 10, 2005 7:09 AM

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