Kabardia

Kabardia (Kabardian: Къэбэрдей) was a historical region in the North Caucasus corresponding partly to the modern Kabardino-Balkaria. It had better political organization than its neighbors and a somewhat ‘feudal’ social structure. It existed as a political community from the fifteenth century or earlier until it came under Russian control in the early nineteenth century.

The Kabardians were the eastern branch of the Circassians, to use this word in its broadest sense. They occupied the central third of the North Caucasus piedmont. To the north were the Nogai steppe nomads. To the south, and deeper in the mountains, were, from west to east, the Karachays, Balkars, Ossets, Ingush and Chechens. They interacted with these peoples because the mountaineers usually drove their livestock to the lowlands for winter pasture. The first three of these seem to have been originally steppe-dwellers who sought refuge in the mountains during the Mongol wars, while the Ingush and Chechens have inhabited the Caucasus for as long as anyone knows. To the west were the Abazins, the Besleney, a branch of the Kabardians, and the Circassians proper. In the east the Kabardians were sometimes in contact with the Kumyks. The country's boundaries fluctuated, as did its political unity and degree of control over outlying areas. The core of Kabardia was Great Kabardia which extended from somewhat east of the north-flowing part of the Kuban River to somewhat east of the north-flowing part of the Terek River. To the east was Lesser Kabardia between the Terek and Sunzha Rivers in what is now Chechen country. According to the Russian historian V. I. Potto, in the eighteenth century the Kabardians were greatly admired and copied by their neighbors, such that the phrase “he dresses, or rides, like a Kabardian” was an expression of high praise. Yermolov said that the Kabardians were the best fighters in the Caucasus but in his day they were much weakened by plague.

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