The (Re-)Discovery of Circassia, Then and Now

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel explores the discovery of the Circassians in the northwestern Caucasus during the 19th century and links it to current efforts to rediscover, preserve and study the history of these peoples. After the Circassian genocide of the 1860s, the history of Circassia was largely forgotten and became marginalised as a footnote in Russia’s imperial narrative or Circassian diaspora lore. Yet as 19th century sources show, Circassia at that time was seen as a full-fledged political actor and a crucial participant in the Great Game, the competition between the Russian and British Empires over influence in Central Asia. In line with this year’s convention theme, this panel “discover[s] and constructively address[es] forms of marginalization or silencing within our field” and “instances of epistemic injustice” by looking at the role Circassia played in diplomatic sources and in the foreign policy discourse of the European powers at the time. It further explores how British Russophobia and popular infatuation with Circassia contributed to the creation of a Circassian flag. And it discusses how Catholic missionaries and Italian adventurers went to the East Coast of the Black Sea in order to prove or disprove medieval conceptions of the Caucasus and its inhabitants. The panel thus provides three methodologically quite different approaches to Circassian history. In short, it puts Circassia back on the map of Eastern European and Eurasian historiography from which it had been largely expunged.

Sub Unit

• History: 1800-1900

Chair

• Hubertus F. Jahn, U of Cambridge (UK)

Papers

• Between Exoticism and Imperial Politics: European Diplomatic Sources About Circassia in the 19th Century - Khatuna Gvaradze, Independent Scholar

• Memory, Adventure, and the Rediscovery of Circassia: A Look at Italian Sources, 18th-19th Centuries - Lorenzo Caravaggi, Lancaster U (UK)

• A Flag for Circassia, or a Curious Episode in the Great Game - Azamat Kumykov, U of Cambridge (UK)

Discussant

• Sergey Salushchev, UC Santa Barbara