Famous Circassians Throughout History

Updated October 5, 2026 · 5 min read

The Circassian people have left their mark far from the Caucasus: on the throne of Egypt, at the courts of Moscow and Istanbul, in the founding of Amman and in the books that gave the Circassian languages a literature. Here are some of the best-known Circassians in history, each checked against their own biography.

Famous Circassians at a glance

The Mamluk sultans

From 1382 to 1517 the Mamluk sultans of Egypt were mostly of Circassian origin. Barquq, born in Circassia, took the throne in 1382; Barsbay and Qaitbay, both Circassian by birth, followed. Qaitbay, sultan from 1468 to 1496 and a skilled archer and horseman, left at least 230 monuments, among them the citadel of Alexandria on the site of the ancient Lighthouse and his funerary complex in Cairo, the building on Egypt’s one-pound note. The whole story: the Circassian Mamluks.

Inal the Great

Inal is the prince of Circassian folklore who united all Circassians in one state; his title was “prince of princes”. Tradition makes his descendants the founders of princely dynasties among the Kabardians, the Besleney, the Chemguy, the Zhane and the Hatuqay. Inal is also a Circassian boy’s name (Circassian boy names).

Temryuk and Maria Temryukovna

Temruqo, known in Russian as Temryuk, was a 16th-century Kabardian ruler who allied himself with Tsar Ivan IV. His daughter Kucheney, baptised Maria Temryukovna, became the tsar’s second wife and was tsaritsa from 1561 until her death in 1569. Her seal ring is kept in the State Historical Museum in Moscow.

Circassians in the Ottoman Empire

Circassians rose high in the Ottoman Empire. Çerkes Mehmed Pasha, “Mehmed Pasha the Circassian”, was grand vizier in 1624–1625. Tirimüjgan Kadın (1819–1852), a consort of Sultan Abdulmejid I, was of Shapsug Circassian ancestry and the mother of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. More on the community today in Circassians in Turkey.

Circassians in Jordan

Jordan’s Circassians are few but prominent. Ismael Babouk (1841–1920), a Kabardian among the first settlers of Amman, was the city’s first mayor, from 1909 to 1911. Sa’id al-Mufti was the ninth prime minister of Jordan; Toujan al-Faisal was the first woman in its parliament; and the singer Emanne Beasha, born in Amman in 2008, won Arabs Got Talent. More in Circassians in Jordan.

Writers and scholars

Shora Nogmov (1794–1844), a Kabardian educator, linguist and historian, began a grammar of Kabardian in the 1830s and wrote the History of the Adyghe People around 1838. Published in 1861, it holds the earliest written account of the Nart sagas. Ali Shogentsukov (1900–1941), teacher, writer and translator, is regarded as the founder of literature in Kabardian.

Tembot Kerashev (1902–1988), born in Koshekhabl in today’s Adygea, was a leading Adyghe writer and won the Stalin Prize in 1948. Iskhak Mashbash (1930–2026), poet, writer and translator, wrote more than 80 books in Adyghe, translated the Quran, and was published in English, French, Turkish, Arabic and many other languages; his collected works came out in 20 volumes in 2015. He died in Maykop in September 2026. Their languages live on in the Circassian alphabets and in Kabardino-Balkaria and Adygea.

Music and sport today

Circassian music has its stars: singers such as Cherim Nakhushev and Zaur Tutov, People’s Artist of Russia, and the accordionist Aslan Tlebzu (where to listen). In sport, the judoka Beslan Mudranov, born in Baksan, won Russia’s first gold medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. The old ideals of skill and restraint are told in the Circassian warrior tradition.

Why this matters

These lives show how far a small people has travelled and how much it has given, from Cairo and Istanbul to Amman and Maykop. Behind them is a culture and a language that are still alive: learn more in who the Circassians are, and start the language with how to learn Circassian.

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