The Hatuqay (Adyghe: Хьатыкъуай; Turkish: Hatukay; Russian: хатукайцы) are one of the twelve Circassian tribes. Nearly all live in the diaspora today, above all in some 20 villages in the Pınarbaşı district of Kayseri; in Adygea there is the village of Hatukay. Their dialect belongs to Adyghe (West Circassian) but is the western dialect closest to Kabardian.
Prince Hatuqo and the torn fur
The name is traced to Prince Hatuqo, the founder of the Hatuqay principality in Circassian genealogies. A legend tells that he and his twin, Prince Boletoqo of the Temirgoy, slept under one fur that was found torn in two in the morning; Hatuqo later led his people west and founded a principality of his own.
From Taman to the Belaya
The Hatuqay first lived near the Black Sea, around the Taman peninsula and the southern banks of the Kuban. In the late 18th century their principality moved to the land between the Belaya and Pshish rivers, west of the Temirgoy.
A guest in the house
The Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi, who visited the Hatuqay in the 17th century, left one of the oldest descriptions of them. He wrote that a guest’s goods left in the open were never touched, and that if a son was born while a guest was in the house, the boy was named after the guest.
Where the Hatuqay live today
Nearly all Hatuqay live abroad: they descend from families who left the Caucasus for the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, above all in the 1860s. In Turkey there are some 20 Hatuqay villages in the Pınarbaşı district of Kayseri, mainly in the Çörümşek valley, and Hatuqay families in Bozüyük, Bolu and Sakarya. There are Hatuqay in Syria, around Homs and in Quneitra, and Hatuqay families in Kfar Kama in Israel, who speak the Shapsug dialect. In Adygea there is the village of Hatukay. See Circassians in Turkey.
Dialect, and which course to take
The Hatuqay dialect belongs to Adyghe, West Circassian. It sits between the steppe dialects (Temirgoy, Abzakh, Bzhedug) and the coastal ones (Shapsug, Natukhai), and of all the western dialects it is the closest to Kabardian. Few people speak it today. In Kayseri the Hatuqay live among a Kabardian majority, which English Wikipedia suggests may be why their dialect is so close to Kabardian.
So the course to take is Adyghe (West Circassian): learn Adyghe with the Circassian App.
Find other Hatuqay in the app
The Circassian App lets you add your family’s tribe to your profile, in the Origin field. In Search, the Tribe filter (free for everyone) shows people who chose the same tribe, so you can find other Hatuqay, write to them and learn together.
The other tribes
Questions
Who are the Hatuqay?
One of the twelve Circassian tribes (also written Hatukay or Hatukai), named after Prince Hatuqo. Today nearly all of them live outside the Caucasus.
Where do the Hatuqay live?
Above all in some 20 villages in Kayseri’s Pınarbaşı district, and in Bozüyük, Bolu and Sakarya; in Syria, in Kfar Kama in Israel, and in the village of Hatukay in Adygea.
What dialect do the Hatuqay speak?
The Hatuqay dialect of Adyghe, the western dialect closest to Kabardian; few people speak it today.
Which course fits a Hatuqay family?
Adyghe, the Circassian App’s Adyghe course; families in Kayseri who hear Kabardian around them can switch to the Kabardian course at any time.
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Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Hatuqay, revision 1366887070.
- Wikipedia (Russian): Хатукайцы, revision 147827674.
- Wikipedia (Turkish): Hatukaylar, revision 37666182.
- Circassian App: the tribe list of the profile’s Origin field (src/data/origins.ts) and the Search filters, October 2026.
- Map: Liptink0, “Blank locator map of Circassia 1820s”, Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (after S. Khotko, «Открытие Черкесии. Картографические источники XIV–XIX вв.»).
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