Kabardia

Kabardia, or Eastern Circassia, was the land of the Kabardians between the Kuban and Terek. Its princely houses claimed descent from the legendary Inal the Great.

After Timur defeated Tokhtamysh in 1395, Adyghe clans moved east, and the principality took shape by the mid-fifteenth century. Grand Prince Temryuk sought Moscow's aid against Crimea; in 1561 Ivan IV married his daughter Maria. Kabardia split into Greater and Lesser Kabardia. Plague in 1803–1811 and Yermolov's campaigns in 1816–1822 preceded the loss of independence to Russia.