Khabzeism

Khabzeism, the religion of the Circassians, centred on the supreme creator Thashkho, the Great God, with lesser deities under him. Souls were rewarded after death by their deeds. Khabzeism is not to be confused with the Khabze, the Circassian code of conduct.

Among them Mezytha ruled the forests and the hunt, Psykhe-Guasha the waters and Sozeresh the crops, whose idol, cut from a branch of seven knots, stood in family barns. On a winter night the hero Sosruqo of the Nart epic was honoured with a feast at which any traveller was welcome in his place.

Worship took place in sacred groves, the kudoshi, where in 1637 the missionary Giovanni Luca described weapons and ram heads hung from the branches. As Islam spread, saints and heroes were reworked into Arab warriors and Islamic legends.