Do we know the education methods in Adyghe Khabze?

 

Adyghe Khabze (Circassian ethics) is a system of laws and principles that regulated the life of the Circassians in all respects. These laws were passed in large assemblies held almost every year in the Circassian homeland. The laws and principles of the Adyghe Khabze are based on supreme human values such as morality, justice, equality, freedom, respect and others.

The Adyghe Khabze existed in full until the conquest of Circassia (North Caucasus) by the Russian Empire in 1864. After the expulsion of over 95 percent of the Circassians from their homeland, the Adyghe Khabze ceased to exist in the form it existed until 1864. And in general it can also be said that the natural development of the Circassian people stopped in 1864.

We wrote several articles about the way of life the Circassians had before 1864, such as:

- The principle of unanimous decision in the Circassian system of government.

- 3 things that describe the developed culture that the Circassians had.

- There are no Circassian tribes, there is a Circassian nation that consists of sub-ethnoses.

In these articles, we showed how developed the Circassian culture was and reached very high levels, in the good human relations that existed between all the elements of the Circassian society.

Today, the Circassians are scattered all over the world and live as minorities within other nations. It is true that in the Circassian homeland the Circassians have three autonomous states, but despite this the Circassians both in the homeland and in the diaspora have lost large parts of the Circassian heritage. The Adyghe Khabze is one of the most important parts of this heritage. Despite the dispersion, the Circassians managed to keep parts of the heritage in one way or another.

The human values that we recognized above are found in the consciousness of every nation, but there is a very big problem in applying these values in a practical way. Every nation and every society declares that it adheres to these values, but the reality is completely different. If we return to Adyghe Khabze, the important thing about it is not the values themselves but the ways of applying these values, the methods of educating the children to these values. The Circassians of today have lost a very large part of the educational methods that were in Adyghe Khabze and this is because of the reasons we mentioned above. Few books have been written about the education methods that the Circassians had, this is not enough and it is necessary to study the issue deeply.

If we summarize this article, then the most important thing we emphasize is: supreme human values are very important, but more important than them are the education methods for these values. And hence we call on all those who love Adyghe Khabze, to study and research the subject of the educational methods that existed in Khabze.