National Oath

Historically in Circassia, a Sworn brotherhood (Adyghe: ЗэтхьарIогъу, lit. 'Mutual oath-ship')^[8] was a voluntary clan where people or families come together by choice. Its main goal was to protect members from outside pressure. These groups would act like small republics. They had their own judges to solve problems between members. In some areas, there were dozens of these brotherhoods made of many different families.^[9] The National Oath sought to unite all of Circassia in this manner as a "national" oath.^[3][2] The practice of oath-taking existed in traditional Circassian society to settle disputes, but the National Oath expanded this custom into a political movement.^[1] The concept of the oath originated among the Circassians around roughly 1800. James Stanislaus Bell and other British adventurers who visited Circassia in the 1830s stated that the national oath began roughly 30 years ago. According to Circassian oral history, it was established in 1807 by Qalebatuqo Hatuqay; Bell also cites this name as the designer of the oath.^[2][10] Bell reported that prominent Circassian leaders, such as Hawduqo Mansur, viewed the national oath as a mechanism of salvation for the country by establishing a permanent, unifying rule of law.^[2]

Individuals who took the oath were required to swear upon the Quran. The sacred book was suspended on rifle-rests, and the individual would step forward, take the Quran in hand, and swear their adherence before the elders, prefacing his sworn declaration by stating, "This is the book of God, and I declare..." The oath was administered broadly to males from the age of fifteen and upwards. Communities or individuals who demurred or refused to take the oath faced severe threats, including having their houses burned down by the authorities or facing armed force. In some regions, such as the southern coast, deputies took the oath on behalf of their respective districts, and a subscription fund was created to reward those who discovered and reported treachery.^[2] The individual who took the oath swore to remain perfectly true to Circassia and to hold no communication, trade, or intercourse of any kind with their enemies, the Russians. They were required to actively denounce anyone who communicated with the enemy and to assist in their condemnation and punishment. They were also bound to inform against anyone who commit crimes such as theft or murder and help bring them to justice. While past crimes confessed during the oath were handled with fines, breaking the oath after taking it was treated with the utmost severity: if it was proven that a person violated their sworn engagements for any reason, they forfeited their life.^[2][5] Bell reports one case of confession:^[2]

An individual who had taken the oath was called upon to declare, like the rest, what crimes he had of late been guilty of. He replied, he had none to make confession of, and was allowed to depart. Next morning, however, he made his appearance, bearing as a peace-offering to the judge five or six measures of grain and a large basket of honeycomb, and stated that the devil (some good angel I rather think) had terrified him all night for the falsehood he had told, in concealing his crimes, of which he then made a frank confession.

Oath Assemblies or tarko-khass (Adyghe: Тхьэрыӏо Хасэ) were established in each locality to serve as local government and enforce the oath. It was a select group of thamates (seniors or elders) chosen from each sworn brotherhood based on their expertise. Once selected by their peers, these elders took an oath to administer justice according to their conscience, without showing favoritism to any person and without accepting bribes to pervert their rulings. After evidence was publicly presented and debated in a trial, the Oath Assembly withdrew to deliberate privately. Once they reached a consensus, they returned and communicated their final judgment through a chosen president. Their authority also extended to civil matters, such as debt collection. If a debtor stubbornly refused to pay after the necessary oaths have been taken, a creditor could appeal to the Oath Assembly of both parties' fraternities to obtain the authority and physical assistance needed to seize the debtor's property.^[2]

In 1831, Seferbiy Zaneqo led a group of Circassians to take the oath.^[11] The administration of an early form of the national oath continued in August 1834 under the direction of Natukhaj leaders such as Hawduqo Mansur, and was renewed and expanded in 1837 and 1838.^[3][1][2] The oath was enforced from house to house, sometimes involving bloodshed.^[5] Bell noted that those who had not taken the national oath were considered enemies by the participants of the movement. To further this movement, leading figures of the movement like Seferbiy Zaneqo traveled through the provinces. By 1838, the movement had resulted in thousands of individuals swearing the oath.^[1] The movement spread through several provinces, including but not limited to, Shapsug, Natukhaj, and Abzakh.^[2]

Assemblies for the administration of the national oath in the Shapsug region were sometimes conducted during large public gatherings, such as funeral repasts.^[2] The national oath acted as a political tool to resolve internal disputes. In 1837, an oath-administering congress in the Shapsug region used the oath to reintegrate noble families that had been expelled to settle past conflicts and prevent these groups from helping Russian forces.^[12]

The Treaty of Adrianople was signed on 14 September 1829,^[13] which stated that the Ottoman Empire ceded Circassia to Russia. In 1837, the National Oath Assembly convened and rejected the Treaty of Adrianople as invalid, arguing that Circassia had never been a part of the Ottoman Empire.^[7][14] In 1838, the National Oath Assembly released a statement to the nations of the world:^[7]

Hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who are fighting us and blockading our homeland today will also fight you tomorrow. Our mountains act as the fortress and gateway for Turkey and Iran; if we are destroyed, these countries will be left defenseless. It is a known fact that we fight against Russia for a sacred cause and have inflicted defeats upon them. Despite this, our homeland is depicted on maps as if it were a part of Russia. Russia tells Western countries that the Adyghes are its own subjects, or that the Adyghes are looting savages who cannot be brought to reason with kindness and cannot be governed by laws. We strongly protest these treacherous lies of the Russians! There are thousands of Russian refugees among us. They prefer our barbarism to the civilization of their own countries.

In 1839, when the magistrates established permanent courts in Ubykh districts to enforce the National Oath, in Adler and Ghesh, forty judges took a religious oath to administer justice and required suspected collaborators to swear the National Oath to sever all trade and communication with Russian forces. Russian authorities viewed the National Oath as a threat and issued a decree offering 2.000 silver roubles for the assassination of the leader of the Ubykh region and a key figure of the movement, Ismail Berzeg.^[12][15]

Russian military documents from 1835 identify Seferbiy as the primary organizer responsible for spreading the oath among the population.^[4]

In 1839, the National Oath Assembly (Adyghe: Чылэ Тхьэрыӏо Хасэ) convened in the Shapsug region to establish the principles of the National Oath.^[7] The assembly agreed on seven main rules for the population of Circassia:^[2][6][15]

1. Circassia is a single homeland, and the people living there are a united nation.
2. Russians are the national and eternal enemy of Circassia.
3. Citizens of Circassia will not have personal or commercial relations with Russians.
4. Every citizen will fight against Russia with their life and property until the end.
5. Individuals who betray the oath will receive penalties up to death.
6. Citizens must avoid theft and bad behavior; anyone observing these actions must report them to help penalize the offenders.
7. Individuals who commit crimes involuntarily must confess their actions.

The rules of the oath required strict adherence from the population. Violators of the oath would pay with their lives.^[16] Large portions of the Circassian population considered themselves bound by these obligations, leading to continued resistance until 1864.^[6] If an individual communicated with the Russians for purposes other than purchasing salt, they faced a fine of twenty-four oxen. If a person had previously taken the national oath and was proven to have broken it, they forfeited their life. The individual's sworn brotherhood had the option to redeem this death sentence by paying a penalty of two hundred oxen. Mosque sermons were used to prepare the population for the administration of the oath, explaining its obligations and the necessity of punishing violators.^[2]

Later in 1839, the Abzakh region brought a Russian peace offer to the assembly for discussion. The National Oath Assembly convened in the Abzakh region to discuss the terms and concluded that peace with Russia would only be possible under the condition that the entire North Caucasus was evacuated by Russian forces.^[7]

The principles of the National Oath were published in the Declaration of Circassian Independence, a document addressed to the monarchs of Europe and Asia.^[4][17] Following the meetings, a delegation traveled to Constantinople to communicate their political position to international actors.^[16] The Circassian flag served as the symbol of the oath.^[2]

The National Oath functioned as a social contract that replaced feudal allegiances with a collective legal authority acting as a metaphorical monarch. It started internal reforms that restricted the privileges of the nobility to create a more egalitarian structure between social classes, thus aimed to end internal conflicts and synchronize resistance. By seeking international witnesses to the oath (such as Bell and Longworth), the Circassians attempted to demonstrate to external states that their society operated under a formal legal system. The movement established a contractual political union focused on property security and national sovereignty.^[5]