Zikhs — a union of a group of Abkhaz-Adyghe tribes in the northern part of the Caucasian coast between the Kuban and Nikopsis. In the 1st century BC, the first mention of the Zikhs was made by Strabo in his work "Geography," Book XI. In the 4th century AD, they are mentioned in the periplus "Description of the Earth's Circle" by Rufus Festus Avienus, who wrote in particular: "Nearby lives the harsh tribe of the Heniochi, then the Zigi, who once, having left the kingdoms of the Pelasgians, occupied the nearest regions of the Pontus." One of the last mentions of this ethnonym dates to the 15th century. The Genoese Giorgio Interiano, who lived in the Caucasus in the 15th century, wrote in his book "The Life of the Ziks, Called Circassians" that "Zikhs" is what they are called in Greek and Latin, the Tatars and Turks call them "Circassians," and they themselves call themselves "Adyghe." In the 16th century, in "Notes on Muscovy," the Habsburg ambassador, historian, and writer Sigismund von Herberstein, paying tribute to the former tradition, calls this people "Chiki" (ciki), but in parallel already uses the new name — "Pyatigorsk Circassians."
In the historical period known to researchers (antiquity and the Middle Ages), the Zikhs inhabited approximately the same coastal mountainous territories of the Eastern Black Sea region — from the areas of modern Novorossiysk (in the north) to the city of Gagra (in the south). Around the 1st century BC, their neighbors are named as the Achaeans, Heniochi, Cercetae, and Macrocephali, and in the 6th century, Procopius of Caesarea names the Alans, Abasgians, and Hun-Sabirs in their vicinity (also during this period, the Sagins and Hun-Utigurs lived nearby). The area of settlement of the Zikhs was called Zikhia (Circassia), in which small cities were located — Zichopolis, Nikopsis, and others. According to the ethnographer-Caucasiologist A. V. Gadlo, one of the Zikh tribes — the Sugds (descendants of the ancient Sindi; the Byzantines called the lower Kuban Adyghe "Sugds") — in the 8th century, under pressure from the Khazars, migrated to Crimea, where they founded the city of Sugdea. The terrain and natural conditions of the country of the Zikhs were quite difficult and impassable; thus, in the 1st century BC, Mithridates Eupator, exiled from Pontus to the Bosporus, had to abandon the plan to pass through Zikhia because of its harshness and wildness, and only with great difficulty did he manage to make his way along the coast.
L. A. Elnitsky, N. A. Chlenova, I. A. Javakhishvili, and G. A. Melikishvili claim that in the Cimmerian era, there were migrations of part of the Zikhs as far as Trapezus (that is, the Zikhs dispersed and lived in the territories of modern Abkhazia and Georgia).
Strabo describes the Zikhs (along with the Achaeans and Heniochi) as a people who dominated the sea and equipped fleets to attack not only merchant ships but also coastal cities. He also mentions the cooperation of these coastal Caucasian tribes with the inhabitants of Bosporus, who provided them with their ship anchorages and markets for the sale of loot. Usually, the tactics of the Zikhs consisted of landing on foreign, well-known wooded territory, where they hid their small ships, carrying them on their shoulders, and on foot they made raids on villages to kidnap people for sale into slavery or to obtain ransom for them (the Zikhs informed the relatives of the captives about the ransom only after going to sea, and willingly agreed to it). The Zikhs were ruled by so-called "sceptuchi" ("staff-bearers" or "scepter-bearers"), who were in turn subordinate to kings, of whom there could be several (for example, Strabo mentions four kings among the neighboring Heniochi simultaneously).
Strabo reports about the morals that prevailed then in his account of Mithridates the Great: "He had to abandon the intention of passing through the country of the Zigi because of its harshness and wildness; only with difficulty did Mithridates manage to make his way along the coast, moving most of the way by the sea, until he arrived in the country of the Achaeans. With their support, the king managed to complete his journey from Phasis — almost 4,000 stadia." In the 10th century, the Jewish-Khazar correspondence mentions the Zikhs and Kasogs among the countries and peoples at war with the Khazar Khaganate. At the turn of the 8th-9th centuries, Zikhia, led by chieftains, was a quite significant country.
Sigismund von Herberstein, ambassador of the German emperor, who visited the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1517 and 1526, reported that where the Caucasus Range rests on the southern branch of the Kuban, in the mountains lived the Pyatigorsk Circassians or Chiki: "... This people, relying on the protection of their mountains, show obedience neither to the Turks nor to the Tatars. The Russians claim that they are Christians, that they live according to their customs, depend on no one, profess the Greek faith, and perform church services in the Slavic language, which they mainly use. They are for the most part bold pirates. Descending to the sea along the rivers that flow from their mountains, they rob anyone they come across, especially merchants sailing from Caffa to Constantinople..." — Sigismund von Herberstein ("Notes on Muscovy." 16th century). According to church tradition, St. Apostle Andrew preached Christian doctrine among the mountain peoples — Alans, Abasgians, and Zikhs — in the year 40 AD. In the early Middle Ages, the Zikhs gradually began to abandon traditional beliefs (their own pantheon of gods and the cult of ancestral spirits) in favor of Orthodox Christianity, which was actively spreading from Byzantium. In the 6th-9th centuries, there were dioceses on their lands within the Patriarchate of Constantinople (the Zikhian, Nicopsian, and other dioceses). At the beginning of the 16th century, it is reported that the Zikhs were Christians. According to the "Life," the Apostle Simon the Zealot was killed by the Zikhs in 55 AD.
The Zikh tribes engaged in agriculture and raised livestock, as far as possible in the mountainous areas (Strabo mentions the scarcity of their land). Among the coastal tribes of the Caucasus, there was small-scale shipbuilding — they built small, narrow, and light vessels, with a capacity of approximately up to 25 people (rarely 30), called by the Greeks "camaras," meaning "covered boats." Tacitus describes camaras as low-sided, wide-joined barges, for the manufacture of which neither copper nor iron fastenings are used. During storms, boards are placed on top of the sides, forming something like a roof, and thus protected, the vessels maneuver easily. Another advantage in maneuvering was that the camaras had bows on both ends, and the oars could be shifted in different directions as desired, so the ship could change course without turning around. Thanks to their raids and maritime piracy, the Zikhs flourished in the slave trade from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. For a prolonged period of their history, they were the main suppliers of slaves for the cities of the Bosporus (Panticapaeum, Theodosia, Phanagoria, Gorgippia, etc.).
VARIANT NAMES: Greek. Ζιχοι, Russian. Zikhi, Zikhozy, Zigi, Ziki, Zikhi, Chigi, Chiki, Dzhikhi, Dzhiki.
Sources:
Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015