Circassia was a Christian land for 1,000 years , but from the 16th century to the 19th century , they were Islamized under the influence of Crimean Tatars and Ottoman Turks . The Circassians arrived in the Middle East after they were expelled from their homeland in the northwestern Caucasus . The Circassians , who fought during the Russo-Circassian War in the mid-to-late 19th century against the Russian Empire captured the northern Caucasus , were massacred and expelled by Czarist Russia from the Caucasus . The Ottoman Empire , which saw the Circassians as experienced fighters , absorbed them in their territory and settled them in sparsely populated areas , including the Galilee . The Circassian exiles established Rehaniya ( nine miles north of Safed ) in 1878 , and Kfar Kama ( 13 miles southwest of Tiberias ) in 1876 . After having been deported a second time , this time from the Balkans , by Russia , Ottoman authorities settled Circassians in areas of the Levant as a bulwark against the Bedouins and Druze , who had at times resisted Ottoman rule as well as any hint of Arab nationalism , while avoiding settling Circassians among the Maronites due to the international problems it could cause
massacred and expelled
Circassian genocide
Circassians in Israel