LONGWORTH'S MISSION TO CIRCASSIA IN 1855

The politieal history of the Circassian tribes was for a long time intimately eonneeted with that of the Crimea prior to the annexation of the latter to the Russian Empire. The sovereignty of the Sublime Porte was aeknowledged by both though never established in Cireassia, as in the Crimea, by eonquest. It partook rather of the eharaeter of religious than temporal supremaey; the Sultan as Caliph bearing the supreme head of Islamism.