Hatuqwai
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The Hatuqwai were a western Circassian tribal princedom whose homeland lay along the banks of the Kuban River. The Hatuqwai people lived mostly in mountains between lowel valleys of Pshish River and Belaya River.[1]
After Imperial Russia's conquest of the Caucasus in the 1860s the tribe's homeland was occupied, and its members were scattered among the other Circassian tribes, resulting in the Hatuqwai effectively ceasing to exist as a separate entity.
In the time before the Russian invasion the Hatuqwai were known as a powerful and warlike tribe that fought many wars both with other Circassian tribes and the Crimean Tatars.
The most famous of the Hatuqwai princes was named Aslan-Giray. He was not physically strong, but a skilled public speaker and a skilled leader. Under his rule the Hatuqwai reached the height of its power. After his death the tribe soon fell into disarray and civil war, and the tribe lost most of its former power and influence.
There is no well-established spelling for their name, and the variants are: hatukay, hatuqwai, hetuqwai, hatukaj, hatquai, tatukai, khatukai, gatukai, gatiukai, khatoukhay; Russian: хатукай, гатюкай; Turkish: hatõkuay, hatuhuay, Adyghe: хьатикъуай, hatiiq°aj [1]
