The Khatuq or Adale[1] [2] were a Circassian tribe that lived on the Taman Peninsula until it was occupied by Russian troops during the Russo-Circassian War, following which, the tribe was annihilated in the Circassian genocide.[3]
During the Russo-Circassian War, after their land was occupied, the surviving Khatuq tribespeople migrated to Natukhaj. During the Circassian genocide, as the Natukhaj were exterminated, most of those survivors were killed. A small portion of them fled to Turkey, where they were assimilated into Turks or other tribes.[4]
In 1773, German explorer Johann Anton Güldenstädt reported about the Khatuq.[5] After the end of the Russo-Circassian War in 1871, Russian historian and academician Lieutenant General N.F. Dubrovin wrote:[6]
" ... Among the Natukhaj people lived three other Adyghe tribes, who were destroyed and merged: Chebsin, Khegayk, and Khatuq or Adale, who lived on the Taman peninsula, and now scattered in different places among the Natukhaj people ..."