Hapach () was a king of

Circassia Circassia (; also known as Cherkessia in some sources; ady, Адыгэ Хэку, Адыгей, lit=, translit=Adıgə Xəku, Adıgey; ; ota, چرکسستان, Çerkezistan; ) was a country and a historical region in the along the northeast ...

( Zichia) in the 900s.Zenkovsky, Sergei A. ''Medieval Russia’s Cronicles, 58-59''D, S. ''Çerkes Krallar, Hükümdarlar'' "The leader of the Circassian tribes, Hapach, with his army of horsemen and allied principalities, attacked Sarkel, a city of the Khazars. The Khazar army was defeated and the Sarkel prince and his surviving army were shackled by their feet and imprisoned." Not much is known about Hapach's life or much of his reign.

Reign

Life and reign

Not much is known about Hapach's life or much of his reign, only that he, with his army of horsemen and allied principalities, attacked

Sarkel Sarkel (or Šarkel, literally ''white house'' in the Khazar language was a large limestone-and-brick fortress in the present-day Rostov Oblast of Russia, on the left bank of the lower Don River. It was built by the Khazars with Byzantine ass ...

, a city of the Khazars, in the 900s. The Khazar army was defeated and the Sarkel prince and his surviving army were imprisoned.

Borders

The exact borders of the kingdom during his reign is also unknown. In historical sources, the area first appears in the 6th century, when the Byzantine historian

Procopius of Caesarea Procopius of Caesarea ( grc-gre, Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; la, Procopius Caesariensis; – after 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman gen ...

''Wars'', VIII.4.2 records that the people of the ''Zechoi'' used to have a king appointed by the Roman Emperor, but that they had since become independent. The ''

Notitiae Episcopatuum The ''Notitiae Episcopatuum'' (singular: ''Notitia Episcopatuum'') are official documents that furnish Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church. In the Roman Church (the -mostly Lat ...

'' of the

Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( el, Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit=Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, ; la, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constanti ...

mention an

autocephalous Autocephaly (; from el, αὐτοκεφαλία, meaning "property of being self-headed") is the status of a hierarchical Christian church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop. The term is primarily used in Eastern O ...

archbishopric of Zichia from the 7th century on, associated with Tamatarcha or the Cimmerian Bosporus.

References

Circassians 10th-century rulers in Europe {{more cats, date=April 2022