2-913-538 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Circassian Prisoners brought into Schumla, 1854. Circassia was a country and a historical region comprising roughly the northwestern region of the Caucasus, along the shore of the Black Sea. The Caucasus region was hotly contested during the great territorial wars between Russia, Persia, and Turkey. The fortified town of Schumla, now Shumen in Bulgaria, was strategically important, and was used as a headquarters by Ottoman Turkish forces during the Crimean War. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.