Qizbech Tughuzhuqo

Qizbech Tughuzhuqo was a Circassian aristocrat, soldier, and military commander who took part in the Russo-Circassian War as a leader of the Shapsug. Qizbech was a cavalry commander, especially successful in raiding behind enemy lines. He refused multiple offers from the Russian Empire to switch sides and join its Imperial ranks. Qizbech's close family, including all of his sons, were killed in the war. Despite being of noble birth, he sided with the peasants in the Circassian Revolution. The Englishman James Bell, who knew him personally, called him "The Lion of Circassia".

Sources and contemporary writers on Qizbech include David Urquhart, secretary of the British Embassy in Istanbul and a supporter of the Circassians who contributed to the Portfolio magazine; Edmund Spencer and John E. Longworth, travellers who reported from Circassia for The Times; and James Stanislaus Bell, who followed Urquhart's lead in writing letters to the British people. The last three of them met Qizbech personally and recorded their memories. Among the Circassian writers of the period, Sultan Khan-Giray provides information about Qizbech. On the Russian side, both the poet Mikhail Lermontov and the Russian Lieutenant General Vasily Aleksandrovich Potto, the first detailed historian of the Caucasian War, mention him. Fyodor A. Shcherbina also provides information about Qizbech. In addition, in oral Circassian tradition, many songs were composed in the name of Qizbech. These songs were unusual because they were written while Qizbech was still alive and were known to him. In these songs, he is referred to as the "Lion of Circassia" (Adyghe: Лъэпкъым иаслъан, lit. 'Lion of the Nation').