The Kabardians and their western relatives, the Circassians, have inhabited the north flank of the Caucasus as far back as anyone knows. Kabardia is said to have been founded by the semi-legendary Prince Inal. Without a native tradition of written history, most of what we know of their history comes from their contacts with the Russians. This contact dates from 1475 then the Turks captured the Genoese ports on the Black sea and the part-Circassian Zakkaria Gizolfi appealed unsuccessfully to Moscow. When the Golden Horde broke up about 1500 the steppe nomads became organized as the Nogai Horde. They and the Crimeans began or continued to raid the north Caucasus. Richmond reports raids for the years : ‘no later than 1476’, 1491, 1498, circa 1500 ‘every spring’, 1521, 1518, a 10-year break after 1519, 1539, 1547, 1554, 1567, 1578, 1606-1635 “seven times’, 1670s, 1708, 1720, 1735, 1740s, 1760–61 and 1777.