Draft:Shamil Dagestani

Shamil Dagestani
Name	Shamil Dagestani
Other Names	{{{other_names}}}
Personal Details
Birth Place	Gimry village, Dagestan
Brith Date	1797 CE
Death Place	Medina
Death Date	4 February 1871 CE

Shamil Dagestani (1797 – March 1871) was a political and religious leader of Avar ethnicity in the North Caucasus and one of the most famous opponents of the annexation of Russia to the Caucasus. Born in 1797 in the village of Gimry, Dagestan, he led the resistance against the Russians during the Caucasian War and was the third Imam of Chechnya and Dagestan from 1834 to 1859, nicknamed the Lion of the Caucasus and the Falcon of the Mountains.

Family and upbringing

Imam Shamil's father, Ali bin Dingu, was born in 1796 CE in the village of Gimry, Dagestan, in an Avar family with Kumyk origins from Turkey. His mother, Bakhu Misadu, was also of Avar ethnicity. He was called Shamil according to Caucasian custom, as he was very sickly and changing names was believed to ward off evil spirits; thus, he was nicknamed Shamil or Samuel. He had a sister and a special friend named Kunak, who was a few years older than Shamil and became known as Imam Ghazi Mulla.

Shamil, standing over two meters tall, had a purebred black horse. Shamil wore black and white clothes with a loose coat and a red headband on his turban, and carried a black flag. Shamil learned Arabic, philosophy, jurisprudence, and Arabic literature from his teacher Jamal al-Din and engaged in Sufism. He studied Sufism with his friend Ghazi Muhammad in the city of Bragl, in the center of Muridiyah.

Marriages

Imam Shamil married five times and had six sons (Jamal al-Din, Muhammad Qazi, Muhammad Sa'id, Muhammad Shafi, Jamal al-Din, and Muhammad Kamal) and five daughters (Fatimah, Nafisah, Najwah, Bakhu Misidu, and Safiyyah).

Shamil fell in love with Fatimah bint Abd al-Aziz, daughter of one of the famous figures of the Caucasus, and married her. She was born in Anstikul in 1810 and died in Alusunda in 1845. She had five children. Then he married Djafarat (Jawharah), who was born in Gimry in 1821 and died in Akhulko in 1839 CE; this was a good marriage but she died young. Then he married Zaydat (Zahidah) bint Jamal al-Din al-Ghamqi al-Husayni (d. 1869), who was born in Ghazi Kamukh in 1823 CE and died in Medina in 1870 CE, and he had three children by her.

Shamil's fourth wife was Anna Ivanova Ulkhanova (Shuanit) of Armenian origin, born in 1821 CE and died in 1876 CE, and he had a daughter named Sofi by her. His last wife was Amnah Checheni from the Kist tribe, but he divorced her due to infertility.

In 1870, at the age of 74, Shamil was granted permission to travel to Mecca. He went by ship from Annaba to Istanbul, and Sultan Abd al-Aziz of the Ottomans received him with an official welcome and offered him palaces to choose from, but he declined. The Sultan asked him to go to Cairo to mediate in the severe conflict between Turkey and Egypt, and he successfully performed this task. Then, along with his family and companions, he went to Mecca, which was under the control of the Ottoman judiciary, and in late 1870 CE, he left Mecca for Medina and resided there in the house of Sheikh Ahmad al-Rifa'i. He died on 4 February 1871 CE, corresponding to 25 Dhu al-Qi'dah 1287 AH, after Maghrib and before Isha, and was buried in Al-Baqi Cemetery in Medina.

Legacy in Dagestan

The memory of Imam Shamil is still alive in the conscience and mind of the Dagestanis, and no place is without his image, and many name their children after him to this day. They consider him a national hero who fought with a seemingly impossible effort to stop the advance of Russia in the lands of the Muslims of the Caucasus.

Shamil was not born in a poor and wretched family, but some interpret his fight for freedom as a struggle of the poor against the rich. Millions of Russian peasants suffered from the slavery of feudal lords in Russia at the end of the eighteenth century, while Muhammad bin Dingu, the father of Imam Shamil, was a free peasant and his mother was the daughter of an Avar lord. Queen Victoria sent a flag to Shamil on which three stars were embroidered, representing the Circassians, Dagestan, and Georgia.

War with Russia

In 1828 CE, war spread across the Caucasus, and the resistance of Muslims in Dagestan continued under the leadership of Imam Ghazi and Imam Hamza Bek. In 1834, after the death of Imam Hamza, Imam Shamil continued the leadership of the resistance, and Tasu Haji's forces also joined Imam Shamil. In 1839 CE, the Tsar of Russia continued the policy of pressure on Chechen territory with this aim. With the conquest of the Caucasus, all the people of the North Caucasus began to struggle under the leadership of Imam Shamil. According to Russian history, the war in the Caucasus lasted 25 years, and the last battles between Shamil and the Russians took place in the Gunib mountain range.

Beginnings

At the end of the 15th century, Chechnya, Dagestan, Circassians, and the rest of the lands between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea were played with by the imagination of Tsar Ivan III of Russia, so he agreed with Cossack tribes loyal to the nascent state. The Russian government gradually attacked Muslim lands in the Caucasus region. The Cossacks successfully carried out this task and established the first outpost on the Terek River, and this outpost later became the city of "Grozny", the capital of Chechnya. During the reign of Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) in the mid-16th century, the Cossacks built several fortresses in northern Dagestan and Chechnya and established an Alliance with some of the people of the region. At the beginning of the 18th century, thousands of Cossack families gathered in the region, mixed with local tribes, and married them, although they maintained Christianity as their Religion and Russian as their language.

Leadership of Imam Ghazi

In 1829, Mulla Muhammad Qazi began to move the mountain people towards holy war to confront Russia. Although he did not participate in the war, he was famous for his ability to influence his soldiers with magic and eloquence of words. He also took great steps in sending preachers from Dagestan to the residents of the Chechen mountains to invite them from idolatry to Islam.

Death of Mulla Muhammad Ghazi

In contrast to the consolidation of the power of the murids, the Russians burned the homes of the residents to force the resistances to leave their homes. They launched a widespread attack until Mulla Muhammad Ghazi fell among the corpses of thousands of fedayeen in the Battle of Gimry. In the Battle of Gimry, only a few survived, and two of them managed to escape, one of whom was Shamil, who was severely wounded and near death. He was able to disappear until he recovered from his injuries.

Leadership of Hamza Bek

After the death of Imam Ghazi, his murids believed that Imam Shamil had been killed in the Battle of Gimry and did not know that he had survived despite severe injuries. "Hamza Bek" was chosen for leadership by the dignitaries of the army upon their recommendation. Hamza spent the next two years organizing the ranks and consolidating the army forces, but was defeated. Then, while leading the mujahideen in the Jami Mosque in the resistance trench in Khunzakh, Dagestan, he was assassinated, and Hadji Murad was involved in this assassination. Because he suspected revenge was taken for the killing of his brother Umar and his six sons, which had been by the order of Imam Hamza Bek.

Leadership of Imam Shamil

After the death of Hamza Bek in 1834 CE, the fedayeen chose Shamil for leadership. Shamil organized the army of murids in the manner of their enemies, the Cossacks, in a manner similar to modern federal coordination. He also organized postal work in his state, coordinated army expenses from the revenues of agricultural lands that were added to mosques, and organized the collection of zakat to equip the army. In return, he expelled the dervishes and did not accept their return except as soldiers in his army.

Actions of Imam Shamil

1. Consolidating the foundations of the state: Imam Shamil began to support the pillars of his influence in the Caucasus, dependent on Chechnya, Dagestan, and their Adyghe allies, and his influence extended from the Caspian Sea in the east to the Black Sea in the west.

Pursuing uninterrupted equality between nationalities, regardless of language, race, and class, at a time when slavery was still prevalent in Russia. Shamil took the approach by which he organized social life, especially in matters of qisas and punishment of civil crimes, and even strictness in some laws where the law was more moderate in some Islamic schools of thought, from Islamic laws. He is willing to maintain the pillars of his state.

2. Army organization: It is based on a hierarchical system. In the first stage, one hundred lieutenants who have the highest rank. Then lieutenants known as guides were about one thousand, and there was also a special guard. The fedayeen mostly formed a comprehensive army and were divided into five hundred regiments, and each regiment had a commander. Circassian soldiers wore brown, officers black, and some wore green turbans and black coats with black flags on them.

References

His Communications with Egypt

He also utilized Russian officer prisoners and renegades who had cooperated with the Russians, leveraging their experience with Russia's military capabilities to develop his own forces in a modern European style. Shamil attempted to use international forces to aid him, but the field isolation in which he fought prevented the realization of his plan. In the mid-19th century, Shamil sought to open a line of communication between Turkey, England, and France, with the aim that these countries would provide military support to Shamil in exchange for his alliance with them in hostility against Russia. Prior to this, in 1840 CE, the Dagestan fidais published a letter bearing the royal seal of Muhammad Ali Pasha, granting Shamil permission to lead the people of the region and promising the entry of the Egyptian army into Turkish lands to supply them with military aid against the Russians. However, the failure of Muhammad Ali's project in Turkey dashed the fidais' hopes for a large-scale Egyptian entry.

Continuation of Resistance

The resistance led by Shamil continued in a series of guerrilla and strike wars. When Shamil conducted a tactical retreat into the mountains and tempted the Russians to penetrate behind him through dense forests, the fidais attacked them from various sides. The fighters used one of the captured drummers to play, encouraging Russian soldiers to walk into the trap they had set themselves. They killed more than half of the campaign officers. Attacks on the confused Russian army continued. He lost four out of five defenders. Historians estimate the result of the four-year forest battles as 10,000 Russian casualties.

Use of Artillery

With four cannons captured from the Russians, Shamil was able to attack their fortresses and kill thousands. Within two years, he seized 14 war cannons in such a manner that it seemed a new army had been created under his command possessing Russian cannons, which the fidais previously did not have.

One of the Russian generals wrote in his memoirs about what he saw: "What a calamity, men who were scattered here were able to conquer a country that extends from Japan in the east to Ukraine in the west."

His View on Spoils of War

When Shamil felt that his forces were fighting for spoils, he would throw the spoils into a lake in the mountains. The Andi villagers believe that somewhere beneath the water of a pond near the mountain, there are gold plates, buttons, ruby sheaths, bracelets and emerald anklets, and coral and amber wine glasses. Thus, he dedicated the spoils of Caucasian raids to the fish of the pond to maintain the unity of the army.

Bounty on His Head

When Russia allocated 45,000 rubles for Shamil's capture, Shamil wrote a letter to the Russian general on the front line, saying: "How happy I was when I learned that my head is worth this huge price. But you will not be happy when I tell you that your head, even the Tsar's head itself, is worth nothing to me."

End of the War

The battle of Imam Shamil became a victim of international settlements. In 1856 CE, the war between Turkey and Russia ended. The end of this war resulted in Russia being allowed to concentrate its forces on the Caucasus front with power and a presence of 200,000 men, and this task was entrusted to the young General Alexander Ivanovich Baryatinsky at a time when Shamil was over sixty years old. Baryatinsky devoted much time to studying the military geography of Imam Shamil's battles and concluded that the most important victories Shamil had achieved were not in open ground, but when he took refuge in the forest and mountains. Thus, he chose a more complex policy than his predecessors; therefore, he drew closer to the people, treated them well, and avoided exposing women and non-combatants. He ensured that they would not oppose him against the Imam in his decisive war.

Baryatinsky's Strategy

General Baryatinsky pressured Shamil's forces until Shamil took refuge in the forests, and here he employed a full army division to cut down trees. Baryatinsky, with diligent work and soldiers who carried axes instead of rifles, cleared vast areas of the forests of Dagestan and Chechnya along the roads between Russian fortresses. A full-scale attack was launched against the Russian fortresses operating under Baryatinsky, but it failed. However, Baryatinsky's forces advanced with steady steps into the areas under Shamil's control, and the Russians took possession of dozens of war-weary tribes and began to blame Shamil for their poverty and homelessness.

Surrender

Imam Shamil's classical military mentality committed a fatal error. At a time when the Russians kept their military secrets and secretly moved part of their army, Shamil, imagining that they were still en route, was certain and waiting for a Russian attack from a specific source.

However, they attacked him with a thunderous assault from another direction, deceiving a man who was himself skilled in this type of attack. What was expected happened, and Imam Shamil was captured.

He was taken on a long journey to Moscow, resembling a military parade with a hero who had finally fallen. Veterans from Stavropol to Moscow requested to speak with that formidable enemy. Shamil remained in Moscow until 1869 CE, and his request to perform the Hajj pilgrimage was accepted. His journey was conducted from Moscow to Kiev, then to Constantinople, and from there to Medina. Where he passed away in 1871 CE.

Historian Turnour

Historian Turnour, expressing the historical atmosphere of Imam Shamil's movement fairly as the final moments of the last battle between the two sides, stated: Shamil al-Daghestani: "The curtain on the last scene of this tragic incident fell in this way, and the flow of the night on this bloody piece of land was such that every man who returned from the Russian army was convinced that he had done his duty and were eternal actors of the story. Some returned to their tents and asked themselves: Why did all this happen? And proudly, continuing the struggle, they said to themselves: Can every human being, regardless of culture and religious principles, not find a place to live in security?"

Legacy in the Caucasus

The life of Imam Shamil continued in Caucasus literature to the extent that he is present in songs, anthems, and heroic stories to this day. They consider him a symbol of freedom. Because he sowed the seeds of freedom in successive generations.