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Imam Shamil (; ; ;Гапуров Ш. А. Тяжёлые страницы истории Чечни //Таллам. – 2015. – №. 1. – С. 24-29. ; ; 26 June 1797 – 4 February 1871) was the political, military, and spiritual leader of North Caucasian resistance to Russian Empire in the 1800s, the third Imam of the Caucasian Imamate (1840–1859), and a Sunni Muslim sheikh of the Naqshbandi. The Great Shamil, Imam of Daghestan and Chechnya, Shaykh of Naqshbandi tariqah
Shamil grew up at a time when the Russian Empire was expanding into the territories of the Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran (see Russo-Persian War (1804–1813) and Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812)). Many Caucasian peoples united in resistance to Russian imperial aspirations in what became known as the Caucasian War (1817-1864). Earlier of Caucasus resistance included Hadji-Dawud, Sheikh Mansur and Ghazi Mollah. Shamil, a childhood friend of the Mollah, would become his disciple and counsellor.
Shamil had multiple wives, including one of Armenians born in Russia named Anna Ivanovna Ulukhanova (or Ulykhanova; 1828-1877).Thomas M. Barrett, At the Edge of Empire: The Terek Cossacks and the North Caucasus Frontier, 1700–1860 (Westview Press, 1999), 193.Daniel R. Brower and Edward J. Lazzerinini, eds., Russia's Orient: Imperial Borderlands and Peoples, 1700–1917 (Indiana University Press, 1997), p. 92. Captured in a raid in 1840, she married Shamil six years later. She converted to Islam as a teenager and adopted the name Shuanet. Shuanet remained loyal to Shamil even after his capture and exile to Russia. After the death of Shamil (1871) she moved to the Ottoman Empire, where the sultan assigned her a pension.
In June–August 1839, Shamil and his followers, numbering about 4000 men, women and children, found themselves under siege in their mountain fortification of Akhoulgo, nestled in the bend of the Andi Koysu, about ten miles east of Gimry. Under the command of General Pavel Grabbe, the Russian army trekked through lands devoid of supplies because of Shamil's scorched-earth strategy. The geography of the stronghold protected it from three sides, adding to the difficulty of conducting the siege. Eventually the two sides agreed to negotiate. Complying with Grabbe's demands, Shamil gave his son, Jamaldin, in a sign of good faith, as a hostage. Shamil rejected Grabbe's proposal that Shamil command his forces to surrender and for him to accept exile from the region. The Russian army attacked the stronghold, after 2 days of fighting, the Russian troops had secured it. Shamil escaped the siege during the first night of the attack. Shamil's forces had been broken and many Dagestani and Chechen chieftains proclaimed loyalty to the Tsar. Shamil fled Dagestan for Chechnya. There, he made quick work of extending his influence over the clans.
Shamil was effective at uniting the many, quarrelsome Caucasian tribes to fight against the Russians, by the force of his charisma, piety and fairness in applying Sharia law. One Russian source commented on him as "a man of great tact and a subtle politician." He believed the Russian introduction of alcohol in the area corrupted traditional values. Against the large regular Russian military, Shamil made effective use of irregular and guerrilla tactics. In 1845, an 8000-10000 strong column under the command of Count Mikhail Vorontsov followed the Imamate's forces into the forests of Chechnya. The Imamate's forces surround the Russian column, destroying it. This destroyed Vorontsov's attempt to cut away Chechnya from the Imamate, which was his plan.Count Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov detailing the plan to cut away Chechnya from the Imamate:
His fortunes as a military leader rose after he was joined by Hadji Murad, who defected from the Russians in 1841 and tripled by his fighting the area under Shamil's control within a short time. Hadji Murad, who was to become the subject of a famous novella by Leo Tolstoy (1904), turned against Shamil a decade later, apparently disappointed by his failure to be anointed Shamil's successor as imam. Shamil's elder son was given that nomination, and in a secret council, Shamil had his lieutenant accused of treason and sentenced to death, on which Hadji Murad, on learning of the judgement, redefected to the Russians.Gary Hamburg, Thomas Sanders, Ernest Tucker (eds,), Russian-Muslim Confrontation in the Caucasus: Alternative Visions of the conflict between Imam Shamil and the Russians, 1830-1859, RoutledgeCurzon 2004 pèassimMalise Ruthven, Terror: The Hidden Source, New York Review of Books, 24 October 2013, pp. 20-24.
Although Shamil hoped that Britain, France, or the Ottoman Empire would come to his aid to drive Russia from the Caucasus, this never happened. After the Crimean War, Russia redoubled its efforts against the Imamate. Now successful, Russian forces severely reduced the Imamate's territory, and by September 1859, Shamil surrendered. Though the main theater closed, conflict in the eastern Caucasus would continue for several more years.
In 1859 Shamil wrote to one of his sons: "By the will of the Almighty, the Absolute Governor, I have fallen into the hands of unbelievers ... the Great Emperor ... has settled me here ... in a tall spacious house with carpets and all the necessities."Pismo Shamilia Mukhammadanu, November 24, 1859, in Omarov, ed. 100 pisem Shamilia.
In 1869 he was given permission to perform the Hajj to the holy city of Mecca. He traveled first from Kyiv to Odesa and then sailed to Istanbul, where he was greeted by Ottoman Empire Abdulaziz. He became a guest at the Imperial Topkapı Palace for a short while and left Istanbul on a ship reserved for him by the Sultan. In Mecca, during the pilgrimage, he met and conversed with Emir Abdelkader. After completing his pilgrimage to Mecca, he died in Medina in 1871 while visiting the city, and was buried in the Al-Baqi Cemetery, a historical graveyard in Medina where many prominent personalities from Islamic history are interred. Two elder sons, ( and Muhammed Şefi), whom he had to leave in Russia in order to get permission to visit Mecca, became officers in the Russian army, while two younger sons, ( and Muhammed Kamil), served in the Ottoman Empire army whilst their daughter Peet'mat Shamil went on to marry Sheikh Mansur Fedorov, an Imam who later absconded from the Russian Empire out of fear for himself and his children's lives. He fathered 11 children, one being John Fedorov who changed his name to John Federoff after migrating to Childers in Queensland, Australia where he established a sugar cane farming empire.
Said Shamil, a grandson of Imam Shamil, became one of the founders of the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus, which was founded in 1917 and survived until 1920, when it was conquered by Soviet Russia. Forced to leave the region, in 1924 he established the "Committee of Independence of the Caucasus" in Weimar Republic.
Shamil's career and legacy continue to be studied by Russian authorities and academics despite his defiance to Russian power. An entomologist with reformist ideas named a large swift moth after him.H. Christoph: Diagnosen zu einigen neuen Lepidoptera des palaearctischen Faunengebietes. Hor. Soc. Ent Ross. (Sankt Peterburg), vol 22. pp308 - 314 (1888). See Zenophassus.
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