Shamyl (1796-1871), the leader of Islamic resistance to Russian penetration of Dagestan in the eastern Caucasus in the mid-19th century. Of Avar tribal origin, his traditional Islamic education and military talents fitted him to become the leader of a jihad against the relentlessly advancing Russians, and in 1834 he was recognized as imam or religio-politico-military leader. He soon came to control the mountain areas of Dagestan, and established within them an Islamic polity. With his murids or dedicated warriors, he achieved several striking successes against the Russian troops, fighting as they were in an alien environment, at times compelling them to sue for peace, and he extended eastwards into Kabardia or Circassia. However, the end of the Crimean war in 1856 enabled the tsar to concentrate efforts against Dagestan. Chechnya, to its north, was pacified and Shamyl gradually encircled, so that he was compelled to surrender in 1859. He was treated leniently and honourably, dying in 1871; one of his sons became a general in the imperial Russian army.
Bibliography
- Baddeley, John F., The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus (London, 1908).
- Gammer, M., Muslim Resistance to the Tsar: Shamil and the Conquest of Chechnia and Daghestan (London, 1994)
— C. E. Bosworth
