Folk hero and religious
leader, mujahid (T. N. combatant of Islam) (B. 1797-98, Gimry / Dagestan -
February 4th, 1871, Medina). Sheikh Shamil, who is also known as İmam
Shamil or with his nickname “Caucasian Eagle”, was from a Kumyk family with
Avar origins. His father Dengau Muhammed gave him the name Ali. Ali, who caught
a serious disease at an early age, was given the name Shamil as per the
tradition and was called by this name from then on. When he was fifteen years
old he mounted the horse and girded himself with a sword like a warrior. He had
an extraordinary talent and ability in sports branches such as jumping,
shooting, wrestling, running and sword with his height that exceeded two meters
when he was twenty years old. He began his education by scholar Said Harekani. He
became a student of the Naqshbandi Sheikh Cemaleddin Ghazi Kumukî, who was later going to be his
father-in-law. He was raised by taking lessons from the ulama (religious
scholars) of his time. He became a religious scholar himself by learning the
tafsir (interpretation of the Koran), hadith (words of the Prophet Muhammad),
fiqh (Islamic law), literature, history and physical sciences until he was
thirty years old. This education that he had received by Naqshbandi Tariqa
helped him to strive for reviving and spreading the Islam, which the Russians
wanted to remove from the Caucasian, and to develop his opinions on freedom,
resistance and foundation of Islamic unity.
Ali Shamil pursued his
war, which he had started against the Russian Empire in Dagestan, in
Sheikh Shamil, who made
great effort to resolve the problems between the Muslims such as blood feud,
race, language and school differences, defeated the Russian forces under the
command of General İveliç in Aşilta and Buçkiyev’s forces in Akhoulgo (1837)
with the Chechen, Circassian and Abkhasian folks he had gathered around himself
by earning their trust. Upon these achievements, many more Caucasian tribes and
people joined Sheikh Shamil. The Russians, who captured Aşilta back afterwards,
retreated to Khunzakh (1838) by signing a ceasefire agreement with the mujahids
after the War of Tilitl, in which both sides failed to get the upper hand.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Shamil established an Islamic regime that was based on
intertribal equity in the regions under his dominion. He ensured that military
education was attached priority along with normal education. On the other hand,
the Russians, who broke the cease fire and attacked with large forces, invaded
Arguvan and Akhoulgo (1839). A new peace treaty was signed between both sides
by giving Shamil’s son Cemalettin to the Russians as a hostage. Afterwards,
Sheikh Shamil, who increased his power as Avars joined him along with Hacı
Murad, spread the war of independence to whole
Sheikh Shamil, who took
advantage of the decrease in Russian forces in Caucasian when the Crimean War
broke out between the Ottomans and the Russians (1853), marched on
After Sheikh Shamil
spent ten years in exile, Tsar allowed him to go on pilgrimage. As a measure
Tsar held Shamil’s son Muhammed Şefi captive and mandated that he returned to
Sheikh Shamil, after having
gone to Hejaz and fulfilling his pilgrimage task, did not return from Hejaz and
stayed in