Imam Shamil by Levan Urushadze
From Wikinfo
This is a signed article. It may be edited for spelling errors or typos, but not for substantive content except by its author. If you have created a user name and verified your identity provided you have set forth your credentials on your user page, you can add comments to the botton of this article as Wikinfo:Peer review.
Imam Shamil (1797 - March 1871) was a Dagestani political and religious leader of the Muslims of the Northern Caucasus. He was one of the leaders of the anti-Russian National-liberation movement of the Caucasian peoples in 1817-1859, the third Imam of Dagestan and Chechnya (1834-1859).
Imam Shamil was born in 1797 in the small village of Gimri(Dagestan). His father was a free landlord, and this position allowed Shamil to study many subjects including Arabic, logic and other areas. Shamil would also join a Sufi order, and established himself as a well-respected and educated man among other Muslims of the Caucasus. He made a pilgramige or hajj to Mecca in 1828 and there he met Abdel Kadir, from whom he learned guerilla war tactics.
Shamil was effective at uniting the peoples of the mountains to fight the Russians, and won many victories against the Russians from 1817 until 1859. He made effective use of guerila warfare tactics and the resistance was only ended when the Russians deployed half a million troops and reduced the forces of Shamil down to the hundreds. On August 25, 1859 Shamil and his family were jailed in the Dagestan village (aul) Gunib.
After being defeated by the Russians, Shamil was sent to Moscow to meet the Csar, and then he was exiled to a town Kaluga outside of Moscow. In 1869 he was given permission to retire to the holy city of Mecca, and he travelled there through Istanbul. He would die in Medina in 1871 while visiting the city, and was buried the Jannatul Baqi which is also the site where many important personalities from Islamic history are buried.
Shamil continues to be revered in the Caucasus for his resitance to the Russians, and is held up as a role-model by those leading the current fight against Russian control of the region.
Links and literature
- The Jihad of Imam Shamyl
- Grigol Robakidze. "Imam Shamil". "Kaukasische Novellen", Leipzig, 1932; Munich, 1979 (in German)
