Gamzat-bek

He was born in 1789 in the large village of Gotsatl (Hutsal) in the Avar Khanate, the son of Aliskender-Bek, a successful Avar commander who had been vizier to Umma Khan V and counsellor to Sultan Ahmad Khan, and of a commoner mother; this made him a member of the janka class, of mixed noble and common descent. ^{1 2}

His first teacher was Dibir-qadi, secretary of Umma Khan. In 1801, at the age of twelve, he was sent to be raised at Chokh by Mahad-efendi, a well-known theologian, and he continued his studies under Said of Arakani and under Nurmuhammad-qadi of Khunzakh, learning Arabic, rhetoric and fiqh while living at the khan's house in Khunzakh; the English article summarises this as an education in Shafi'i Islamic law and Arabic under a number of Avar learned men. ^{1 2}

In his youth he drank alcohol, but he stopped when he met the Dagestani religious reformer Ghazi Muhammad. He became a pious Muslim and joined Ghazi Muhammad's movement to impose sharia in Dagestan, where customary law (adat) was widely followed instead. However, he never joined the Naqshbandiyya-Khalidiyya Sufi order, of which Ghazi Muhammad and the third imam Shamil were members; the English article states this expressly, twice. The short Arabic and Urdu articles describe him, in weaker and unattributed terms, as a devoted follower of the Sufi sheikhs of his time — a reading preserved, with the contradiction, in this museum's data record rather than adopted here. ^{2 3 4}

Hamzat Bek had fought against the Russians as early as 1826, and in 1829 he commanded the detachment sent by the Avar khan's widow Pakhu Bike in support of Abu-Muslim in the Tarki shamkhalate succession struggle. He became one of Ghazi Muhammad's main commanders: he fought in the February 1830 assault on Khunzakh, attacked a Russian detachment in the spring of 1830, and led the counterattacks after the Russians conquered Jar-Balakan, raiding Georgian settlements in the Alazani valley in Kakheti in the autumn of 1830. Arrested by the Russians — the English article dates his capture to negotiations in June 1831, the Russian article to the winter after the Jar-Balakan campaign of 1830 — he was sent under escort to Tiflis and released on giving hostages, through the intercession, the Russian article says, of Aslan Khan of Kyurin; the English article adds that he rejoined Ghazi Muhammad after learning that his son, given as a hostage, had died in captivity. He defended the fortress of Agach-Kala in November 1831 and was wounded in battle in early July 1832, but went on to campaign in Jar-Balakan that summer. When Ghazi Muhammad was besieged at Gimry in October 1832, Hamzat Bek, then near Irganay, was misled by forged appeals circulated by Russian propaganda and did not arrive in time; Ghazi Muhammad was killed on 29 October 1832. ^{2 1}

After Ghazi Muhammad's death, Hamzat Bek was proclaimed imam by the Dagestani ulama and notables — in January 1833 by the Russian article's account, at the initiative, the English article says, of the Naqshbandi sheikh Muhammad al-Yaraghi, though Michael Kemper writes that he "had himself proclaimed the new imām". The alternative candidate was Shamil, who was still recovering from wounds received at Gimry, while Hamzat, as a wealthy janka, had more means to win over supporters. ^{2 1}

At first his rule did not extend beyond Gotsatl, Ashilta, Gimry, Tiliq (Teletl) and Mokh; he used force to bring the communities back under the imamate, took Irganay and Arakani in August 1833, defeated a coalition of the shamkhal, the Mehtuli khan and the Akusha confederation at Gergebil in October 1833, and by early 1834 controlled most of the Avar confederacies, including Koisubu, Gumbet, Andi and Andalal. He regularly appointed deputies (na'ibs) to each region under his control — Moshe Gammer credits him with originating the administrative structures of the imamate as a state — and he declared Gotsatl his capital before transferring it to Khunzakh. Unlike his predecessor and successor, who relied mainly on the "free" (uzden) communities, Hamzat Bek focused on gaining the support of the Avar Khanate's royal family, with which he had personal connections. He also tried to negotiate peace with Russia on condition that the Russians not interfere with the enforcement of sharia, but the negotiations, conducted through letters and through the shamkhal's mediation, failed. ^{2 1}

In the summer of 1834 he besieged Khunzakh for two weeks. Pakhu Bike gave two of her sons to him as hostages for an agreement; on 25 August [O.S. 13 August], in a fight that broke out unintentionally in his camp, her sons Nusal and Umma and their men were killed, as were the imam's brother and some of his followers. Hamzat Bek then stormed Khunzakh and ordered the killing of Pakhu Bike and all the women of the Avar royal family except her pregnant daughter-in-law; he also destroyed the Chupanov and Sultanilov khan families. After this he may have claimed the title of Avar khan, trying to combine the authority of the traditional Avar nobility with the Islamic authority of his movement. ^{2 1}

On 1 October [O.S. 19 September] 1834 he was assassinated in front of the Khunzakh Friday mosque by Hajji Uthman, a relative of the Avar ruling family and the brother of Hajji Murad — the subject of Leo Tolstoy's novella — in revenge for the destruction of the family; Uthman was killed immediately afterwards. Hamzat Bek was succeeded as imam by Shamil, and his grave is at Khunzakh. ^{2 1}

His reputation was tarnished, in his lifetime and after, by the massacre of the Avar ruling family, but the eyewitness Hajji Ali describes him as "learned and wise, and no one in Daghestan could rival his gallantry". Moshe Gammer argues that his importance has been overlooked in Dagestani and Russian sources alike, stressing how his swift succession preserved the movement after Ghazi Muhammad's death and how his destruction of the Avar khanate let the imamate spread over all of central Dagestan. Michael Kemper characterises his reign as "a brief 'aristocratic' interlude between the charismatic leaders Ghāzī-Muḥammad and Shāmil". Dagestani folklore remembers him both as a shahid killed by hypocrites and, in Khunzakh traditions, in a negative light; Tolstoy's Hadji Murad recalls his name in the line "we shall fight as Gamzat fought". ^{2 1}

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