Imam Shamil

Imam Shamil (26 June 1797 – 1871) was the third Imam of the Caucasian Imamate, the political, military and spiritual leader of the North Caucasian resistance to Imperial Russia during the Caucasian War, and a sheikh of the Naqshbandi Sufi order; he was nicknamed the "Caucasian Eagle". ^{1 2}

Born in the aul of Gimry in Dagestan to an Avar Muslim family, he built over a quarter of a century an organised state that ruled Dagestan and Chechnya by Sharia and united quarrelsome tribes, until he surrendered to the Russians in 1859; he was then permitted to perform the Hajj in 1869 and died at Medina, where he was buried in Jannat al-Baqi. ^{1 3}

Shamil was born in the small village of Gimry (in present-day Dagestan, Russia) into an Avar Muslim family; some sources state that he had a paternal Kumyk lineage. ^{1 3}

He was originally named Ali, but following local tradition his name was changed to Shamuyil (the Arabic equivalent of Samuel) when he became ill; the name is pronounced Shamil in the Caucasus, and in his own writings he always used the form Shamuyil. ¹

His father Dengau (Dengau Muhammad, d. 1828) was a free landlord, a position that allowed Shamil and his close friend Ghazi Muhammad to study many subjects, including Arabic and logic. ^{1 3}

Shamil grew up while the Russian Empire was expanding into the territories of the Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran, and many Caucasian peoples united in resistance in what became the Caucasian War (1817–1864). ¹

In 1830 Shamil joined the Muridis, a Sufi brotherhood, as Encyclopaedia Britannica records, and he became the disciple and counsellor of Ghazi Muhammad, the first Imam and his childhood friend. ^{2 1}

His initiation ran in the Dagestani Naqshbandi-Khalidi line through Sheikh Jamal al-Din al-Ghazi-Ghumuqi and Sheikh Muhammad al-Yaraghi, and he himself became a sheikh of the Naqshbandi order. ¹

In 1832 Ghazi Muhammad died at the battle of Gimry, and Shamil was one of only two murids to escape, severely wounded: the English article recounts that he was bayoneted deep in the chest, seized the bayonet, pulled it out of his own flesh, cut down the man, and leaped clear over the wall into the darkness; both Russians and murids assumed him dead, and once recovered he emerged and rejoined the murids under the second Imam, Hamzat Bek. ¹

When Hamzat Bek was killed in 1834, Shamil took his place as the prime leader of the Caucasian resistance and third Imam of Dagestan; the Arabic article dates his imamate of Chechnya and Dagestan from 1834, while the English article dates the Caucasian Imamate phase 1840–1859. ^{1 3}

In June–August 1839 Shamil and some 4,000 followers were besieged in the mountain stronghold of Akhoulgo; complying with General Grabbe's demands for a sign of good faith he gave his son Jamaldin as a hostage, but he rejected the demand to surrender and accept exile, and when the Russian army stormed and took the stronghold after two days of fighting, Shamil escaped on the first night and fled to Chechnya, quickly extending his influence over its clans. ¹

Shamil united the quarrelsome Caucasian tribes by his charisma, piety and fairness in applying Sharia law, and used guerrilla tactics effectively against the large regular Russian army: in 1845 his forces surrounded and destroyed Count Vorontsov's 8,000–10,000-strong column in the Chechen forests, defeating the attempt to cut Chechnya away from the Imamate. ¹

His strength grew after Hadji Murad defected from the Russians to him in 1841 and tripled the area under his control in a short time; a decade later Hadji Murad turned against him — apparently disappointed at not being named successor, the honour having gone to Shamil's elder son — was accused of treason in a secret council and sentenced to death, and redefected to the Russians on learning of the judgement. ¹

Shamil hoped in vain for British, French or Ottoman help; after the Crimean War Russia redoubled its efforts and severely reduced the Imamate's territory, and in September 1859 Shamil surrendered at Mount Gunib — Britannica dates the surrender 25 August (6 September New Style) 1859. ^{1 2}

After his capture Shamil was sent to Saint Petersburg to meet Tsar Alexander II, then exiled to Kaluga near Moscow; complaining of the climate, he received permission in December 1868 to move to Kyiv, where he was given a mansion in Aleksandrovskaya Street and kept under "strict but not overly burdensome surveillance"; his letters from Kyiv show he liked the city and his comfortable detainment. ¹

In 1859 he 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." ¹

In 1869 he was given permission to perform the Hajj: he travelled from Kyiv to Odesa and sailed to Istanbul, where Sultan Abdulaziz received him and he stayed briefly as a guest at Topkapı Palace, and in Mecca, during the pilgrimage, he met and conversed with Emir Abdelkader. ¹

Shamil died in Medina in 1871, while visiting the city after his pilgrimage, and was buried in Jannat al-Baqi, the historic cemetery where many prominent figures of Islamic history are interred. ^{1 4}

The sources disagree on the day and month: English Wikipedia and Wikidata give 4 February 1871, while the Arabic article and Britannica give March 1871 — Britannica with a question mark — so the museum record follows the first two and records the conflict. ^{1 4 3 2}

Shamil had multiple wives, among them Shuanet, born in Russia as Anna Ivanovna Ulukhanova (1828–1877), captured in a raid in 1840, who had converted to Islam as a teenager, married him six years later, and remained loyal to him through his capture and exile before moving to the Ottoman Empire, where the Sultan assigned her a pension. ¹

His two elder sons, Cemaleddin (Jamaldin) and Muhammed Şefi, whom he had to leave in Russia to gain permission for the Hajj, became officers in the Russian army, while two younger sons, Muhammed Gazi and Muhammed Kamil, served in the Turkish army; his grandson Said Shamil became one of the founders of the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus in 1917. ¹

This section reports what the sources record of Shamil's belief and affiliation, without a verdict from the museum.

The English article's infobox describes his religion as "Sunni Islam (Ash'ari, Shafi'i, Naqshbandi)", and Wikidata records his religion as Sunni Islam; the museum therefore records "Sunni" on those two independent sources, keeping the Ash'ari creed and the Shafi'i jurisprudence stated here only, because no second source fetched names the madhhab. ^{1 4}

His Sufism is attested independently of that infobox: the English article's lead names him a sheikh of the Naqshbandi Sufi order, and Britannica records his joining the Muridis, a Sufi brotherhood, in 1830 — the movement on which the Dagestani imamate was built. ^{1 2}

Shamil is considered a hero by the peoples of the Northern Caucasus, and he won the respect of his Russian opponents: Tsar Alexander II openly admired his resistance, and a Russian entomologist named a large swift moth after him. ¹

His story entered world literature through Leo Tolstoy's novella Hadji Murat (1904), built around his defected lieutenant, and through academic studies such as Moshe Gammer's Muslim Resistance to the Tsar (2003). ¹

• English Wikipedia article on Imam Shamil (revision 1375215666); Arabic Wikipedia article «شامل الداغستاني» (revision 74258705); Wikidata item Q244742; Encyclopaedia Britannica entry "Shamil" (1998). The sources conflict on the month of his death (February in English Wikipedia and Wikidata; March in the Arabic article and Britannica) and on the start of his imamate (1834 in the Arabic article and Britannica; the "Caucasian Imamate" phase dated 1840–1859 in the English article).