Schamyl

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

chief of the Lesghians and leader of the independent tribes in the Caucasus in their 30 years' struggle against Russia; born in Aul-Himry, northern Daghestan in 1797. He became a priest or mollah, and labored with zeal and religious fervor to compose the numerous feuds of the Caucasian tribes and unite them in antagonism to their common enemy, the infidel Russians. He was one of the foremost in the defense of Himry against the Russians in 1831, In the end of 1834 he was elected "imam," or head of the Lesghians, and soon made himself absolute temporal and spiritual chief of the tribes of Daghestan. He at the same time introduced a change of military tactics, abandoning open warfare for surprises, ambuscades, etc., which brought numerous, and sometimes great, successes to the arms of the mountaineers. In 1839 the Russians succeeded in hemming Schamyl into Achulgo in Daghestan, took the fortress by storm, and put every one of the defenders to the sword in order to be quite certain that Schamyl should not escape. But by some mysterious means he did escape, and suddenly appeared preaching with more vigor than ever the "holy war against the infidels." Ten years later he again escaped from the same stronghold after the Russians had made themselves masters of it. The Russians were completely baffled, their armies sometimes disastrously beaten by their unconquerable foe, though he began to lose ground through the long continuance of the struggle and the exhaustion it naturally brought with it. During the Crimean War he was helped by the allies, who supplied him with money and arms; but after peace was signed the Russians resumed their attacks on the Caucasian tribes with more energy, opened a road over the mountains, thus cutting off one portion of the patriots, and so compelled their submission. On April 12, 1859, Schamyl's chief stronghold, Weden, was taken after a seven weeks' siege, and his authority, except over a small band of personal followers, was wholly destroyed. For several months he was hunted from fastness to fastness, till at last (Sept. 6, 1859) he was surprised on the plateau of Gounib, and after a desperate resistance, in which his 400 followers were reduced to 47, he was captured. He was assigned a residence at Kaluga in the middle of Russia, with a pension of $5,000, and he died in Medina, Arabia, in March, 1871, having taken up his residence in Mecca the year previously. In faith he was a Sufi.