Imam Shamil: a contested legacy that still resonates in the Caucasus

Trt ^ | September 6, 2019 | SALAHUDDIN MAZHARY

[NorseViking]

On the 160th anniversary of Shamil's surrender to Tsarist forces, he inspires courage among the youth of Dagestan, including MMA champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. But in neighbouring Chechnya, he's viewed differently. The song evokes a feeling of righteousness despite lamenting a historic defeat. “O Mountains of Gunib. O soldiers of Shamil. Shamil’s citadel was full of warriors. Yet it has fallen, fallen forever.”

The song is still sung by Imam Shamil’s descendants. His name is imprinted in the minds of millions who belong to the Caucusus. Born at a time when imperial Russia was swallowing the territories of the Ottoman and Persian empires, from 1834 until his surrender in 1859, as the Third Imam of the Caucasus Emirate, Shamli united various warring peoples of the North Caucasus under the banner of a shared faith: Islam.

Today marks the 160th anniversary of Shamil’s surrender to Tsarist forces led by General Baryantinsky. In the aftermath of the surrender, the Avar resistance leader was received with great pomp by Tsar Alexander II and lived the remainder of his life in exile from his homeland. As with any famed historical personality, the circumstances surrounding the Dagestani leader’s surrender inspire competing historical narratives around his legacy.

The impact of 1859 still reverberates across the Caucasus and informs contemporary rivalry and geopolitics between the Chechen and Dagestani federal republics. Early last month, maverick Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov piled into an already heated debate claiming Imam Shamil provoked “the annihilation of the Chechen people… and forced them to fight Russia for 20 years”. Kadyrov’s comments generated outrage across Dagestan from secular and religious bodies alike; Imam Shamil is revered as the unofficial father and consummate hero of Dagestan.