Hamzat Bek
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Hamzat Bek | |
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Imam of Dagestan | |
Reign | 1832–1834 |
Predecessor | Ghazi Muhammad |
Successor | Shamil |
Born | Hamzat-Bek ibn Ali Iskandar-Bek al-Hutsali al-Awari al-Daghistani 1789 Gotsatl, Avar Khanate, Dagestan |
Died | 1 October [O.S. 19 September] 1834 (aged 44–45) Khunzakh, Dagestan |
Religion | Islam |
Hamzat Bek (also Hamza, or Gamzat from the Russian rendering;
Early life
Hamzat Bek was born in 1789 in the large village of Hutsal or
Under Ghazi Muhammad
In late 1829–early 1830, Ghazi Muhammad was proclaimed
Election and reign as imam
After the death of Ghazi Muhammad, Hamzat Bek was proclaimed imam by the Dagestani ulama and notables. This was done at the initiative of Muhammad al-Yaraghi, a Naqshbandi sheikh who supported Ghazi Muhammad's jihad[5] (alternatively, Michael Kemper writes that Hamzat Bek "had himself proclaimed the new imām").[1] According to some sources, the choice for a new imam was between Hamzat Bek and Shamil, but Hamzat Bek was chosen since Shamil was still recovering from wounds received at the Battle of Gimry and Hamzat, as a wealthy janka, had more means to win over supporters.[6]
Many of Ghazi Muhammad's followers had abandoned the movement shortly before or after his death, and few local elites initially accepted Hamzat Bek's authority.
In October 1833, Hamzat Bek forced the village of Gergebil to accept his rule, defeating the forces of the shamkhal, the khan of Mehtuli and the confederation of Aqusha which had come to Gergebil's aid.[9] Unlike his predecessor and successor, who relied mainly on the uzden ("free") communities and rarely on the nobility, Hamzat Bek focused on gaining the support of the royal family of the Avar Khanate, with which he had personal connections. The Avar Khanate's de facto ruler Pakhu Bike had sometimes accepted Hamzat Bek's calls to enforce sharia, but she also wanted Russian assistance to preserve the khanate's independence.[1] Additionally, she was pushed by the Russians to oppose Hamzat Bek. In March 1834, Pakhu Bike secretly attempted to organize Hamzat Bek's murder.[9]
By early 1834, Hamzat Bek controlled most of the Avar confederacies around the Avar Khanate, including Koisubu, Gumbet, Andi, and Andalal.[1] In the summer of 1834, he besieged Khunzakh for two weeks. Pakhu Bike gave two of her sons to Hamzat Bek as hostages to secure an agreement. On 25 August [O.S. 13 August], another son of Pakhu Bike came to negotiate with Hamzat Bek, but a fight unintentionally broke out, causing the deaths of Pakhu Bike's sons Nusal and Umma and their men and the imam's brother and some of his followers. Ḥamzat Bek then stormed Khunzakh and ordered the killing of Pakhu Bike and all of the women of the Avar royal family, except for Pakhu Bike's pregnant daughter-in-law.[9] After this, Hamzat Bek may have claimed the title of Avar khan, trying to combine the authority of the traditional nobility with the Islamic authority of his movement.[1]
Hamzat Bek gained as an ally Hajj Tasho, an important leader in Chechnya, which alarmed the Russians. In early September, Hamzat Bek resumed campaigning and unsuccessfully tried to take Tsudakhar in the Aqusha confederation. Still viewing Hamzat Bek as a dangerous enemy, the Russians planned new operations against the imam.[10] Before this could occur, Hamzat Bek was assassinated on 1 October [O.S. 19 September] 1834 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 famous novella).[1] The assassination was an act of revenge for the destruction of the Avar ruling family, as Uthman and Hajji Murad had been "milk brothers" of the khan.[10] Uthman was killed immediately after assassinating Hamzat Bek.[11] Hamzat Bek was succeeded as imam by Shamil.[1] His grave is located in Khunzakh.[12][c]
Legacy and reputation
Both during and after his reign, Hamzat Bek's reputation was tarnished by the massacre of the Avar ruling family. However, Hajji Ali, an eyewitness to the Caucasian War, describes Hamzat Bek as "learned and wise, and no one in Daghestan could rival his gallantry." Moshe Gammer argues that Hamzat Bek's importance has been overlooked in both Dagestani and Russian sources, partly because he is "overshadowed" by the other two imams. Gammer stresses the significance of Hamzat Bek's swift succession after Ghazi Muhammad's death in preserving the jihad movement. He also notes the importance of Hamzat Bek's destruction of the Avar khanate, which allowed the imamate to spread its control over all of central Dagestan and made war with the Russians unavoidable. Gammer also suggests that Hamzat Bek was the originator of the administrative structures of the imamate as a state, which were later developed more under Shamil.[13] For example, Hamzat Bek regularly appointed his deputies (na'ibs) to each region under his control,[14] whereas Ghazi Muhammad only appointed deputies as needed.[15] Because of Hamzat Bek's noble origins and reliance on the nobility, Michael Kemper characterizes his reign as "a brief 'aristocratic' interlude between the charismatic leaders Ghāzī-Muḥammad and Shāmil who stood for the interests of the 'free' Avar communities and relied on noblemen only in certain cases."[1]
Notes
- ^ Full name (in Arabic, the literary language of Dagestan at the time): Ḥamzat-Bek (Ḥamza Bīk) ibn ʿAlī Iskandar-Bek al-Hūtsālī al-Awārī al-Dāghistānī[1]
- ^ Moshe Gammer writes that Hamzat Bek was in fact a member of the order.[2]
- ^ See Lavrov 1968, pp. 100–103 for the Arabic inscription on Hamzat Bek's tombstone.
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Kemper 2017.
- ^ a b c d e Gammer 1994, p. 60.
- ^ Gammer 1994, pp. 16, 60.
- ^ Gammer 1994, pp. 59.
- ^ Gammer 1994, pp. 60–61.
- ^ Pokrovsky 2000, p. 223.
- ^ King 2008, p. 72.
- ^ a b Gammer 1994, p. 61.
- ^ a b c Gammer 1994, p. 62.
- ^ a b Gammer 1994, p. 63.
- ^ Baddeley 1908, p. 288.
- ^ Gammer 1994, p. 328, n. 33.
- ^ Gammer 1994, pp. 63, 65.
- ^ Mukhanov 2006.
- ^ Gammer 1994, pp. 225.
Bibliography
- Baddeley, John F. (1908). The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
- Gammer, Moshe (1994). Muslim Resistance to the Tsar: Shamil and the Conquest of Chechnia and Daghestan. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-3431-X.
- Kemper, Michael (2017). "Ḥamzat-Bek al-Dāghistānī". In Fleet, Kate; ISSN 1873-9830.
- King, Charles (2008). The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus. Oxford University Press. OCLC 171614379.
- Lavrov, Leonid Ivanovich (1968). Ėpigraficheskie pami͡atniki Severnogo Kavkaza na arabskom, persidskom i turet͡skom i͡azykakh Эпиграфические памятники Северного Кавказа на арабском, персидском и турецком языках [Epigraphic monuments of the North Caucasus in Arabic, Persian and Turkish] (in Russian). Vol. 2. Moscow: Nauka.
- Mukhanov, V. M. (2006). "Gamzat-bek" Гамзат-бек. Bolʹshai͡a rossiĭskai͡a ėnt͡siklopedii͡a Большая российская энциклопедия [Great Russian Encyclopedia] (in Russian). Vol. 6. Moscow. pp. 355–356.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Pokrovsky, N. I. (2000). Kavkazskie voĭny i imamat Shamili͡a Кавказские войны и имамат Шамиля [The Caucasian wars and the imamate of Shamil]. Moscow: ROSSPEN. ISBN 5-8243-0078-X.
Further reading
- Kasumov, S. M. (2018). Voenno-politicheskai͡a dei͡atelʹnostʹ vtorogo imama Gamzat-beka v Dagestane v 20-30-e gg. XIX veka Военно-политическая деятельность второго имама Гамзат-бека в Дагестане в 20-30-е гг. ХIХ века [The military-political activities of the second imam Gamzat-bek in Dagestan in the 20s and 30s of the 19th century] (in Russian). Makhachkala: Alef. OCLC 1104652296.
- ISBN 978-5-235-03332-0.