The Russians in Islamic history Muslims preserved the independence of their church and Al-Mutanabbi monitored

Their intervention in Syria and sought to encircle the Ottomans with an Arab alliance

“From (Sultan) Uzbek to our princes, the elders, the youngest and others: The Church of Peter is holy, and it is not permissible for anyone to harm it or any of its servants or priests, nor to seize any of its possessions, goods or men, nor to interfere in its affairs, because They are all sacred, and whoever violates this command of ours - by attacking them - is sinful before God, and his punishment from us is death!!"

This is a valuable historical text transmitted to us by the famous British historian Thomas Arnold (d. 1348 AH / 1930 AD) in his book 'The Call to Islam', attributing its issuance to the Muslim Mongol Sultan Muhammad Uzbek Khan (d. 742 AH / 1341 AD), who was ruling Moscow and Kiev, and included in it a decree that he addressed Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church in Kyiv.

Perhaps the words of this Islamic Royal Charter - according to which Russian Orthodox Christianity enjoyed religious freedom in its highest and most complete form - are the best with which we open this view of the relations between Russians and Muslims on the stage of history, with its moments of farewell and wrestling stations.

Indeed, the fact that the Muslims at that time did not prejudice the status of the Great Russian Cathedral - as the Ottomans did later with the Byzantine "Hagia Sophia" church - was a defining moment in Russia's national and religious history; He protected her Christianity from suffering the same fate as Byzantine Christianity for the freedom and Ottoman protection it had also obtained. And if there is anything important that remains for Russia from the eras of its submission to the rule of Muslims; It must come in the forefront of this great civilized position in its various connotations.

In fact, this Mongol-Islamic position on the Russian Church is a major enlightening moment that is an extension of its founding counterpart in the days of the Companions, when Islam entered the Caucasus region, and contrasts with the context of the great conflict that marked most of the history of the Russians’ relationship with the Islamic world, and has remained - in general - a hot line that has been contacted since the era of Companions until the moment of the current Russian President Vladimir Putin, who seeks to revive the glories of the Russian Empire.

The relationship of the Russians with the Islamic world was governed by fixed rules for the most part. Among the most important of these rules is the Russians’ sense of their cultural and ethnic identity within the framework of the existing challenge in the Caucasus region, where the Muslim areas historically dominated by Islamic rule, and the Russians are still seeking to keep them under their hegemony by force or by taming, similar to what is happening now in the existing alliance between Moscow and Ramzan Kadyrov’s regime in the Republic The Chechen, who declared that his guns would embrace the Russian army's in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Among those rules is the cultural exposure of the two nations to each other; Muslim historians and travellers wrote in-depth reports and studies dealing with the Russian character; She revealed her characteristics and social lifestyle, determined her religious affiliation (pagan and then Christian), and described her political and military behavior.

These studies were of such depth and breadth that they even affected the contemporary Russian mind and its impact, and Russian historians considered them the first documented historical information about the life of their nation. We do not say that the Russians were less keen on such studies than the Muslims, except that their work came - within the context of the phenomenon of Orientalism - about a thousand years later than the Muslims did.

Among those bases is also the movement of military adventures that have witnessed - and still are - the geopolitical arena extending from the warm coasts of the Middle East to the Russian Far East in the Siberian regions; Historically, the Russians were keen to enable their presence by hard force, or by establishing political alliances with some Muslim rulers to establish bases for them in the region. Therefore, they tried to penetrate the Mamluk front in Ottoman Egypt more than once, not to mention their supportive role for European powers in the Crusades, and their confrontation with them. The long and bloody Ottoman Empire.

But the hottest points of clash between the two parties are the ones that raged between the Turkish Islamic component and the Russian Slavic Christian component, especially since there are many commonalities between them in terms of similar geographic environment, and some close personal traits of courage and chivalry, the tendency to integrate nationalism and religious belief, and the emergence of the two Turkish empires Then the Russian in close times and an identical vital field. Indeed, the modern Turkish alliances with the West were one of the reasons for making allies that strengthen the Turkish front against Soviet Russia.

The “Islam of the Turks” and the “Christianization of the Russians” are a very important historical event in the past, present and future of this region. This is what this article - which comes on the anniversary of the 1100th anniversary of the publication of the first Arab study on the history of the Russians - sheds light on it; It reveals the contexts of its emergence and development, deals with the mechanisms of its relations in peace and war, and monitors the effects of its repercussions on the formation of the fate of the countries and peoples of the region over ten centuries.

A bold fatwa

in order to understand the scene today, which seems strange and unfamiliar in the history of the relationship between Russia and its Islamic neighborhood; We have to go back to the pages of history that revealed to us the story of the intertwining of the Russians and Chechens (the name originally came from the pronunciation: Jijan / Jijn  Chechen) and the Muslims of the Caucasus and Crimea in general, as the Islamic conquests made their way - since the caliphate of Omar Ibn Al-Khattab (d. When the Muslims completed the conquest of Iraq and parts of northern Iran.

The leaders of the conquest decided to head north around the year 20 AH / 641 AD; As they began to conquer Azerbaijan, which was subject to the Persian Sassanid state, and this attempt lasted for two whole years, because “Al-Mughirah bin Shu’bah (d. 50 AH / 671 AD) invaded Azerbaijan from Kufa in the year 22 (22 AH / 644 AD) until he reached it, and he conquered it by force. and put an abscess on her.” According to the historian Al-Baladhuri (d. 279 AH/892 AD) in 'Futuh al-Buldan'.

Then the Muslims continued to send their armies to the whole of the southern Caucasus region, and among its leaders were the venerable companions: Hudhayfa bin Al-Yaman (d. 36 AH / 657 AD), Suraqah bin Amr (d. about 23 AH / 645 AD), and Abd al-Rahman bin Rabia al-Bahili (d. 31 AH / 653 AD), Then Al-Mughirah bin Shubah, Al-Ash’ath bin Qais (died 42 AH / 663 AD), Al-Waleed bin Uqbah (died 61 AH / 682 AD) and Saeed bin Al-Aas (died 59 AH / 680 AD).

The strategy of the Islamic conquests in the South Caucasus looked to the Armenian regions, which today includes the regions of eastern Turkey, Armenia, Georgia and some regions of the south-central Caucasus.

The Islamic conquests headed towards the city of “Bab Al-Abwab” (Darband) and it was the capital of the “Al-Abwab” regions, which are the regions of the Western Caucasus close to the Caspian Sea - which was called the “Caspian Sea” - which is known today as Dagestan, Chechnya and others.

These areas were under the authority of the Jewish Kingdom of Khazars, and the “Khazars” are a mixture of Turkish and Circassian races that migrated from Central Asia centuries ago to those areas, then they were condemned to Judaism and established in them a very strong state that ruled the vast lands from the first century AH / 11 AD near the Caspian Sea, and from Lake Van southward to the Black Sea - which was called the "Sea of ​​Pontus" - to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and from the "Aral" Sea - which was called the "Sea of ​​Khwarezm" - to Hungary in central Europe.

Despite the strength of this kingdom and its geographical immunity; The conquerors were able to penetrate it around the year 22 AH / 642 AD, and Ibn Jarir al-Tabari (d. 310 AH / 922 AD) - in his history - cites the text of the peace treaty concluded by the commander of the Islamic Conquest Army with the people of Armenia, and it was what was stated in it:

“In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. This is what gave Sarqa bin Amr - the agent of the Commander of the Faithful Omar bin Al-Khattab - Shahrbaraz and the residents of Armenia and the Armenians of safety; ".

Repeated attempts and

when the Muslims completed the conquests of Azerbaijan, Armenia and the doors of the southern and eastern Caucasus regions; Their eyes looked to the north, and they made peace with the people of "Tbilis" or "Tbilisi / Tbilisi" (the capital of Georgia today) without a fight. Among what was mentioned in the Book of Peace was the commitment of Muslims “to the children of Talibis to be safe for themselves, their sale ( their churches), their monasteries, their prayers and their religion, in recognition of their children ( submission and subordination) and the tribute”; According to Al-Baladhuri in "Futuh Al-Buldan".

Rather, we saw the advance of the Islamic forces towards the regions of southern Russia today to establish a position for them on the European side of the Caucasus, on top of which is the city of “Bulanger”, the largest city of the Kingdom of the Khazars, which is known today as the city of Astrakhan, the capital of the “Astrakhan Oblast Federation” located in the north of the Caspian Sea.

The Companion Abd al-Rahman bin Rabia al-Bahili repeatedly invaded these areas “in the Emirate of Umar, then he invaded them during raids during the time of Uthman (Ben Affan d. 35 AH / 655 AD)”; According to al-Tabari. Moreover, the martyrdom of Ibn Rabi’ah in his last conquest of Astrakhan in the year 32 AH / 652 AD marked the beginning of the end of an important stage of the Islamic conquests of the Central and Northern Caucasus.

Islamic historical sources provide us with detailed information about the period after the year 32 AH / 652 AD in the North Caucasus region, which was under the control of the Kingdom of Khazars. The Umayyads, and the daring of the Byzantines on the lands of Islam and the Umayyads attempt to push them away or reduce their danger.

In conjunction with all that; Disturbances erupted in the South Caucasus region (Armenia and Azerbaijan), and the situation ranged between escalation and calm. The Khazar Islamic conflict reached its climax between the years (111-126 AH / 730-745 AD). The Jewish Khazar kingdom invaded the southern regions of the Caucasus in Georgia and Armenia, and defeated the Muslims in various incidents, the most famous of which was the Battle of Ardabil (located today in northwestern Iran) in the year 111 AH / 730 AD. According to Ibn al-Atheer (d. 630 AH / 1233 AD) in 'Al-Kamil fi Al-Tarikh'.

The Khazars were able to take advantage of this military victory by advancing towards Azerbaijan, but the Muslim army quickly "broke the tyrant of the Khazars and the victory came" on the Muslim soldiers . As for the process of encirclement and incursion in the north - towards Dagestan - it was led by the Umayyad leader and prince Maslamah bin Abdul Malik bin Marwan (121 AH / 738 AD), who "broadcast his companies and opened fortresses, so the damned burned themselves in their fortresses upon victory." According to al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH / 1348 AD) in 'History of Islam'.

The Muslims remained concentrated in the North Caucasus for several years, during which they achieved very big victories, starting from the years 118-119 AH / 737-738 AD, in which “Marwan bin Muhammad (later became the last of the Umayyad caliphs, d. 132 AH / 750 AD) invaded from Armenia the invasion of al-Saihah,” which was One of its results is that the area in which the country of the Khazars managed to survive was severely narrowed, and thus the borders of Islam in this direction were permanently fixed over the Caucasus”; according to the British historian Douglas Dunlop (d.

Dunlop comments on the results of this incursion into the country of the Khazars; He says that Marwan bin Muhammad "this time reached the key to success, and if the country of the Khazars had been permanently subjugated and occupied the following years would undoubtedly witness major Islamic campaigns against the Don ( a river in southwestern Russia) or the Dnieper," a river that separates The eastern regions of Ukraine from the western regions.

A newcomer

in the Abbasid era, specifically in the caliphate of Harun al-Rashid (d. 193 AH/809 AD); In 183 AH / 799 AD, a major attack occurred by the people of the North Caucasus living in the Jewish Kingdom of the Khazars against the Southern Caucasus (Armenia and Azerbaijan), "they violated a great matter the like of which has not been heard in Islam!"; According to al-Tabari, who adds that al-Rashid sent two of his army commanders "to Armenia and they brought out the Khazars, and the notch was closed." It seems that this "notch" was a mountain gap between the North and South Caucasus, through which the Khazars entered, and they carried out their attack on the Muslims.

Throughout the Abbasid era, the Khazar-Islamic relations fluctuated between escalation and calm. And in this era; The Russians began to appear on the pages of Islamic heritage sources. In the third AH / ninth century AD, we find the geographer Ibn Khordadhabh (d. 280 AH / 893 AD) who deals - in his book 'The Paths and Kingdoms' - with some remarkable accuracy, talking about their origin , types of goods and their itineraries . Land and sea trade .

They are, according to his description: “A race of the Slavs ( Slavic peoples), carrying prickly skins, black fox skins, and swords (for trade) from the farthest corner (north-eastern and central Europe) to the Rumi Sea ( the White Sea), tithes of them ( taking tithes/customs from them). ) The owner of the Romans ( the king of the Byzantines) and they may have carried their trade from Gorgan (located in northern Iran) on camels to Baghdad, and the Saqlab servants translate from them [residents in Baghdad], and they claim that they are Christians, so they pay the tribute.”

This text by Ibn Khordadhab is very precise in several matters. The first of these is the Muslims’ awareness of the geographical dimensions of the “Saqlabah” lands, the Slavs, the inhabitants of Eastern and Central Europe, who today make up the peoples of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Eastern Europe and even some Balkan countries. His identification of the “Saqlabah” is evidence that the original homeland of the Russians is located in northern Ukraine and present-day eastern Europe.

Moreover, their work in the leather and sword trade was confirmed by many historians who came after Ibn Khordadbeh. The most important thing is his saying: “They claim to be Christians,” which means that Muslims doubt their religion; This is true because the Russians converted to Christianity at the end of the fourth century AH / tenth century AD, that is, at least a century after the death of Ibn Khordadeb.

Three decades after the death of Ibn Khordadbeh; It seems that the Abbasid Russian relations witnessed a qualitative leap thanks to the prosperity of trade between the two sides, as the Russians gradually expanded their trade in the areas adjacent to the Caspian Sea (Caspian Sea), after the Khazars allowed them to trade across this sea in return for a specific tax, to reach then to the Islamic regions of the southern Caucasus. and northern Iran.

This led to the arrival of Russian merchants to the Abbasid capital, Baghdad, and they frequented it more often, and their commercial activity was accompanied by the presence of a Slavic community in Baghdad, on top of which was the "Saqlabah servants" who worked in various and prestigious positions in the Abbasid state agencies, including the palaces of the caliphs, the army institution, and translation departments. .

Diverse relations

This mixing with the Russians - merchants and the community - allowed for more knowledge about them and their country among Muslim historians and geographers. They even knew the term "Russia" and spoke about the origin of its linguistic meaning; This geographer Al-Masudi (d. 346 AH / 957 AD) touches on the "races of the Russians", stating that "the Romans call them "Russia", and this means: the red!"

As Hamza bin Al-Hasan Al-Isfahani (d. 360 AH / 971 AD) - in his book 'Al-Tanbah on the occurrence of correction' - tells us about Muslims' knowledge of the Russian language; He says: "Most of the writings of nations are twelve Five of them have become degraded and their use has been invalidated, and those who know them have gone away and three have remained in use in their countries, and those who know them in Islamic countries are known to be: Russian".

And the Andalusian traveler Benjamin Attaly (d. 569 AH / 1173 AD) - in his book of his journey - draws the borders of "Russian lands ( Russia)", saying that they are "widespread extending from the outskirts of Prague to Kyiv, the great city". And the city of Kyiv was known in Muslim sources as the city of “Kuyaba,” and they stated that it was “the closest city of the Russians to the Muslims, and it is a place of grace and where the king is settled.” According to the author of the book 'The Borders of the World from the East to the Maghreb', an unknown writer who died after the year 372 AH / 983 AD.

Thanks to the complex Islamic relations with the countries of the Russians, from the Saqalaba and others; Al-Mish bin Yiltowar (d. after 313 AH/925AD), the king of Saqqalabah, sent to the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad al-Muqtadir Billah (d. 320 AH/932 AD) a delegation asking him to send a scholar to “understand the religion, introduce him to the laws of Islam, build a mosque for him, and set up a pulpit for him.” The call to him ( the Abbasid Caliph) in his country and all his kingdom, and he asks him to build a fortress in which the kings who oppose him will be fortified, so he responds to what he asked”; As mentioned in the book of his journey, the jurist judge Ahmed bin Fadlan (died after 310 AH / 922 AD).

And this Ibn Fadlan was part of the delegation of the Caliph al-Muqtadir embassy to the King of the Saqalaba and the Russians, and he told us about the members of the Abbasid embassy delegation headed by a Russian person who was employed in the Caliphate’s court named “Susan al-Rassi” meaning the Russian (d. after 310 AH / 922 AD); He said: "The messenger to al-Muqtadir from the owner of the Saqqalabah was a man called Abdullah bin Bashto al-Khazari, and the messenger was on the side of Sultan Sawsan al-Rasi, Takin al-Turki, Pars al-Saqlabi, and I am with them."

And on the mission of the Saqlabah embassy to the Abbasid Caliph; The chief Russian orientalist Ignatius Krachkovsky (d. 1371 AH / 1951 AD) - in 'The History of Arab Geographical Literature' - says that "the Volga Bulgarians sent a messenger to the capital of the Caliphate, begging for help against the pressure of the Khazars on them from the south, and for someone who understands them in religion and introduces them to the rituals of Islam, which they embraced not long ago, and an embassy was sent to them under the leadership of Sawsan Al-Rassi, one of whose members was Ahmed bin Fadlan, as an experienced jurist.

Ibn Fadlan provided us with important details about the social, economic, political and religious life of the Russians, who were still pagans at the time; These are data that Russian historians still consider the first documented historical information about the history of their people, even though we are now living the 1100th anniversary of the issuance of that information.

The Russians were also described - in a number of Muslim books before and after Ibn Fadlan’s era - with strength, patience and valor in the battlefields and victory over enemies, to the extent that Al-Bakri said about them: “The Russians have no farms and no income except with their swords!!” Which is explained by the American historian of civilizations Will Durant (d. 1402 AH / 1981 AD) - in his encyclopedia 'The Story of Civilization' - that the Russians in that early stage of their history "were always suffering from the bitterness of poverty and injustice, and for this they were imbued with patience and the difficulties and the constant roughness of life made them more solid." ".

It seems that these characteristics affected their dealings with their neighbors, even the most distant from them, such as Muslims. In the book 'Connexion to the History of al-Tabari' by the historian Oraib bin Saad al-Qurtubi (d. 369 AH / 980 AD), there was news of some of their attacks that targeted the Southern Caucasus in Azerbaijan, as occurred in the year 332 AH / 944 AD when "in this year the Russian military went out to Azerbaijan, and they opened his arm (located Central Azerbaijan today) and they owned it and enslaved its people.

An explosive clash

The Andalusian geographer Ibn Abd al-Mun'im al-Himyari (d. 900 AH / 1506 AD) has news of these bloody attacks; We see him presenting - in “Al-Rawd Al-Mu’attar” - an important detail about one of the Russian raids on the Islamic areas in the southern Caucasus, in the first half of the fourth century AH / tenth century AD, when “the Russians were… a large nation that did not submit to a king or to Sharia”; As he put it.

In that fierce raid, "the Russians shed blood, women and children were profane, wealth was looted, raids were launched and burned, so the nations around this sea ( Caspian Sea) roared, because they did not know in the old days an enemy knocking them into it, but the boats of merchants and fishing differ in it. ".

And the Russian attacks remained ruthless in the Caspian Sea with the complicity of the Khazars and Circassians, until the Muslims in the Jewish kingdom of Khazars in the North Caucasus - and they represented large numbers in this kingdom and were respected - decided to confront the treachery of the Russians and their attack on their Muslim brothers in the southern Caucasus, so they fought with them - according to Hamiri - a decisive battle in which the Russians were defeated “and the number of their dead on the shore of the Khazar River was about thirty thousand, and from that year the Russians did not return” to the Muslim areas!!

In conjunction with those incidents; The Russians were also involved - as mercenary soldiers - in many of the battles of the Byzantines against the Muslims since the first half of the fourth century AH / tenth century AD; Al-Masudi tells us that the Russians “many of them entered - in our time - in the whole of the Romans, such as the entry of the Armenians and the burghers ( the Bulgarians), who are a kind of Saqlab, and the Bejnaks from the Turks, so they shipped them many of their fortresses that follow the Levantine frontiers.”

The presence of the Russians in the "Syrian outposts" of the Byzantine state - which was not repeated historically before the intervention of contemporary Russia in Syria to protect the regime of Bashar al-Assad in 1436 AH / 2015 AD - is what the great Arab poet Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabi (d. 354 AH / 965 AD) immortalized for us in one of his poems “Al-

Sifiat ”, in which he recorded the battles of Prince Seif al-Dawla al-Hamdani (d. 356 AH / 967 AD) with the Byzantines, and he said about “Al-Hadath Castle” in its battle that took place in the year 343 AH / 954 AD: ?!!

In an incident that falls within the events of the Islamic-Byzantine conflict at that time; The Shami historian Hamza bin al-Qalanisi (d. 555 AH / 1160 AD) - in 'History of Damascus' - tells us that the army of the Byzantine Emperor Basil II (d. 415 AH / 1025 AD) headed in the year 381 AH / 992 AD to the Levant to confront the Fatimids after their control over it, and their threat to invade the Byzantine lands Southern.

Ibn al-Qalansi says that “when the king of the Romans heard what the aforementioned messenger ( the threat of the Fatimids) said, he walked from his time to seek Aleppo, and between him and it a distance of three hundred leagues ( approximately 1500 km), and cut it in sixteen days, with three thousand Russian knights and footmen.” and other mercenary soldiers.

Historic turn

and at the end of that century; A historic transformation occurred in the lives of the Russians when they converted to Orthodox Christianity, due to the huge Christianizing effort undertaken by the Byzantine Empire in their country. According to what was reported by the historian Al-Sayyid Al-Baz Al-Areni (d. 1406 AH / 1995 AD) - in his book 'The Byzantine State' - "In the time of Basil [the second], attempts were made to spread Christianity among the pagan peoples, and it is likely that during his reign the Byzantine Empire tried to transform Russians to Christianity.

During the reign of the Emir of the Russian Emirate of Kyiv, Vladimir Svyatovich, nicknamed "The Great" (d. 405 AH / 1015 AD), specifically in the year 378 AH / 989 AD; The Russians entered in groups in Orthodox Christianity to become - starting from that date - their national religion over the centuries.

There are many opinions about the reasons that prompted the Russians to embrace Orthodoxy in particular, and not Catholic Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, and among those opinions is the statement that the Orthodox Church does not forbid drinking alcohol. However, it seems that the influencing factor in this transformation was the presence of the Byzantines in Eastern Europe, and their constant eagerness to invite the Russians to Christianity, and even their quest for political intermarriage with them, as happened with the princes of the Russian Kyiv Emirate; According to the naked.

According to the book 'The Religious History of Russia from Paganism to Christianity' by its authors, Enas Saadi Abdullah and Osama Adnan Yahya; The reason for the conversion of the Russians to Orthodox Christianity was - according to Russian accounts - that Prince Vladimir the Great - when he saw that there was no longer a need to choose a religion other than the pagan religion he owed - sent his followers to learn about the teachings of the three monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). ).

One of the results of that religious survey was that “nothing stood in the way of his conversion to Islam - he and his subjects - except circumcision and the prohibition of alcohol, and he declared that the Russians do not turn away from him because wine was one of the joys of life for them. Likewise, the Jews who came from the country of the Khazars ( the northern Caucasus) failed. and the Caspian Sea) to persuade the Russian prince to convert to their religion.

And the conversion of the Russians to Orthodox Christianity would have its aftermath for the next thousand years to the present day; Their support for the Byzantines moved from the level of individual mercenary to the degree of creedal commitment, and they became one of the staunch defenders of Orthodox Christianity. Islamic neighborhood.

A simultaneous development

four decades before the Russians converted to Christianity; A similar transformation took place for the Oghuz Turk tribes from paganism to Islam in Central Asia, which is what Imam al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH / 1347 AD) informs us when he reviewed - in his book 'The Lessons' - the events of the year 349 AH / 960 AD, he stated that "in it was the Islam of the Turk Two hundred thousand kharkahs ( a wooden tent) embraced Islam from the Turks”, meaning two hundred thousand Turkish families who converted to Islam at once!!

Among these were those who would later be known as the "Seljuks" whose Islam was a turning point in the history of the peoples of the Turks in general, and the emergence of their state was a prominent event in the history of the Islamic world, and indeed the entire ancient world, because it had a great role in protecting Islam and reviving its societies in One of the most important distinct eras of civilization, and the expansion of their king in the west and north of the spread of the Turkish peoples soon put them in a continuous civil confrontation with the Russians.

After his conquest of Central Asia and Iran; The great Seljuk Sultan Tughrul Bey (d. 455 AH/1063 AD) in the year 446 AH/1055 AD was able to annex the southern Caucasus (Azerbaijan and Armenia) to his authority, after intending to "Tabriz ( Tabriz) So he obeyed him (her emir), betrothed to him and carried to him what he had pleased him with. , as well as in all other areas, they were sent to him, offering obedience and sermons." According to Ibn al-Atheer in al-Kamil.

It seems that the Seljuks considered the South Caucasus a springboard for the expansion and spread of Islam in Anatolia and the North Caucasus, and the most prominent evidence of this is the Battle of Manzikert that took place in the year 463 AH / 1071 AD in the far east of Anatolia near Armenia in the South Caucasus, in which the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan (d. 465 AH / 1073 AD) joined the state Byzantine is the biggest defeat in its own home since the conquests of the Levant.

It is noteworthy that the sources of Islamic history have concluded that the Russians also participated in the Battle of Manzikert; The historian Kamal al-Din Ibn al-Adim (d. 660 AH / 1262 AD) informs us - in 'in order to demand in the history of Aleppo' - saying that in the year 463 AH/1071 AD, "Sultan [Alp Arslan] implemented one of the veils ( his secretaries) in front of him. It is located east of Turkey) a cross ( a large banner) under it is the Russian advance in ten thousand of the Romans, so they fought them and God gave the Muslims victory over them.”

Then the Russians had their role in the era of the Crusades , which began three decades after those events; They facilitated the passage of some Crusader forces through their lands, according to the Russian researcher A. F. Nazarenko, who says - in his study 'Russia and the Holy Land in the Era of the Crusades' published in the book 'Russia and the Orthodox of the East' - that the Russians allowed the passage of "the forces of the Danish King Eric I (d. 496 AH / 1103 AD) through Russia on their way to Jerusalem."

Nazarenko asserts that "the discursive information published by some French sources in the thirteenth century (AD / VII AH) about the participation of Russian fighters in the First Crusade iscertainly true." The Crusaders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, such as Baldwin (d. 581 AH / 1185 AD) were looking for the support of the Russian emirates, despite the sectarian differences between the two sects, the occupying Catholics and the Russian Orthodox.

A renewed conquest, and

if the Seljuk presence in the Caucasus and Anatolia strengthened the Islamic presence in those regions, making it more solid than it was in the previous centuries; The golden age in which Islam penetrated into the depths of the North Caucasus (Chechnya, Ingushetia and Abkhazia), as well as southern Russia, began with the Islam of one of the most important Mongol tribes, the "Golden tribe", which settled since the year 620 AH / 1223 AD in the regions north of the Caspian Sea, southern Russia and the Caucasus, and reached as far north as the Black Sea in Crimea, Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

The historian Ibn al-Atheer provides us with valuable information about the human races and religions that settled in the Caucasus during the first Mongol attack in 617 AH / 1221 AD. He says that “when the Tatars crossed and marched in those (Caucasian) works, there were many nations, including the Alans ( the peoples of North Ossetia) and the Lakz (  Dagestan) and sects of the Turks, so they plundered and killed a lot, and they are Muslims and infidels.”

He adds that the Mongols were able to win over the Turks who lived in the Caucasus hundreds of years ago, claiming ethnicity and lineage: "Then the Tatars sent to Qafjak ( Turks coming from Central Asia) saying: You and we are one race!" But the Mongols, after they managed to control these areas, betrayed the Turks.

Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 626 AH / 1229 AD) - in the "Mu'jam al-Buldan" - tells us about the "Lakz" or the peoples of Dagestan and some areas of nearby Chechnya; He asserts that most of them are "Muslims united and have a single tongue, and they have strength and thorns, and among them are Christians." This indicates that some of the northern regions of the Caucasus were settled by Islam by the seventh century AH/13 CE.

However, the conquest of the Mongols did not stop at the borders of the Caucasus; Rather, "they marched in the year six hundred twenty (620 AH / 1223 AD) to the country of the Russians, and the Tatars followed them, killing, looting, and ravaging the country until most of it was deserted. According to Ibn al-Athir.

The historian Durant describes to us the historical context that allowed the Mongols to control the Russian lands, as a result of what they were suffering from because of the civil wars; He justifies this by "the decline and fall of the Kyiv kingdom; [since] between the years 1054-1224 (AD/corresponding to 445-621 AH) eighty-three civil wars erupted in Russia ( Russia), and it was changed forty-six times, and sixteen Russian states launched A war on non-Russian peoples, and 293 princes contested the throne of sixty-four emirates!!

The Mongols then established the "Khaniyat al-Qafjaq", which was known as the "Golden Tribe", and its capital was Sarai (located today in southwestern Kazakhstan), which was ruled by one of the sons of the house of Juji bin Genghis Khan (d. 624 AH / 1227 AD), and then completed by his son Baraka Khan (d. 665 AH / 1267 AD) subjugated the rest of these regions and annexed them to the Kingdom of the Golden Horde, then invaded Russia and eliminated its principalities one after the other, and destroyed its important cities, especially Kyiv, and made it in absolute dependence on them, then they headed west to Poland, and from there they moved to Hungary; According to the historian Al-Baz Al-Ariny in his book 'The Mongols'.

There are many historical accounts regarding the reasons for Islam Baraka Khan, the leader of the "Golden Tribe" that ruled southern Russia and eastern Europe. The most correct opinion is that he converted to Islam at the hands of the famous Sufi Sheikh Saif al-Din al-Bakhrazi (d. 659 AH / 1261 AD), one of the followers of the method of Sheikh Najm al-Din Kubra (d. 617 AH / 1220 AD); According to Al-Maqrizi (d. 845 AH / 1441 AD) in his book 'Al-Suluk'.

Consolidation and consolidation

The Mamluk Sultan al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars (d. 676 AH / 1275 AD) took advantage of Islam Baraka Khan and the Mongols of the Golden Horde from behind him, so he worked to rapprochement with them politically in order to be of help to him and an ally against their cousins ​​from the Ilkhanid Mongols ruling in Iraq and Persia.

The Mamluk sultans in Egypt and the Levant strengthened this rapprochement in the religious aspect. They used to send jurists to the Mongols of the Golden Horde to teach them the laws of Islam, and then "the blessing of this man was inclined towards Muslims an extra mile, and he glorified the people of knowledge and intended the righteous and sought blessings from them, and he built mosques and Friday prayers were held in his country"; According to the historian Ibn Taghri Bardi (d. 874 AH / 1480 AD) in 'An-Nujum al-Zahira'.

Despite the Islam of the Mongols of the Golden Horde, and the extension of their influence to the Russian Christian principalities in Kyiv, Moscow and others, and then in the North Caucasus; All this "did not bring about a profound change in the conditions existing at the time, [rather] we note that the Mongols continued to follow the policy of leaving the states and national emirates alone without interfering in their internal affairs"; As the German historian Bertolt Shpoler (d. 1411 AH / 1990 AD) sees in his book 'The Islamic World in the Mughal Era'.

Shpuler adds that "the Khans in Sarai ( the capital of the Mongols of the Golden Horde north of the Caspian Sea on the Volga) did not interfere in the affairs of the religious life of their followers and their subjects, and this is what made the Orthodox Church prove its feet, and this church was one of the reasons for strengthening unitary relations between contemporary Russians [ to the Mongols at that time], with their state of division into several states, and the Metropolitan of Kyiv, the capital, became a symbol bearing the emblem of Russian unity.”

The testimony of this contemporary Western historian is nothing but confirmation of what was known about the great religious tolerance of the Mongol sultans of the "Golden tribe" with their subjects of the Russian peoples who were paying them tribute. In fact, he was referring to the decree issued - in the year 713 AH / 1313 AD - by Sultan Muhammad Uzbek Khan of the Mughal (d. 742 AH / 1341 AD) to Peter (died after 713 AH / 1313 AD), Metropolitan of the Russians in Kyiv, which stated:

“From Uzbek to our princes, the elders and the youngest and others: The Church of Peter is sacred, and it is not permissible for anyone to harm it or any of its servants or priests, nor to seize any of its possessions, goods or men, nor to interfere in its affairs, because it is all sacred. And whoever violates this command of ours by attacking her, he is sinful before God, and his punishment from us is death.” As quoted by the famous historian Thomas Arnold (d. 1348 AH / 1930 AD) in his book 'The Call to Islam'.

It is noteworthy here that what the Muslim rulers gave the Christian Russians the freedom to organize their religious affairs did not find it even with their brothers in faith from the Byzantine kings. According to what was reported by the historian Al-Baz Al-Ariny in his book 'The Byzantine State'; The Byzantine Emperor Basil II "urged the Russians to accept Christianization, and to acknowledge the Archbishop, whom he named for them ( his name for them): Ignatius", and he did not give them the right to choose at the head of their religious institution as the Muslims did!!

And if we contemplate this vast and fortified religious freedom that the Russians enjoyed under the Mongol rulers for centuries, and the Mongols not touching their grand cathedral, as the Ottomans did - a century later - with the Byzantine “Hagia Sophia” church ; We would have been certain that the Russian Empire - which later arose at the expense of these Muslims - owes them the preservation of its religion and its sanctities, and that without this religious freedom the features of the history of the emirates of Moscow and Kiev and their Russian counterparts would have changed, and perhaps Russia's religious history would change with it forever.

Absolute submission

for about two and a half centuries (649-874 AH / 1251-1480 AD) is the period of the Golden Horde’s control over vast areas, including southern and western Russia, Ukraine, Crimea, Poland and the northern Caucasus. The Russians became the subjects of the Muslim Golden Horde khans who ruled Moscow itself. As Schpoler says; The influence of the Muslim Mongols put “an end to the Russian expansion in the south or in the southeast direction, the expansion that the Russians had been aspiring to since the eleventh and twelfth centuries,” that is, during the fifth and sixth centuries AH.

During the reign of Sultan Muhammad Uzbek Khan, "He introduced all his people to the religion of Islam, and all his people were honored because of this owner of the state with the honor of Islam, then it was said to the Kingdom of Joji ( Golden Horde): the Kingdom of Uzbek"; According to the Mongol writer and historian Muhammad Khan Al-Khwarizmi (d. after 1074 AH / 1663 AD) in his book 'Shajarat al-Turk'.

It was fortunate that the traveler Ibn Battuta (d. 779 AH / 1377 AD) visited the Khanate of the Golden Horde around the year 735 AH / 1335 AD. He saw the stability of the Mongol rule in the Caucasus and Crimea, north of the Black Sea, and recorded a strong presence of Sufis, senior jurists and judges on this island.

Here he says in his travel book: “I met in this city its greatest judge, Shams al-Din al-Saili (died after 735 AH/1335 AD), the Hanafi judge, and the Shafi’i judge, who is called Khader, and the jurist and teacher Alaa al-Din al-Asi (died after 735 AH/1335 AD), and the Shafi’ite preacher Aba Bakr and he is the one who delivers the sermon in the mosque in this city.

The historian Ibn Fadlallah al-Omari (d. 749 AH / 1348 AD) confirmed what his contemporary Ibn Battuta proved of the great status of scholars with this Uzbek sultan, praising the interest he was known for in the rituals of Islam and the subjects of his state, as was his grandfather Baraka Khan; We find him describing him - in 'The Paths of the Eyes' - as "a glorifier of the side of science and its people He is a good Muslim, pretending to be religious and adherence to Sharia, maintaining the establishment of prayer and perpetual fasting, with his closeness to the subjects and those who intend to him."

After Ibn Battuta drew for us the broad boundaries of the Mongol kingdom of the Golden Horde; He described the prestige of their sultan Muhammad Uzbek Khan - who took power during 713-741 AH / 1313-1340 AD) - he said that he was "a conqueror of the enemies of God, the people of Great Constantinople ( the Byzantines), diligent in their jihad, and he is one of the seven kings who are great kings. The world and its greats!!

It appears from the scenes that Ibn Battuta saw in the capital of the Mongols of the Golden Horde that its authority - as well as those without him in his kingdom from the princes and princesses (the sisters) - were revering the people of knowledge from the "sheikhs, judges, jurists, honorable and poor ( Sufis)". He also mentions that these Mongols - whom he calls "the Turks" - were in jurisprudence "the Hanafi school, and wine for them is halal, and they call this wine: bouza ( ice cream)".

A fierce player

in the late eighteenth century AH / fourteenth century AD; On the ruins of the mother Mongol state, the Timurid state emerged in Central Asia under the leadership of the Uzbek leader Tamerlane (d. 807 AH / 1405 AD), who was able - and who grew up in the shadow of his Mongol uncles - to extend his influence and control over the Mongols of the Golden Horde, and was able to disperse them and make them his followers in the capital His kingdom is Samarkand.

Then he was able to control the regions of the South Caucasus; In the year 802 AH / 1399 AD, he seized “Qarabagh (which is located today in Azerbaijan) and anointed his passengers with it and rested his animals there, controlling the kingdoms of Azerbaijan…, taking the city of Tbilisi ( the capital of Georgia today), and heading to the country of Karaj ( Georgia), and demolishing what he had seized. from Castle and Burg"; According to his biographer Ibn Arabshah (d. 854 AH / 1457 AD) in 'Ajeeb al-Maqdour fi Nawaib Timur'.

In this Mongol Timurid era, specifically in the first half of the ninth century AH/15 CE; Islam became the only religion of the inhabitants of central Dagestan (the peoples of the Lakz / Lak), and the "Lak" of them made the city of "Gazi-Qomq" their capital and a major Islamic center in the Central Caucasus. From this center, the first missionaries set out to spread Islam, and they reached large areas of Chechnya that Islam had not reached before.

Tamerlane is said to have dealt a violent blow to the largest Christian force in the central and northern Caucasus, the kingdom of the "Lans", the ancestors of the Austin people who live today in South and North Ossetia. At the end of the ninth AH / 15 AD; There was a significant conversion to Islam of the peoples of the North and Northwest Caucasus, such as the Abkhaz, the Circassians of the West (Odygians) and the Circassians of the East (Cypriots and Abaza).

The military campaigns - which Tamerlane launched at the beginning of that century and in which he subjugated the kingdom of the Golden Horde (or the Caucasus Khanate), including the Caucasus - led to the division of this Khanate; As a result, several khanates or small states were created that kept fighting the legacy of the "Golden Horde" kingdom. Just as the emergence of their kingdom was an encirclement of the expansion of the Russian Emirates; The disintegration of their authority was the release of the energy of this expansion again.

The Russian principality in Moscow - which had always paid tribute to the Mongols of the Golden Horde Muslims, embodying their subordination to them - was following this rivalry, and then the Russians began to gather forces to expel Muslims from the southern regions of the Volga River Basin and from the northern Caspian Sea and the Caucasus.

The Russians began these expansionist efforts at the hands of Prince Ivan III (d. 885 AH / 1480 AD) in the second half of the ninth century AH / 15 AD, thus opening a long historical path that lasted six centuries, during which the Russians moved - at intervals - from the stage of the weak emirate of Muslim rulers ( Mongols and Ottomans) to the level of a vast empire with global influence.

Ottoman expansion

The Ottomans - after the conquest of Constantinople in the year 857 AH / 1453 AD - had been interested in the shores of the Black Sea, and were able - in the era of Sultan Muhammad al-Fateh (d. Southern and Western Caucasus bordering the Black Sea, such as Georgia and Abkhazia.

And when the Crimean Khanate or statelet - which included the Crimea and the regions of southern Ukraine and the northern Caucasus - began to feel the danger of the Russian invasion and expansion at that stage; The year 880 AH / 1475 AD announced its subordination to the Ottoman Empire as a matter of ethnic and religious unity; According to the Turkish historian Reza Karagoz in his study 'The Policy of the Ottoman State towards the Caucasus', based on the documents of the Ottoman archives and the correspondence of the two parties. Thus, important areas of the Caucasus became belonging to the Ottomans.

On the Russian side, on the edge of the civilized conflict in the region; The fall of Constantinople was a direct factor for Russia's leadership of the Orthodox Church from its moment until now, as it declared itself - after the fall of the Byzantine capital - the protector of Orthodoxy all over the world, and the Moscow Church raised the slogan: "Third Rome".

With their possession of the religious leadership of Orthodoxy; The Russians also saw that they had the right to inherit the Byzantine state geographically, which was reinforced by the advance of the Ottomans towards the Caucasus, which caused great panic in Russia. Since the Russians' goals remained constant in their dreams of expanding to the east and south; They did not hesitate to exploit the factors of weakness of the Ottomans and their preoccupation with their battles on the European front, so the Russians continued to persistently seek to advance towards the Caucasus and Eastern Europe.

The Turkish historian Khalil Enalcık (d. 1437 AH / 2016 AD) notes that in the middle of the tenth century AH / 16 AD the danger of the Russians became clear, and in the year 954 AH / 1547 AD Ivan IV, nicknamed “The Terrible” (d. 992 AH / 1584 AD) declared himself czar of Russia, then sought to subjugate Russia Muslim Tatar Khanate on the shores of the Volga basin.

Ivan the Terrible began taking control of the Kazan Khanate in the year 959 AH / 1552 AD, and then followed it with the Astrakhan Khanate in the year 963 AH / 1556 AD. He also expanded towards the North Caucasus until his forces reached the TEREK River, to establish with this expansion the foundations of the Russian Empire. In this region, the Russian Tsar found allies among the Circassian and Nogai Christian nationalities.

The danger of the Russians on the regions of the Crimean Khanate and the North Caucasus increased in the meantime, and for this reason the Ottomans announced the start of the resistance project in alliance with the Crimean Khanate. 1594 AD, which the Ottomans, the Crimean Tatars, Chechnya and Dagestan confronted, and the Russians were defeated after a fierce battle, but they returned again in the year 1013 AH / 1604 AD with a stronger military force and defeated the Khan of Crimea.

In light of the confrontation of the Ottoman/Caucasian civilization with the Russians; The Ottomans and the Crimean Tatars adopted a parallel strategy, represented in intensifying efforts to spread Islam in the region, starting from the 11th century AH / 17th century CE, to resist the attempts to spread Orthodoxy that was embraced by the Russian tsars in the North Caucasus.

Russian ambitions

In the year 1106 AH / 1695 AD, the Russians were able to seize the fortress of “Azak” - or “Azov” - located on the Black Sea in the northwest of the Caucasus, and they became a source of permanent danger to the Islamic presence in the region, and worked to attract the “Coppertai” and “Alans” ethnicities. In Ossetia, they were even able to send missionaries to the metropolitan areas of that region and started establishing churches there.

For their part; The Ottomans, the Tatars, and the Muslim peoples of the Caucasus began to spread Islam vigorously among the Circassian tribes; The governor of the Ottoman Caucasus Ali Farah Pasha (d. before 1195 AH / 1781 AD) brought scholars from Istanbul to the countries of the region and built mosques in them extensively, and made his capital Anapa, located on the coast of the Black Sea, from which Islam spread to the rest of Chechnya who had not yet converted to Islam now; According to researcher Mahmoud Abdel Rahman in his book 'The History of the Caucasus'.

The Ottoman Empire entered into long wars against the Russians in the first half of the 12th AH / 18th century AD, and in the era of Tsar Peter, nicknamed "The Greatest" (d. 1137 AH / 1725 AD), Russia experienced its military renaissance, and this tsar was able to reach his forces deep into the Southern Caucasus and the warm waters in the sea Then he was able to enter Baku, the current capital of Azerbaijan. In the face of the attacks of Tsar Peter, the Ottomans forcibly abandoned the western coastal areas of the Caspian Sea.

Following the death of Tsar Peter the Great; His daughter, Empress Anna Ivanovna (d. 1153 AH / 1740 AD) ascended the throne of Russia, and took advantage of the Ottomans' preoccupation with the Austrian-Serb wars in central Europe, and their armies inflicted defeats on the Ottomans in many battles. Then the two parties agreed to establish a buffer zone between the two sides in the northern Caucasus at the "Azov" castle; According to the Turkish historian Ismail Uzun Sharishli in his book 'History of the Ottoman Empire'.

The will of the Russian Emperor Peter the Great - to his successors from Russia's leaders - embodies the Russian colonial goals, and the strength of their competition with the Ottoman Turks for hegemony in the region. According to this will, which was transmitted by the historian Muhammad Farid Bey (d. 1337 AH / 1919 AD) in his book 'The History of the Ottoman Attic State'; The Russians should spread day by day north on the coasts of the Baltic Sea, and in the south on the coasts of the Black Sea.

In fact, Peter emphasized - in his wills - the necessity of one of the subsequent Czars of Russia seizing Istanbul, whether long or short; Because "whoever rules Istanbul can really rule the entire world, so it is necessary to make successive wars with the Ottoman Empire"; According to the novel by Muhammad Farid Bey.

Although the Russians used to take advantage of the weakness of the Ottomans to expand towards the Caucasus; There was a dividing line between the two sides in the North Caucasus at the TEREK River called the Cossack Line. These "Cossacks" are Christian Turks who have always represented the Russian front tool for attacking Islamic and Ottoman interests in the Caucasus.

A landmark era

with the ascension of Empress Caterina II (d. 1210 AH / 1796 AD) to the throne of Russia in the year 1175 AH / 1762 AD; I set out to revive the "Greek project" of besieging the Ottoman Empire from the east and west, and occupying the "Kanate of Crimea" - in the Black Sea - by every means, and then incursion into the Caucasus by constructing many fortresses that will be a catalyst for the attack that the Russians started in the year 1184 AH / 1770 AD , led by the German general involved in the Russian army Gottlob Heinrich Todtleben (Todtleben d. 1187 AH / 1773 AD).

The German General Tuttleben allied himself with the most important Christian forces in the southern Caucasus in the Kingdom of Georgia, and with this alliance, the Muslims of Chechnya, Dagestan and others were under siege from the north and south, and despite that, the Chechens resisted fierce resistance thanks to the military supplies provided by the Ottomans, and they were able after many months of resistance to respond with strength The Russians led by General Tottlepin to the area of ​​the Don River Basin in the far North Caucasus; According to the Turkish historian Akdes Kurat in his book 'Turkey and Russia'.

According to the Turkish historian Ahmed Jawdat Pasha (d. 1312 AH / 1895 AD) in his history called “The History of the Realities of the Ottoman Empire”; The Russian attack on the Caucasus was part of the Ottoman / Russian war (1182-1188 AH / 1768-1774 AD), a war in which the Ottomans had to confront the Russians when they set out towards the Caucasus on the one hand, and to intervene in the crisis of the Polish throne after it was vacated by the death of King Frederick Augustus (d. 1176 AH / 1763 AD), a matter that was very dangerous to the influence of the Ottomans at the time in Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania.

In view of these developments; The Russians succeeded in exploiting the imbalances that the Ottoman administration was suffering from. They also sought to stir up religious strife among the Orthodox of the Balkans, Serbs, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Montenegro, at a time when the Ottoman Empire was facing many problems in the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Baghdad, Armenia and Trabzon.

However, what is striking about this fierce attack - which Empress Caterina embarked on implementing against the Ottomans - is that the Russian incursion was not only in the Caucasus, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, but the Russians succeeded in rapprochement with many local princes in the Arab countries, such as the Arab prince Zahir Al-Omar al-Zaydani (d. 1189 AH / 1775 AD) in Palestine, and the Mamluk prince and Sheikh of the country, "Qaim Maqam of the Ottoman Pasha" Ali Bey the Great (d. 1187 AH / 1773 AD) in Egypt, the man who took advantage of the weakness of the Ottomans and their preoccupation in this war, and declared Egypt's independence from the Ottoman Empire.

The Russians had defeated the Ottoman naval fleet and annihilated it in the Battle of Jeshmeh in the year 1184 AH / 1770 AD and made the island of Saqez (Baros) in the Aegean Sea near Greece as their headquarters. Egypt Ali Bey the Great to ally with him against the Ottomans; According to Raafat Ghonimi Al-Sheikh in 'Modern History of the Arabs'.

Ghonimi Al-Sheikh added that the two sides agreed that the Russians would provide Ali Bey's great army with weapons and military trainers, and that the Russian fleet would be a protector of the Egyptian shores against any Ottoman offensive attempts on Egypt across the Mediterranean.

And the Mamluk prince - in return - pledged to break the obedience of the Ottoman Empire, and send his forces to occupy the Levant and separate it from the Ottomans, in addition to granting great facilities to Russia and providing supplies to its armies, and giving it priority to repair Russian commercial and military ships in the ports of Egypt and the Levant, a miserable alliance that repeats its counterparts from Treason alliances with Muslim princes .

They stumbled suddenly

And soon those ambitions were shattered on the rock of the coup of the Egyptian army commander Muhammad Bey Abu al-Dhahab (d. 1189 AH / 1775 AD) against his master Ali Bey the Great during the Ottoman / Russian war. Nevertheless, the Russians' interest in Egypt and its seaports - especially Alexandria - continued to preoccupy them; In order to anchor their feet in the warm waters of the Mediterranean.

In the year 1197 AH / 1783 AD; The two real rulers of Egypt at that time sent the two Mamluk princes Murad Bey (d. 1216 AH / 1801 AD) and Ibrahim Bey (d. 1232 AH / 1817 AD) to the Russian Empress Caterina, offering her an alliance between the two countries, and it was not intended - in fact - except to work against the Ottomans.

Rather, Murad Bey offered the Russians the privilege of setting up garrisons in Alexandria, Rashid and Damietta in return for their recognition of Egypt's independence. the following year; Two messengers came from Russia to examine these places in preparation for the landing of Russian garrisons, and Murad Bey received a Russian consul in Alexandria.

In the year 1202 AH / 1788 AD, at the moment of the defeat of Murad and Ibrahim in front of Prince Ismail Bey the Great (d. 1205 AH / 1791 AD), who supported the Ottoman Empire; The Russian consul arrived at the port of Damietta on the back of a frigate armed with forty guns, and with him two ships loaded with weapons, ammunition and gifts. Ismail Bey lured him to Cairo, where he was imprisoned in the Citadel; As narrated by historian Dr. Ahmed Ezzat Abdel Karim (d. 1401 AH / 1980 AD) in his book 'Historical Studies in the Modern Arab Renaissance'.

This Russian cooperation with some of the rebel princes in the Arab region indicates the Ottoman Empire, or those who aspired to independence from it. However, the Russian/Ottoman conflict was not confined to the Caucasus region only, but extended to Ukraine, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Aegean Sea, and even the southern Mediterranean in its most important countries, Egypt and the Levant.

Thus, the ambitions of the Russians in the Arab region subject to the Ottomans preceded the French invasion, which came less than a decade later in the campaign of Napoleon Bonaparte (d. 1236 AH / 1821 AD) on Egypt and the coasts of Levant in 1213 AH / 1798 AD, and then the British occupation of Egypt - about a century later - a year 1299 AH / 1882 AD.

Civil resistance

The Ottoman eastern front in the Caucasus won over the Russians thanks to the fierce resistance of Chechnya and Dagestan, but this was accompanied by the collapse of the western front in Crimea, Poland and Romania, and the Ottoman Empire was forced to sign the "Qinarjah Agreement" in 1188 AH / 1774 AD, and according to this treaty the Ottoman Empire abandoned the Crimean Khanate. By declaring its independence in southern Ukraine and northern Black Sea, after it had fallen under de facto Russian sovereignty.

The agreement also granted the Russians the right to protect the Orthodox population throughout the Ottoman Empire, which was a pretext for Russian interference in the affairs of the Ottomans later. Rather, it gave the Russians freedom of navigation in the Black Sea and the Ottoman straits without supervision; According to the historian Muhammad Farid Bey in 'History of the Ottoman Attic State'.

With the Ottoman Empire abandoning the Crimean Khanate in southern Ukraine and the northern Caucasus, and the accompanying weakening of the Ottoman power; The road was opened for the Russians to descend to the Caucasus and the Black Sea after they had paved the engineering roads in front of their armies, so they advanced towards the northern, central and southern Caucasus in the year 1197 AH / 1783 AD.

In that year, the Caucasian Chechen resistance to the advancing Russian invasion began with force, and this resistance was led by imams of scholars and Sufi men, who realized the Muslims in these areas the need for their presence in these difficult moments, to fill the leadership religious vacuum that followed the withdrawal of the Ottomans from the Caucasian scene.

With the subordination of Georgia and Armenia in the south to Tsarist Russia; The Russian occupier set out to control the rest of the Circassian Muslim lands in the regions of the peoples of Adygea, Chechnya, Abkhaz, Dagestan, the Kabartites, the Kuban and others, and in all those places the main law used by Russia was force and nothing else.

One of their generals once admitted this and said: "Only fear of Russian weapons can keep the mountaineers ( Circassians) in submission We need Circassian lands, but we have no need of Circassians themselves"; According to what was quoted by researcher Qadir Ishak Natkho in his book 'Circassian History'.

According to what Dr. Shawkat Al-Mufti tells - in his book 'Heroes and Emperors in the History of the Caucasus' - about the resistance of the Muslim peoples of the Caucasus to the Russian invasion of their regions; At the beginning of this invasion, the Chechens and Dagestan announced their selection of Imam Mansur al-Daghestani (d. 1208 AH / 1794 AD) within the year 1197 AH / 1783 AD as the leader of the Caucasian resistance.

Mansour was a scholar, jurist and mystic with many followers in the regions of Dagestan and Chechnya, and the operations of the Caucasian resistance - under his leadership before his capture by the Russians in the year 1205 AH / 1791 AD - continued for eight years, during which the Chechens adopted the tactic of guerrilla wars, filling the forests of those areas with the bodies of the Russians.

Total extermination

Shawkat Al-Mufti adds that in these battles, Imam Mansur of Dagestan mobilized volunteers and fighters from the nationalities of Dagestan, Chechnya, Kuban, Qabartay and Nogai, and he was able to form a huge army of them, inflicting a heavy defeat on the Russian army sent by the empire of Katrina II, so Imam Mansour's army eliminated Colonel "Perry" in addition to Six hundred more soldiers, armed with the best and most modern weapons of the time.

Imam Mansour also inflicted a heavy loss on the Russians by killing three thousand soldiers, including them in the year 1201 AH / 1787 AD, when they attacked the fortress of Anapa on the Black Sea coast, an attack that lasted for three years and ended with the capture of Imam Mansour and his transfer to Moscow, where he was martyred in his prison.

When the Russians saw the intensity of the resistance of the Muslims of the Caucasus to their expansionist ambitions; They resorted to developing new plans that depended on spreading Christianization among the Circassians in the North Caucasus, and when the efforts to convert to Christianity failed, they moved to the policy of scorched earth and a war of complete annihilation for the occupation of the "Kabartay" region, which is the gateway to the North Caucasus.

In the year 1219 AH / 1804 AD; The Russian tsarist forces plundered the entire country's supplies and livestock, killed its people and dispersed those who remained alive. These forces destroyed 200 villages, burned 9,085 homes and 110 mosques, and the plague spread among the Circassians who fled to the forests and mountains. For these reasons, "the Circassian population was greatly reduced even in the early stages of that war"; According to researcher Qadir Ishak Natkho in 'Circassian History'.

Faced with the brutality of the Russian occupation of their regions in the Caucasus, with Chechnya and Dagestan at the heart of it; The Circassians saw that a man famous for his knowledge and righteousness, Imam Muhammad al-Kamarawi (d. 1245 AH / 1832 AD), nicknamed “Ghazi”, who declared the year 1239 AH / 1824 AD the general armed revolution against the Russians, a revolution that was later called the “Revolution of the Meridians” because of the affiliation of its soldiers to the Order, should receive the leadership of the resistance. Naqshbandi Sufis.

Imam Ghazi's sermons inflamed the enthusiasm of the masses, and their tongues transmitted them across the Caucasus mountains and villages, and for the first time appeared the name of Imam Shamil al-Daghestani (d. 1287 AH / 1870 AD), who announced his support for the revolution, acceptance of the leadership of Imam Ghazi for this resistance, and then his willingness to work as an assistant to him.

Imam Ghazi’s attacks expanded until they reached the Terek River in the far north of the Caucasus, and he was able to conquer many centers and cities occupied by the Russians, and captured about 200 Russians. North Ossetia today), which was then the capital of the Caucasus, besieged it for a period of time.

In the fall of the year 1247 AH / 1832 AD, the Russians - armed with the latest cannons and firearms that the Circassians did not possess - carried out a fierce attack on the capital of the revolution "Ghimri" in Dagestan, the battle in which Imam Ghazi was martyred; According to the historian Mahmoud Abd al-Rahman in 'History of the Caucasus'.

Remarkable steadfastness

following the martyrdom of Imam Ghazi; The Chechen and Caucasian resistance was led by his successor, Imam Shamil al-Daghestani (d. 1288 AH / 1871 AD), who was a jurist, judge and Sufi sheikh, and the revolution continued under his leadership for nearly thirty continuous years (1247 -1275 AH / 1832-1859 AD).

Imam Shamil saw that the best knights and the strongest of the Caucasian peoples in the face of the Russian occupation are the people of Chechnya, and then decided to move from Dagestan - his country of origin - to the land of Chechnya, raising the slogan: "Martyrdom or victory."

Although he suffered several defeats at the beginning of his leadership of the resistance; Through it, he quickly realized the weaknesses of his army, as well as the need to unify the Circassian tribes, and the long period of his leadership of the Chechen and Caucasian resistance in general against the Russian presence made him a political leader capable of negotiating with the Russians on many occasions.

In the fall of 1254 AH / 1838 AD; The Russians launched a huge military campaign against the capital of the Chechen resistance "Akhulvo", trying to crush the resistance, and looking for the head of its leader Sheikh Shamil. This campaign lasted for 70 days, during which the Russians did not leave one stone after another, but Sheikh Shamil miraculously survived this siege, burdened with wounds.

the following year; Imam Shamil managed to regroup his forces and retrain them, and from Chechnya, the Resistance Army was able again to wrest Dagestan from the clutches of Russian occupation around the year 1256-1257 AH / 1840-1841 AD. In the next few years; The armies of Chechnya and Dagestan - led by Imam Shamil - annihilated four Russian armies, which made the Russians adopt a new tactic to separate Dagestan and Chechnya, by building castles, burning forests and destroying villages to prevent communication between the two sides; According to Mahmoud Abd al-Rahman in 'History of the Caucasus'.

In the book “The Memoirs of Imam Shamil” (its title in Turkish: “İmam Şamil’in Hatıratı”), which was written by one of the Imam’s assistants and close companions, his name is Muhammad Tahir al-Qarakhani (died after 1287 AH / 1870 AD); We note that Sheikh Shamil - as well as the Caucasian Chechen resistance after him - adopted the strategy of guerrilla wars and surprise for the Russian forces, especially in the forests and rugged mountain straits, an old strategy that they were able to develop, especially in the forests of "Seli".

The beginning of the end

in the years 1265-1267 AH / 1849-1851 AD; The Russians suffered a humiliating defeat in that forest after a war that lasted for four months. With the start of the "Crimea War" in the fall of 1269 AH / 1853 AD between the Ottomans - who were assisted by the English and the French - and Tsarist Russia; The Ottomans recognized Imam Shamil's leadership of the Caucasian resistance against the Russians, and decided to support him in his continuing jihad.

For his part; Imam Shamil sent his military plan to the Ottoman Sultan Abd al-Majid I (d. 1277 AH / 1861 AD), urging him to attack the Ottomans, Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, to occupy the Russians from the south. But the Ottomans were unable - due to their difficult economic and military conditions - to send the necessary aid to the forces of Imam Shamil. Inspite of that; Imam Shamil was determined to implement his plan to concentrate the resistance in the southern Caucasus.

With the end of the Crimean War in the spring of 1272 AH / 1856 AD, and Russia's temporary loss of its presence in the Black Sea; Moscow gathered all its energy to eliminate the Chechen and Caucasian resistance, and cut off the path in front of the Ottoman Empire from the Iranian front and the southern Caucasus. Russia also exploited the internal revolutions that it supported in the Principality of Baghdan (Moldova) and Fallac (Romania), and the preoccupation of the Ottoman Empire with these internal problems.

Thus, the Russians launched with all their might a fierce war against the Chechen and Caucasian resistance, which lasted for three years during which their forces were able to occupy Chechnya, forcing Sheikh Shamil and those with him to conclude an agreement in which Russia would receive sovereignty over the interior regions of Dagestan and Chechnya, in exchange for no military conscription or taking taxes from the people of Chechnya. These areas, as well as directly leave the internal affairs of the local population.

Although the agreement included the exile of Imam Shamil and forty of his army commanders to the lands of the Ottoman Empire; The commander of the Russian campaign at the time, General Bayratinsky, arrested Imam Shamil and sent him in chains - with his sons and assistants - to a prison near the Russian city of St. Petersburg, where the sheikh spent ten years in captivity, at the end of which he was allowed to immigrate to the Ottoman Empire, whose sultan received him Abdul Aziz I (died 1292 AH / 1875 AD) warmly received, and allocated to him and his family a fixed pension.

And after an outstanding heroic life; Sheikh Shamil and his family decided to settle in the city of Kars, in the far eastern part of Anatolia, near his country, the Caucasus. According to the Turkish historian Mustafa Budaq, the biographer of Imam Shamil in the 'Turkish Islamic Encyclopedia'.(Muhammad Shaban Ayoub, AJ NET)