51
taxes were,
the land tax,
Shar’i kharaj, and income tax,
zakat. Second, he set up a
system of fines for various offences. All the fines paid by the people went to the
treasury. Through these fines he both attained revenues and established a system of
control in the society. In addition, the property of people who died without heirs
also went to the treasury. Third, in his system, all the income of land belonging to
mosques (
awqaf), which had been used for the upkeep of the mosques and their
clergy now went to the treasury. His last and a special
source of income was the
payment of three silver rubles per household per annum to avoid raids by the
mountaineers.
117
“In his expenses the
imam tried to follow the
shari’a. Although deviations
were unavoidable, as Shamil himself admitted, an attempt was made to keep
the expenditure from each source of income generally within the area
destined for it by the
shari’a. For this purpose
it seems that each source of
income was handled as a separate account.”
118
The other important area in which he made important reforms was the
military.
119
The Imamate’s army, in essence was a volunteer one. In fact, with the
exception of a few categories of people, who had crucial economic duties, almost
all male population was considered as trained warriors ready to fight. This pool of
warriors constituted the bulk of Shamil’s forces. Nevertheless within the time
period, because of the state’s growing size, Shamil felt the importance of
establishing a standing army and therefore
he established an army of naibi murids.
117
For he military reforms of Imam Shamil see Gammer,
Muslim Resistance, 230-232; and Zelkina,
God and Freedom, 207-209.
118
Gammer, 231.
119
Magomedov, 95-99.
52
Its nucleus consisted of armed horsemen called
murtaziqa who were set up and run
along the Sufi lines.
120
“In the early 1840s every ten houses were obliged to contribute one armed
horseman. These horsemen … were freed from any other work –their own
and their families’ upkeep, their fields, herds, etc. were the responsibility of
the other nine families- and had to dedicate
themselves to military
service.”
121
In addition to this cavalry Shamil established a regular infantry unit,
inspired by the
nizam-ı cedid of Ottoman Empire duly named as
nizam.
122
Using
the Russian captives, he also established artillery units. At last, in order to win
people’s trust and respect, and to enlarge his domain among the Mountaineers, he
also carried out an ideological or spiritual warfare. In this area of contention he
utilised his
murids who called
tariqa murids.
Then, in order to sustain large-scale campaigns and extend his sovereignty
he introduced a corresponding system of command structure and military ranks. He
correlated the administrative structures with military terms.
“In
military terms the vilayat corresponded to the largest military unit –the
regiment or 1,000 (
alf), divided into two battalions or 500 (
khamsa mi’a),
companies of 100 (
mi’a) platoons of fifty (
khamsin), and squads of ten
(‘
ashara). The corps were divided into cavalry (
fawaris) and infantry
(
mushat). Russian deserters who found refuge in the imamate and accepted
Islam formed the imam’s artillery brigades.”
123
Moreover, for the sake of uniformity and discipline, he introduced a
semblance of a uniform with distinct colours corresponding to each of the services
in his armed forces and gave the shape of a modern army. Thus, for the first time in
120
Zelkina,
God and Freedom, 211-212.
121
Gammer,
Muslim Resistance, 228-9.
122
See footnote no. 98.
123
Zelkina,
God and Freedom, 210.
53
the North Caucasus, to carry out the struggle of independence, he established a
modern standing army:
“By establishing this strictly defined system of government in the imamate,
Shamil profoundly changed the existing order under which the North
Caucasus had lived for centuries. He not only dismantled the traditional
power structure and deprived the old elite of their power base, but, far more
importantly, he introduced what amounted
to a concept of citizenship,
whereby for the first time the ruler and the ruled were accountable to one
system of law and in theory were at least equal in their obligations and
rights as far as the system of law was concerned.”
124
By 1845 Shamil’s domain was at its largest and his power at its peak. Then,
in compliance with his policy of establishing broader unified state and expelling
the Russians outside the North Caucasian territory, Shamil decided to extend his
authority over the lands of Kabardians and the northwestern parts of the Caucasus.
This was the first concrete initiative to following the footsteps of Mansur, to unify
the resistance movements of the all North Caucasus.
Shamil’s main agents in the central and western parts of the North Caucasus
were the Kabardians. In fact due to their central location, the Kabardians had
always maintained close links with both their western and eastern neighbours.
Although, compared
to Dagestan and Chechnya the tariqats’ were in a weak
position in the western parts of the region. Through the Kabardians the ideas of
Naqshbandi brotherhood started to penetrate into the areas to the west of
Chechnya. The
Imam had established his first contacts with the Circassian tribes
already in early 1840s and had suggested to the Ubykhs and Shapsugs a plan to
unify forces against the Russians in 1842. His first
naib, Haji Muhammed was sent
to the region in 1843. After his death a member of the Dagestani
ulema, Suleyman