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decline of the Shamkalat, the Khanate became the most powerful principality of 
Dagestan. 
The other important ruling structure, the Principality of Kaytak, to the south 
of the Avar Khanate contained a heterogenous population made up of Dargin, Lak, 
Kaytak, Lezgin and Mountain Jews. The ruler of the Principality had the title of 
utsmi and was the most powerful and respected sovereign of the mountain range. 
In the extreme south of the Dagestan, in the high and mid-level valley of the 
Samur, there was another principality. Two different sovereigns called masum and 
qadi governed the principality of Tabasaran. The population of the principality 
comprised of Lezgin, Tabasaran, and the small tribes of the high mountains, 
Tsakhur, Rutul, and Aguls.  
 
Nevertheless, all these political structures were transitory bodies with 
enduring struggles within themselves and with the outside rival powers. Therefore, 
it is not possible to speak about the existence and even the establishment, of a 
coherent social or political governing body within the territory of the North 
Caucasus. However, as it was pointed out by Lemercier-Quelquejay, although its 
strategic position on the crossroads of vital trade and military routes, the North 
Caucasus was surprisingly a “happy territory” ignored and by-passed by the great 
powers of the time, by the Ottoman empire, the Safavi empire, the Crimean 
Khanate, the Muscovite tsardom and the Shaybani empire in Turkestan.
52
 
 
                                                 
52
 Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay, “Cooptation of the Elites,” 21. 

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6-The Russian Advance: 
“Moscow appeared on the scene, beginning its southward drive, and the 
North Caucasus, from the Taman peninsula to the Caspian Sea, became the 
focus of world politics and fierce rivalry. Two hostile blocks were formed, 
each endeavouring to set up its authority over this territory of vital strategic 
importance: on the one hand, the Ottoman Porte and the Crimean Khanate, 
supported by the Shaybanis of Turkestan, and on the other Muscovy with its 
natural allies Transcaucasia, Christian Georgia and, further south, the Safavi 
Shia empire.”
53
 
 
The Russian interest in the Caucasus, in fact, was a result of the policy of 
establishing a route to warm seas and Middle Eastern markets. This was shaped 
after the notable journey of a Russian merchant, Afanasiy Nikitin, who travelled to 
India and Persia through the Caucasus in the late fifteenth century and wrote a 
classic of old Russian literature, ‘Travels Beyond Three Seas’ (Khozheniy za Tri 
Morya).
54
 
In compliance with this policy, thus Russian forces appeared in the 
Caucasus for the first time when Ivan the Terrible conquered the Hacıtarhan 
(Astrakhan) in 1556. From then, until the 20
th
 century, the Russians, Ottomans, and 
Persians became the main rivals in the region. Initially, the Ottomans, assisted by 
the Crimean Khans, won the first round gaining control of the region for over a 
century. The region thus disappeared from the arena of world politics.
55
 
Nevertheless the Russians were not indifferent to the fate of the region; they tried 
to expand their influence by co-opting the ruling groups and making allies of 
                                                 
53
 Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay, “Cooptation of the Elites,” 21. 
54
 Zelkina, God and Freedom, 52 and Marie Bennigsen Broxup, “Introduction: Russia and the North 
Caucasus,” in Marie Bennigsen Broxup and et al., 16. 
55
 For the Ottoman accession to the region see Stefanos Yerasimos, 1996 and 1997. “Türklerin 
Kafkasları: Egzotizmle Jeopolitik Arasında I and II,” in Toplumsal Tarih, 6(36): 14-20 and 17(37): 
7-13. Dr. Cemal Gökçe, 1979. Kafkasya ve Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun Kafkasya Siyaseti, İstanbul: 
Şamil Eğitim ve Kültür Vakfı Yayınları. M. Fahrettin Kirzioğlu, 1993. Osmanlıları’ın Kafkas 
Ellerini Fethi (1451-1590), Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu. 

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them.
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 Throughout this process their task was significantly facilitated by the 
contribution of large numbers of Cossacks planted in the region specifically for this 
purpose. 
Within this period of time, the North Caucasian peoples continued to 
survive under the authority of the state-like organizations and communities. These 
bodies secured their existence by establishing alliances between each other as well 
as with external powers, i.e., Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Therefore, in the 
region, a dispersed and unbalanced state of affairs was prevailed. 
The second stage of the Russian advance to the Caucasus began in the early 
18
th
 century. Peter the Great (r. 1684-1725), having modernised the Russian army 
and secured Russia’s possessions in Europe, organised a Persian Campaign in 
1722. As a result of this campaign Russia gained the control of the Caspian coastal 
lands and neighbouring provinces.
57
 
In that period, the Russians were establishing their enduring presence by 
means of the Cossack armies in the region. Simultaneously, they sought to 
establish or ensure alliances with local peoples and some of the jama’ats. As a 
result, most of those jama’ats accepted the Russian Protectorate. Moreover, to 
further their success, Russians began to establish fortified settlements in the region. 
The first of the Russian fortress, Svyatoi Krest (Holy Cross), was established in the 
Kumuk lowland in 1722 and the establishment of Kızlar, “which up till 1763, was, 
                                                 
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 The main Russian concern in that period was the Kabardian lands. The Kabardians, against the 
Crimeans had relied on Astrakhan and when the Russia conquered it Kabardians almost 
immediately formed a sort of alliance with the Tsar. The first embassies between the parties were 
exchanged in 1552 and in 1557 the Kabardian princes Temruk and Siboq, heads of two most 
important clans offered their submission and asked Moscow to protect them against the Crimea and 
Dagestan. And, in 1561, the Tsar Ivan married the daughter of Prince Temruk and gave Temruk the 
title of ‘Great Prince of Kabarda’. 

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