The Persian campaign became one of the most ambitious geopolitical projects of Peter the Great. During the crisis of the Safavid power, Russia managed to incorporate the entire western coast of the Caspian Sea. It took 13 years (from 1722 to 1735). A few years before this campaign, the Tarki ruler (shamkhal) Adil-Girey, formerly a vassal of the Shahs of Iran, had come over to the side of Peter the Great. During the Caspian campaign he tried in every possible way to demonstrate his loyalty, and also to direct Russian troops to the possessions of his opponents inside Daghestan. However, later, after the death of Peter I, Shamkhal Adil-Giray became an opponent of Russia's entrenchment in the western Caspian Sea. His attempts to oppose the empire ended in reprisals for his subjects and his subsequent capture. All these events are well known in domestic historiography from the Russian and partly Iranian sources. However, there were no Daghestani sources describing these processes at our disposal. This gap is intended to be filled by this article, which is devoted to a commented translation of an Arabic-language work by Salman-Afandi, the "shaykhu-l-Islam of Daghestan", who was in fact a cadius of the Tarkovsky shamkhaldom and, of course, a supporter of Adil-Girey. This message was sent to the court of Sultan Ahmed III of the Ottoman Empire with traditional praise and recognition of him as the supreme caliph of all Sunni Muslims. Despite Salman-Afandi's attempts to present Adil-Girey as a ruler of Daghestan and a supporter of the Ottoman sultans, the involvement of a wider range of sources shows that this shamkhal repeatedly changed his foreign policy orientation and was in a state of constant confrontation even with the other Kumyk rulers, leave alone the whole of Daghestan. This source is important from several points of view and its full translation can be used for further researches. The relevance of its introduction into the scientific turnover is determined by the 300th anniversary of the Caspian campaign of 1722-23, as well as the need for new researches on this subject based on a wider range of sources.
Pages: 53 - 71
Date: 22.12.2023