Sefer Bey Zanuko

Sefer Bey Zanuko
Sefer Bey Zanuko
	Sefer Bey Zanuko in 1845
Born	?; Anapa, Circassia
Died	1 January 1860; Shapsugh, Circassia
Allegiance	Ottoman Empire
Battles/wars	Russo-Circassian War ; Muhammad Ali's seizure of power ; Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829) ; Crimean War

Last updated February 21, 2019

Sefer Bey Zanuko (? – 1 January 1860) was a Circassian nobleman and independence activist. He took part in the various stages of the Russo-Circassian War both in a military and a political capacity. Advocating for the cause of Circassian independence in the west and acting as an emissary of the Ottoman Empire in the region. By the end of his life Zanuko had emerged as the leader of the Circassian independence movement.

The Circassians, also known by their endonym Adyghe, are a Northwest Caucasian nation native to Circassia, many of whom were displaced in the course of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus in the 19th century, especially after the Russo-Circassian War in 1864. In its narrowest sense, the term "Circassian" includes the twelve Adyghe princedoms ; Abdzakh, Besleney, Bzhedug, Hatuqwai, Kabardian, Mamkhegh, Natukhai, Shapsug, Temirgoy, Ubykh, Yegeruqwai and Zhaney, each star on the Circassian flag representing each princedom. However, due to Soviet administrative divisions, Circassians were also designated as the following: Adygeans, Cherkessians, Kabardians and Shapsugians, although all the four are essentially the same people residing in different political units.

The Russo-Circassian War (1763–1864) involved a series of battles and wars in Circassia, the northwestern part of the Caucasus, in the course of the Russian Empire's conquest of the Caucasus. Fighting lasted approximately 101 years, starting in the reign of Empress Catherine the Great and finishing in 1864. Although the Russian conquest of the Caucasus started at least as early as the Russo-Persian Wars, the term Caucasian War commonly refers only to the period 1817–1864. Those who use the term Russian–Circassian War take its starting date as 1763, when the Russians began establishing forts, including at Mozdok, to be used as springboards for conquest.

The Ottoman Empire, also historically known in Western Europe as the Turkish Empire or simply Turkey, was a state that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Oghuz Turkish tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror.

Early life

Sefer Bey Zanuko was born near Anapa, the date of his birth is unknown. He descended from the Circassian noble family of Zan. His tribal affiliation is disputed, his ancestors are variously believed to be Kheaks, Shapsugs, Natukhajs, Haitukos or Halashukos. His father Mehmed Giray Bey died when he was young. In 1807, the fortress of Anapa was captured by Russian troops during the course of the Russo-Circassian War and Zanuko was given as a hostage to the Russians by the local population. He was then sent to Odessa, where he was educated in the Rishelevski Lyceum. His service in the Russian army ended abruptly when he fled to the mountains after a personal conflict with his regiment's commander. According to British adventurer James Stanislaus Bell he soon sailed to Egypt where he lived among the Circassian Mamluks until their fall from power. Whereupon he returned to his homeland and married a Nogai princess. At the time Anapa had been conquered by the Ottoman Empire, prompting Zanuko to travel to Constantinople where he entered into Ottoman service. He became the deputy of Anapa governor Hajji Hassan Pasha, receiving the rank of colonel. During the Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829) Anapa was recaptured by the Russians and Zanuko was taken prisoner. He remained in Odessa until the end of the war, once he was freed he returned to Circassia, taking the role of an ambassador.^[1]

Anapa is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the northern coast of the Black Sea near the Sea of Azov. Population: 58,990 (2010 Census); 53,493 (2002 Census); 54,796 (1989 Census).

The Hatuqwai are a tribe of the Adyghe people. There is, however, no well-established spelling for their name, and the variants are Hatukay, Hatuqwai, Hetuqwai, Hatukaj, Hatquai, Tatukai, Khatukai, Gatukai, Gatiukai, and Khatoukhay.

The Shapsug, also known as the Shapsugh or "Shapsogh", are one of the twelve tribes of the Circassian people. In Russia, the remaining Shapsug population mainly live in the Tuapsinsky District (Tuapse) of Krasnodar Krai, Lazarevsky City District of Sochi, and in the Republic of Adygea, which were a small part of historical Circassia. However, the major Shapsug communities are found in Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Western Europe, and the United States of America. The first Circassians to settle in Amman were from the Shapsug tribe, and as a result the Shapsug's neighbourhood is considered the oldest neighbourhood in the Capital Amman and was the down town of it; however, other Circassians from the Kabardian, Abadzekh, and Bzhedug tribes also settled in Amman afterwards.

Ambassador in the Ottoman Empire

The Treaty of Adrianople (1829) marked the beginning of the Russian colonization of Circassia through the establishment of military outposts and stanitsas. An assembly of Circassian tribes declared Zanuko as their representative, dispatching him to Constantinople at the head of 200 man delegation in the spring of 1831. The Ottoman agreed to secretly supply the Circassians with weapons and ammunition, while Muhammad Ali of Egypt refused to provide any assistance. Zanuko settled in Samsun where he continued his advocacy.^[2] There he met David Urquhart, one of the first people to espouse the Circassian cause in the west and major contributor to the rise of Rusophobic attitudes in British society. In the summer of 1834, Urquhart visited Circassia where he received a petition signed by 11 chiefs requesting the British king to intervene into the conflict. Two more petitions followed in 1835 and 1836 respectively, both were reluctantly rejected by the British ambassador in Constantinople John Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Ponsonby. Lord Palmerston had previously blocked Ponsonby's initiative to include Circassia in the Eastern Question, on account of the feeble state of the Circassian resistance movement. A series of diplomatic protests by the Russian ambassador led to Zanuko's exile to Edirne. Encouraged by Urquhart a group of British adventurers unsuccessfully attempted to run the blockade of the Circassian coast, the Mission of the Vixen created a diplomatic scandal between Britain and Russia. Encouraged by Ponsonby, Zanuko continued to submit appeals to the British albeit to no avail. ^[3] In the meantime, the militant Sufi Khalidiyya movement overtook the Adyghe Habze as the leading ideology behind the Circassian resistance. Envoys sent by Imam Shamil helped coordinate the activities of the insurgents across the Caucasus and established Sharia law.^[4]

The Treaty of Adrianople concluded the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29, between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. It was signed on 14 September 1829 in Adrianople by Count Alexey Fyodorovich Orlov of Russia and by Abdülkadir Bey of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire gave Russia access to the mouths of the Danube and the fortresses of Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki in Georgia. The Sultan recognized Russia's possession of Georgia and of the Khanates of Erivan and Nakhichevan which had been ceded to the tsar by Persia in the Treaty of Turkmenchay a year earlier. The treaty opened the Dardanelles to all commercial vessels, thus liberating commerce for cereals, livestock and wood. However, it took the Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi (1833) to finally settle the Straits Question between the signatories.

Stanitsa is a village inside a Cossack host (viysko). Stanitsas were the primary unit of Cossack hosts.

Muhammad Ali of Egypt Ottoman Albanian commander and Wali of Egypt and Sudan

Muhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas'ud ibn Agha was an Ottoman Albanian commander who rose to the rank of Pasha, and became Wāli, and self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan with the Ottomans' temporary approval. Though not a modern nationalist, he is regarded as the founder of modern Egypt because of the dramatic reforms in the military, economic and cultural spheres that he instituted. He also ruled Levantine territories outside Egypt. The dynasty that he established would rule Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt and Sudan until the 1952 coup d'état led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Crimean War

On 4 October 1853, the Ottomans declared war on Russia launching the Crimean War. The Ottomans recruited Zanuko and other Circassians into their army in preparation for an offensive on the Caucasus front in spring of 1854. Zanuko was appointed as the Ottoman governor of Circassia, receiving the honorary title of pasha. On 29 October, two messengers carrying orders for Mohammed Amin Imam Shamil's naib in Circassia were dispatched from Trabzon to recruit fighters in preparation for his arrival. On 27 March 1854, Russia withdrew from its Circassian forts with the exception of Anapa and Novorossiysk as defensive measure due to the intervention of Britain and France into the conflict. In May, an Ottoman fleet carrying 300 Circassians including Zanuko, supplies and military advisors sailed to Sukhum Kale. Zanuko soon clashed with Mohammed Amin, when the latter refused to supply the Ottomans with recruits for fear that they will be pressed to fight outside of their homeland. In July, Amin was also elevated to pasha, exacerbating the power struggle between the two men. In March 1855, troops loyal to Zanuko clashed with Amin's supporters on the banks of the river Sebzh. Zanuko remained in Sukhum Kale until 10 June when he relocated to Anapa which had been recently abandoned by the Russians. In order to bridge the divide in the Circassian society created by Zanuko's rivalry with Amin, the Ottomans placed both under the command of their countryman Mustapha Pasha.^[5]

The Crimean War was a military conflict fought from October 1853 to February 1856 in which the Russian Empire lost to an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, Britain and Sardinia. The immediate cause involved the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land, which was a part of the Ottoman Empire. The French promoted the rights of Roman Catholics, while Russia promoted those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the unwillingness of Britain and France to allow Russia to gain territory and power at Ottoman expense. It has widely been noted that the causes, in one case involving an argument over a key, have never revealed a "greater confusion of purpose", yet led to a war noted for its "notoriously incompetent international butchery".

Pasha or Paşa, in older works sometimes anglicized as bashaw, was a higher rank in the Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, generals, dignitaries and others. As an honorary title, Pasha, in one of its various ranks, is similar to a British peerage or knighthood, and was also one of the highest titles in the 20th century Kingdom of Egypt.

Trabzon, historically known as Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. Trabzon, located on the historical Silk Road, became a melting pot of religions, languages and culture for centuries and a trade gateway to Persia in the southeast and the Caucasus to the northeast. The Venetian and Genoese merchants paid visits to Trebizond during the medieval period and sold silk, linen and woolen fabric; the Republic of Genoa had an important merchant colony within the city called Leonkastron that played a role to Trebizond similar to the one Galata played to Constantinople. Trabzon formed the basis of several states in its long history and was the capital city of the Empire of Trebizond between 1204 and 1461. During the early modern period, Trabzon, because of the importance of its port, again became a focal point of trade to Persia and the Caucasus.

The Treaty of Paris (1856) ended the conflict, frustrating at the same time any hopes of Circassian independence. The Circassians remained politically divided and when Mohammed Amin replaced Zanuko as the new governor, the two sides fought a second battle this time on the Sup river. An intervention of tribal elders led to compromise, when the two leaders agreed to jointly travel to Constantinople and have the sultan settle the dispute. However Zanuko broke his oath and remained in Circassia. Zanuko was in fact following secret Ottoman orders as he was tasked with supervising the withdrawal of the Ottoman army from the region during the course of June. He then resettled to the Shapsykhua river, destroyed the port of Tuapse to prevent Amin's supporters from using it as a supply route and called for the latter's assassination. During the second half of the year Zanuko attempted to negotiate a peace treaty with the Russians. In January 1857, a sanguine battle between Zanuko's and Amin's forces took place in Tuapse, Zanuko's son Karabatir emerged victorious. Russian intelligence was well aware of the British and Ottoman involvement in the affairs of the Caucasus. In May 1857, Amin was invited to Constantinople and immediately arrested, and exiled to Damascus, a move previously planned by the imperial Majlis in an effort to improve relations with Russia. At the same time shipments of arms and ammunition to the rebels were halted. Zanuko died in Shapsugh on 1 January 1860, oblivious to the change in Ottoman policy. He was buried in the Vordobgach valley. Karabatir succeeded him as the leader of Circassian resistance. The Russo-Circassian War officially ended on 2 June 1864, the Circassian genocide was to follow.^[6]

The Treaty of Paris of 1856 settled the Crimean War between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire, the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Tuapse is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated on the northeast shore of the Black Sea, south of Gelendzhik and north of Sochi. Population: 63,292 (2010 Census); 64,238 (2002 Census); 63,081 (1989 Census).

Damascus is the capital of the Syrian Arab Republic; it is also the country's largest city, following the decline in population of Aleppo due to the battle for the city. It is colloquially known in Syria as ash-Sham and titled the City of Jasmine. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world. The city has an estimated population of 1,711,000 as of 2009.

Notes

↑ Khoon 2015, pp. 69–76.
↑ Khoon 2015, pp. 76–77.
↑ Köremezli 2004, pp. 26–36.
↑ Khoon 2015, pp. 77–79.
↑ Khoon 2015, pp. 80–88.
↑ Khoon 2015, pp. 88–93.

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References

Köremezli, Ibrahim (2004). "The Place of the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Circassian War (1830-1864)". Bilkent University Thesis. Bilkent University: 1–112. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
Khoon, Yahya (2015). ""Prince of Circassia": Sefer Bey Zanuko and the Circassian Struggle for Independence" (PDF). Journal of Caucasian Studies. 1 (1): 69–92. Retrieved 8 December 2017.

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[FOOTNOTEKhoon201569–76-1] Khoon 2015, pp. 69–76.

[FOOTNOTEKhoon201576–77-2] Khoon 2015, pp. 76–77.

[FOOTNOTEKöremezli200426–36-3] Köremezli 2004, pp. 26–36.

[FOOTNOTEKhoon201577–79-4] Khoon 2015, pp. 77–79.

[FOOTNOTEKhoon201580–88-5] Khoon 2015, pp. 80–88.

[FOOTNOTEKhoon201588–93-6] Khoon 2015, pp. 88–93.

Sefer Bey Zanuko
Sefer Bey Zanuko in 1845
Born	? Anapa, Circassia
Died	1 January 1860 Shapsugh, Circassia
Allegiance	Ottoman Empire
Battles/wars	Russo-Circassian War Muhammad Ali's seizure of power Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829) Crimean War