Ahmad al-Yamani and the Timurid policy in the Eastern Caucasus

Abstract

At the end of the first third of the 15th century, a prominent representative of the Muslim elite, a sayyid and theologian from Yemen, Ahmad al-Yamani (died in 1450), arrived in Dagestan and stopped in Kumukh, one of the major political centers of Mountainous Dagestan. He devoted the last two decades of his life to the spread and strengthening of Islam among the highlanders. Since that time, Kumukh turned into a large Muslim center and the “internal” Islamization of the mountain tribes began. The result of all this activity in Kumukh was that almost all of Dagestan was islamized by the end of 16th century. Researchers have presented different versions of Ahmad al-Yamani’s arrival in Dagestan. The version that he arrived in Dagestan on behalf of the Abbasid Caliph in Cairo to Islamize the non-Muslim peoples of Dagestan was considered the most widespread in the academic environment. A unique manuscript of the 15th century, which was recently discovered, belonging to the pen of al-Yamani, called “At-Tuhfa al-Ulugbekiyya / Ulugbek’s gift”, contains new valuable material about the life of al-Yamani. He wrote it as a gift for Ulugbek (the ruler of Maverannahr and Shahrukh’s son), while he was in the Timurid emirate. The manuscript’s material was translated by the author and introduced into scientific use for the first time. The studied material, as well as other Arabic-language sources of the 15th — 19th centuries, allow us to assert that al-Yamani’s arrival was inspired by Shahrukh, and the mission was not only Islamization, but also strengthening and extending Timurids’ positions in the Western Caspian region, which was one of the political and military interests of the Timurids’ opponents — the Kara-Koyunlu Turkoman confederation.