ABSTRACT
COMMENTARY )6 Opinion among the chieftains of Daghestan in 1604 (ref. Chap. 10,p.421,n. I) F rom the text it is clear that opinion among the chieftains of Daghestan was restless and fluid and that they were waiting on events. The news of the victories of Shah Abbas had disturbed a situation in which Ottoman hegemony in Georgia, Shirvan and Daghestan had been accepted for a quarter of a century. Again, information about the deterioration of conditions in Russia must have reached the Shevkal from Astrakhan (cf. Chap. 10, p. 416, n. I). The mountaineers, it would appear, were ready to attack the Russians on the Terek should the situation prove favourable enough.
