ABSTRACT
By the summer of 1836 Rosen, preoccupied with the affairs of Circassia, had to turn his attention to Chechnia and Daghestan. Although he believed in peaceful penetration, Rosen ‘did not share Klugenau’s optimism’; 1 that is, he would not hear of an agreement with Shamil. He demanded the imām’s unconditional submission. 2 Shamil’s quick rise to power and his widening control must have seemed to him an alarming development. The acuteness of the situation was further underlined by the power vacuum following the death and succession of both the shāmkhāl 3 and the khān of Ghāzī-Ghumuq. 4 By the summer the problem became urgent when Shamil seemed on the brink of taking control of Avāristān.
