Battle of Sunzha River
| Battle of the Sunzha River | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Ottoman campaign in the North Caucasus | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Ottoman Empire |
 Don CossacksChechens | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Özdemiroğlu Osman Pasha |
Shikh-Murza Okotsky | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| ~4,000 (Ottoman veterans)[1][2] | Thousands of Cossacks (Ottoman claim)[3][4] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Heavy[1] | Most of initial force killed; ~200 escaped[1] | ||||||
The Battle of the Sunzha River took place between October 28 and 30, 1583, near the Sunzha River in the North Caucasus. The battle saw a 4,000-strong Ottoman column led by Özdemiroğlu Osman Pasha engage a combined force of Chechens and Don Cossacks, commanded by Shikh-Murza Okotsky.
As the Ottoman forces marched from Derbent toward Kerch, they were ambushed during a river crossing. Although they managed to repulse the initial assault and destroy a fortified Cossack camp, the Ottoman troops were subjected to repeated attacks and scorched-earth tactics in the aftermath of the initial ambush, which significantly disrupted their advance.[1][5] After three days of continuous warfare, the Cossacks disengaged and fled, but only after inflicting considerable losses on the Ottoman army.[3]
Prelude
[edit]After the outbreak of war between the Ottoman and Safavid Empires in 1578, one of the primary supply routes for the army of Özdemiroğlu Osman Pasha—operating in Shirvan since the autumn of 1578—stretched from Kefe through the North Caucasus to Derbent. The increasing presence of Ottoman troops in the region prompted the resumption and strengthening of relations between Kabarda and Russia. Taking advantage of the conflict, the Kabardian "Great Prince" Kambulat Idarov appealed to Moscow for assistance, requesting that the Russian Tsar protect them "from the Crimean Khan and other enemies."[6] The Russian government provided assistance. A military leader, Lev Novosiltsev, was sent along with a group of streltsy to construct a new fortress in the area.[7] The Tsardom, seeking to strengthen its influence in the region even further, sought to secure alliances with the local nobility of Kabarda. A directive from Moscow summoned two prominent Kabardian princes—Mamstryuk-murza and Kazy-murza Shikapshuk—to enter Russian service with up to 300 Circassians. They were ordered to arrive in Astrakhan by the feast day of Saint Simeon and then proceed to Ukraine to join Temryuk Idar before winter.[3][verify] The two princes were then instructed to move their troops to the southern borders of the Tsardom in order to carry out border service and to prevent incursions by the Crimean Tatars into the interior regions of the country. In 1578, the senior prince of Kabardia, Kambulat Idarov, visited Moscow.[8]
As a consequence of these political maneuvers, the relations between Kabarda and Russia, which had been interrupted in the beginning of the decade, were restored in 1578, and Russian military presence in the North Caucasus was reinforced, threatening the Ottoman supply route running from Kefe to Derbent. In the same year, a Crimean army led by Adil Giray marched to Shirvan to aid the Ottomans in their war against the Safavids. The Kabardian princes and the Russian voivode Lev Novosiltsev allowed the Crimeans to pass through Kabarda. After reaching Shirvan, the Crimean army was badly beaten by the Safavids in the Battle of Mollahasanli, with their commander being taken prisoner. The remnants of the army, which amounted to c. 10,000, were scattered by the Russians on their retreat back to Crimean territory.[7]
Following this, the Russians and their allies, operating near the Terek River, increasingly started harassing Ottoman convoys traversing the route. In 1582, a supply mission dispatched by Serdar Ferhat Pasha succeeded in delivering treasury funds and provisions to Osman Pasha’s forces despite facing strong resistance. The convoy returned to Kefe under difficult conditions.[9] By 1583, tensions in the North Caucasus had escalated further, as local groups including Don Cossacks and Chechen fighters increased their attacks on Ottoman movements along this route.
Battle
[edit]Following his victory over the Safavids in the Battle of Torches in May 1583, which consolidated Ottoman control over Shirvan, Osman Pasha was ordered by the Sublime Porte to march to Kefe, with the aim of overthrowing the rebellious Crimean Khan Mehmed Giray,[10] who had refused to send troops to the Caucasus to fight against the Safavids since 1579.[11] The Pasha departed from Derbent on October 21 and headed west with an elite force of approximately 4,000 soldiers,[2] mainly veterans of the Shirvan campaign.[12]
On October 28, as the Ottomans attempted to cross the Sunzha River—a tributary of the Terek River known in Ottoman sources as Kanlı Sevinç Suyu—they were ambushed by a coalition army consisting of Don Cossacks and Chechens under the command of Shikh-Murza Okotsky.[1][verification needed][5]
According to Osman Pasha’s own account to a Russian envoy, the initial Cossack force was almost entirely wiped out, with only around 200 fighters escaping. However, the Ottomans soon found themselves under continued harassment: over the next three days, the retreating Chechen and Cossack forces launched guerrilla-style ambushes from the forests, and set fire to large sections of the steppe, slowing the Ottoman advance toward Kerch and inflicting further losses.[1][verification needed][5]
Although the Ottomans succeeded in repelling the initial assault and destroying a Cossack fortified camp, the disruption and attrition they suffered led modern historians to interpret the outcome as a tactical Ottoman victory but a strategic success for the Chechen–Cossack coalition.[1][verification needed][5]
Aftermath
[edit]Although Ottoman troops succeeded in repelling the initial ambush at the Sunzha River and destroying a Cossack camp, the continued guerrilla attacks and scorched-earth tactics severely impeded their movement. The campaign toward Kefe was slowed considerably, and the Ottoman column suffered substantial attrition during its march.[1][verification needed][5]
After regrouping, the Ottoman contingent continued its advance through the Northern Caucasus and moved westward across the Kuban River and the Taman Peninsula, eventually reaching Kerch and returning to Kefe. In the following year, elements of these forces participated in operations against the Crimean Khanate, successfully overthrowing Mehmed Giray and installing İslam Giray on the Crimean throne.[12]
In subsequent years, the Ottoman Turks and Crimean Tatars continued to launch attempts to pass through the North Caucasus in order to reach the South Caucasus.[13] The Muscovite tsar renounced any connection with the activities of ‘those fugitive and lawless Cossacks’.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h Akhmadov, Yavus Z. (2016). История Чечни с древнейших времен до наших дней. Том II (in Russian). Grozny: Academy of Sciences of the Chechen Republic. p. 248.
- ^ a b Bilge, M. Sadık (2005). Osmanlı Devleti ve Kafkasya: Osmanlı varlığı döneminde Kafkasya'nın siyasî-askerî tarihi ve idarî taksimâtı, 1454-1829 (in Turkish). Eren. ISBN 978-975-6372-15-9.
- ^ a b c d Yaşar, Murat (2022). The North Caucasus borderland between Muscovy and the Ottoman Empire, 1555-1605. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-9871-5. p. 139 "In 1583, Osman Pasha departed with his army from Derbend to Kefe via the North Caucasus route. While the pasha and his army were in Kabarda, thousands of Cossacks lying in ambush attacked them in an area that would later be known as ‘The Ottoman Road’ in local languages and in Muscovite sources (Osmanovskii shliakh).99 The Cossacks surprised the Ottomans with musket fire near the confluence of the Sunzha and Terek rivers as the Ottoman troops were crossing the Sunzha. The battle between the Ottomans and the Cossacks continued for days, at the end of which the Cossacks fled, but only after inflicting serious harm on the Ottoman soldiers. The contemporary Ottoman sources write that they lost many men, including several high-ranking officers, and much materiel during this encounter."
- ^ "Şecaatname", Âsafî Dal Mehmed Çelebi, (edited by Abdülkadir Özcan), Çamlıca Basım Yayın, İstanbul (2006), p.391
- ^ a b c d e Akhmadov, Shapi B. (2022). История Чечни (in Russian). Алгоритм. p. 63. ISBN 978-5-04-625792-2.
- ^ Vilinbakhov, Vadim Borisovich (1977). Iz istorii russko-kabardinskogo boevogo sodruzhestva (in Russian). Nalchik: Kabardino-Balkarskii institut istorii, filologii i ekonomiki pri Sovete Ministrov KBASSR. p. 59.
- ^ a b Pamyatniki diplomaticheskikh snosheniy drevney Rossii s derzhavami inostrannymi (PDF) (in Russian). St. Petersburg: Tip. II Otdeleniia Sobstvennoi E.I.V. Kantseliarii. 1851. pp. 941–944.
- ^ С. А. Белокуров (1889). Сношения России с Кавказом [Relations of Russia with the Caucasus] (PDF) (in Russian). Vol. 1. М. pp. 318–319.
- ^ "Osmanlı Hakimiyetinde Kefe (1475 – 1600)", Yücel Öztürk, Çamlıca Basım Yay., İstanbul (2014), p.138
- ^ N. A. Smirnov (1948). Кабардинский вопрос в русско-турецких отношениях [The Kabardian Question in Russo-Turkish Relations. XVI-XVIII centuries] (in Russian). Нальчик: Кабард. гос. изд-во. p. 20.
- ^ "OSMAN PAŞA, Özdemiroğlu". TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (in Turkish). Retrieved 2025-07-14.
- ^ a b "Özdemiroğlu Osman Paşa", Yücel Öztürk, Journal of International Eastern European Studies, 2022, p.211-215
- ^ Dzamikhov, K. F. "Chapter VI. Military-Political Cooperation between the Adyghe and the Russian State in the Struggle Against the Crimean Khanate – Section 6.1: Joint Struggle of Adyghe Feudal Principalities and Russia against the Crimean Khanate in the Mid-16th to Late 17th Century (Conclusion)". Kabardino-Balkarian Institute for Humanitarian Research (in Russian).