Battle of Kanzhal

Abri de la Motre (agent of the Swedish king Charles XII), who visited the Caucasus in 1711, gave a detailed description of this war.[16] Motre published a description of his travels in London in 1724 in English in two volumes. He republished them in French in 1727.

A brief chronology of events, according to Motre, is as follows:

• Circassians paid a large annual tribute to the sultan to avoid Tatar raids. However, the sultan did not fulfill this obligation and the Tatars raided all the way to the center of Circassia, robbing everything they could.
• Circassians thought not only to stop these attacks, but also to refuse to pay tribute. The Sultan formed a Tatar army against the Circassians (about 100 thousand in number, according to Motre).
• Circassians sent letters to Khan's camp expressing their obedience and asking for peace. Later, for 19 days, the Circassians stalled the enemy troops by negotiating the amount and quality of the tribute to be paid, and then unexpectedly attacked the camp from all sides and killed most of the soldiers.
• Leading those who escaped to save their lives, the Khan left his brother, son, field tools, tents and belongings.

Xaverio Glavani, the French consul in Crimea and the first doctor of the Khan in Bakhchysarai, wrote in his book "Circassian Statement" dated 20 January 1724:[17]

The Crimean Khan wanted to compel the Kabardinians to give him more slaves and goods than he had previously agreed. The people took up arms, a bloody battle took place, the Tatars were completely defeated, the Khan himself barely managed to escape and lost his boots; More than 5,000 Tatars died in the war, including many nobles.

— Xaverio Glavani, Circassian Statement

Johann Gustav Gerber, who made a map of the Caucasus for Tsarist Russia in 1728 and a depiction of the peoples living in the Caucasus, also reported this war:[18]

The people in two regions, Western Circassia and Kabardia, are the same nation and have been free people since ancient times. In different centuries, the Crimean Khan asked them to send him a gift every year, namely a good horse, a conch, a sword, an expensive bow or a beautiful girl that would not be found everywhere. However, the Circassians decided to leave this and killed the Crimean officials who were sent to receive the gift. After that, the Crimean Khan sent 30,000 soldiers and his vizier to raze their land against the Circassians. However, the Circassians pretended to escape from the Tatars, and led them along an unknown road until the middle of Kabardia and completely destroyed the Crimean army. Since then they have again gained complete freedom.

— Johann Gustav Gerber, Map of Caucasus

German traveler Engelbert Kämpfer also mentioned the event:[19]

“At the end of 1708, the Khan of the Little Tatari (Crimea) demanded twice the tax from neighboring Circassians for no reason; When the Circassians refused, they attacked with a large army. The Circassian prince did a trick and agreed with 30 young strong soldiers to kill the Khan's most noble officers and sent them as spies. At the same time, the Circassians attacked the enemy in such a way that, thanks to such confusion, a complete victory was achieved and the Tatar Khan was saved only with great difficulty.

— Engelbert Kämpfer

In addition to the above, in the 18th century Ottoman writer Mehmet Funduklu, the former Moldovan ruler and scientist Dimitrie Cantemir and many others wrote about the victory of the Kabardinians over the Crimean Khan in 1708, although their reports agreed on the main point, sometimes differing in detail.[20]