[6][7] Şhaplı, of Circassian descent,[8][9][10] was born as Osman Paşazade Mehmet Şamil in 1891 in Medina, Ottoman Empire (today's Saudi Arabia), as the eldest of 11 siblings of Şhaplı Osman Ferit Pasha[2] and Emire Nefiset Hanım.

[11] Osman Ferit Pasha (born in Dagestan[11]), is a descendant of Şhaplı Kubilayko Mahomet Bey, a military figure of Ubykh Tribe in Sochi.

[11] Emire Nefiset Hanım is the granddaughter of Shamil, 3rd Imam of Dagestan, the political, military, and spiritual leader of Caucasian resistance to Imperial Russia in the 1800s.

[11] In 1902 Autumn, a group of young athletics practitioners including Mehmet Şamil and his brother Hüseyin Bereket used to train gymnastics, weight lifting, wrestling at Şeyhhül Harem Osman Paşa Konağı,[12] Serencebey Neighbourhood, Beşiktaş District of Istanbul.

[3][13] On contrary, Şehzade Abdülhalim, son of Süleyman Selim Efendi, and grandson of Emperor Abdulmejid, appointed Kenan Bey, a then-well-known boxer and wrestler.