The eight Sultan Makhmud-class ships of the line were ordered as part of a naval expansion program aimed at strengthening the Russian Black Sea Fleet during a period of increased tension with Britain and France over the decline of one of Russia's traditional enemies, the Ottoman Empire.

Beginning in the 1830s, Russia ordered a series of 84-gun ships in anticipation of a future conflict, and the Sultan Makhmuds accounted for nearly half of the nineteen vessels built.

She operated in the Black Sea for the next two years as tensions with the Ottoman Empire rose, eventually culminating in the start of the Crimean War in October 1853.

That month, she participated in a campaign to transport elements of the Imperial Russian Army to the Caucasus to strengthen the forces there, and Iagudiil carried 947 soldiers to Sukhumi.

France and Britain issued an ultimatum to Russia to withdraw its forces from Rumelia, the Ottoman territories in the Balkans, which the Russians initially ignored, prompting Anglo-French declarations of war in March 1854.