Imam Shamil
Imam Shamil led the resistance of the peoples of the North Caucasus against Russian conquest for twenty-five years, and is regarded as a national hero in Dagestan and Chechnya. Born in the Avar village of Gimry in Dagestan around 1797, he was a sickly child who trained himself into an athlete, and studied Arabic, logic and Islamic law, becoming known as a scholar of the Naqshbandi Sufi order. He joined the movement of the first imam, Ghazi Muhammad, and in 1832 was one of only two men to escape the Russian storming of Gimry, reportedly leaping over a line of soldiers after being bayoneted. He became the third imam in 1834. He built something no previous Caucasian leader had managed: a state. The Imamate imposed sharia in place of customary law, taxed, maintained a standing force with artillery cast locally, and united fractious Avar, Chechen and other communities under a single authority. He suppressed the blood feud and the local nobility, which made him enemies among the very clans he led. His campaigns exploited forest and mountain terrain against a far larger army. In 1839 he broke out of the siege of Akhulgo after months, losing most of his family. In 1845 he destroyed a Russian expedition under Count Vorontsov at Dargo, inflicting several thousand casualties. The Crimean War distracted Russia briefly, but its end released overwhelming force, and the systematic felling of forests removed his cover. He surrendered at Gunib in September 1859 to Prince Baryatinsky. He was treated as an honoured captive in Kaluga, met the Tsar, and was permitted to make the pilgrimage in 1869. He died in Medina in 1871.
- Lived: 1797 CE – 1871 CE
- Nationality: Avar (Dagestani)
- Roles: imam, resistance_leader
