20 Facts About Imam Shamil

Imam Shamil was the political, military, and spiritual leader of North Caucasian resistance to Imperial Russia in the 1800s, the third Imam of the Caucasian Imamate, and a Sunni Muslim sheikh of the Naqshbandi Sufis.

Imam Shamil was born in 1797 into an Avar Muslim family.

Imam Shamil was born in the small village of Gimry.

Imam Shamil was originally named Ali, but following local tradition, his name was changed to Shamuyil when he became ill.

Imam Shamil's father, Dengau, was a landlord, and this position allowed Shamil and his close friend Ghazi Muhammad to study many subjects, including Arabic and logic.

Imam Shamil grew up at a time when the Russian Empire was expanding into the territories of the Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran.

Imam Shamil had multiple wives, including one of Armenian ethnicity born in Russia named Anna Ivanovna Ulukhanova.

Imam Shamil converted to Islam as a teenager and adopted the name Shuanet.

In 1832, Ghazi Mollah died at the battle of Gimry, and Imam Shamil was one of only two Murids to escape, but he sustained severe wounds.

Imam Shamil went into hiding and both Russia and Murids assumed him dead.

Imam Shamil rejected Grabbe's proposal that Imam Shamil command his forces to surrender and for him to accept exile from the region.

Imam Shamil escaped the siege during the first night of the attack.

Imam Shamil's forces had been broken and many Dagestani and Chechen chieftains proclaimed loyalty to the Tsar.

Imam Shamil was effective at uniting the many, quarrelsome Caucasian tribes to fight against the Russians, by the force of his charisma, piety and fairness in applying Sharia law.

Imam Shamil is showing great activity this year and he is forced to do this, since we.

Imam Shamil seemed to have liked his luxurious detainment, as well as the city; this is confirmed by the letters he sent from Kyiv.

Imam Shamil traveled first from Kyiv to Odesa and then sailed to Istanbul, where he was greeted by Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz.

Imam Shamil fathered 11 children, one being John Fedorov who changed his name to John Federoff after migrating to Childers in Queensland, Australia where he established a sugar cane farming empire.

Tsar Alexander II of Russia had openly admired his resistance, thus in the later part of his life, Imam Shamil was permitted for Hajj by the Russian authorities.

At a gathering in 1958, the Lubavitcher Rebbe told a story about a great tribal leader named Imam Shamil, who was rebelling against the persecuting Russian forces.