Ghazi Muhammad

Russian picture with Ghazi Muhammad (center). Inscription in Russian: "M. Jaragski's pupil: Dschemaletdin, Gasi-Mulla, Shamil".

Ghazi Muhammad ( Avar Гъази-МухӀаммад Ġazi Muḥammad , Arabic غازي محمد الغيمراوي, DMG Ġāzī Muḥammad al-Ġīmrāwī , Russian Имам Гази-Мухаммад Imam Gazi-Muchammad or Gazi-Magomed, after the popular title Mullah (master) also Gasi-Mulla or Kasi-Mulla; * 1795 ; † October 29, 1832 ) was an Islamic scholar and preacher with the Avars in Dagestan , who around 1830 bundled the resistance of the North Caucasian peoples against the expansion of Russia and founded the Dagestani Imamat , which was later founded by Hamsat Bek (1832-34) and Imam Shamil (1834–59) was continued.

Life

education

Ghazi Muhammad came from the Aul Gimra, which belonged to the Avar community federation of Koysubu, and studied among others with the scholar Saʿīd al-Harakānī Islamic sciences. The preacher Muhammad al-Yarāghī (d. 1839), who led the resistance against Russia and allied Dagestani princes, and Jamāl ad-Dīn Ghāzīghumuqī (d. 1860/61) introduced him to the tradition of Naqschbandīya- Chālidīya. Ghāzīghumuqī installed him as his deputy ( ḫalīfa ).

Fight against common law

In the mid-1820s, Ghazi Muhammad preached in the Koysubu community and urged his fellow believers to uncompromisingly recognize Sharia as the only valid legal form. In a letter to the Daghestan communities entitled "The clear evidence of the apostasy of the customary law experts of Daghestan" ( Bāhir al-burhān li-irtidād ʿurafāʾ Dāġistān ) he called for the fight against the ʿUrf ("customary law) and for the enforcement of Sharia law in all legal issues, and asserted that all those Muslims who judged ʿUrf or ʿAdat instead of Sharia law were to be counted as Kāfir ūn (“unbelievers”). With the help of his followers who rallied around him, he was able in 1826 in introduce Sharia law in his village of Gimra, which he later repeated in other Avar villages ( ǧamāʿāt ) of the Koysubu community as well as the neighboring Salatau community.

In 1827 the Shamchal of Tarki , Mahdī-Chān, tried to invite Ghazi Muhammad to Tarki and in this way to win them over. Ghazi Muhammad only accepted this invitation in 1829, with the request to bring the Shamchal to introduce Sharia law in his area, which he refused.

The jihad against the Russians

Between 1828 and 1829 the scholars and communities of Gimra, Chirkey and other Avar villages made Ghazi Muhammad imam . A little later he became convinced that he had to use military force against his opponents in the villages and among the princes and that he could not avoid a conflict with the Russian protecting power. In January / February 1830 he undertook the first major military actions with supporters from the Koysubu community, including against Chunsach, the seat of the Avars' chans . In the spring of 1831 he built a wooden fortress on the territory of the Shamchal Empire, from where he successfully fended off several Russian attacks. In May of the same year he and his riders took Tarki, the seat of the Shamhal, and the neighboring Russian fortress of Burnaya. In the months leading up to his death, Ghazi Muhammad was able to unite all of Daghestan and Chechnya on campaigns against Russia. He fell during the Russian capture of his home village of Gimra on October 29, 1832.

Works

In his Arabic treatise Bāhir al-burhān li-irtidād ʿurafāʾ Dāġistān ("The clear evidence of the apostasy of the customary law experts of Daghestan"), Ghazi Muhammad refers to various older Dagestan authorities such as Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Dā '' '(d. 1717), ūd al-Usīschī (d. 1757/58), Abū Bakr al-Aimaqī (d. 1790/91) and Ibrāhīm al-ʿUradī (d. 1810/11), who had already spoken before him on the question of customary law or had emphasized the need to control what is right and to prohibit what is wrong . The work, which is preserved in a manuscript from 1927, was translated into English by Michael Kemper. There was also a rhyming version of the script, excerpts of which have been preserved in the Arabic chronicle of the Shamil period by Muhammad Tāhir al-Qarāhī (d. 1880) and the biographical lexicon of Dagestani scholars by Naḏīr ad-Durgilī (d. 1935) .

literature

Moshe Gammer : Muslim Resistance to the Tsar. Shamil and the Conquest of Chechnia and Daghestan. Cass, London 1994, ISBN 0-7146-3431-X , pp. 49-59.
Michael Kemper: Rule, Law and Islam in Daghestan. From the khanates and community leagues to the jihād state (= Caucasian studies. 8). Reichert, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-89500-414-6 , pp. 217-247, (at the same time: Bochum, Universität, habilitation paper, 2003).
Michael Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Moshe Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan (= Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian toimituksia. Humaniora. 352). Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Helsinki 2009, ISBN 978-951-41-1023-8 , pp. 85-100.

Individual evidence

↑ Cf. Gammer: Muslim Resistance to the Tsar. 1994, p. 49.
↑ See Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan. 2009, pp. 85–100, here p. 85.
↑ See Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan. 2009, pp. 85-100, here SS 85 f.
↑ See Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan. 2009, pp. 85–100, here p. 86.
↑ See Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan. 2009, pp. 85–100, here p. 87.
↑ See Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan. 2009, pp. 85–100, here p. 91.
↑ See Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan. 2009, pp. 85-100, here pp. 94-100.
↑ See Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan. 2009, pp. 85-100, here pp. 87 f.

personal data
SURNAME	Ghazi Muhammad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Гази-Мухаммад (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Islamic scholar and preacher with the Avars in Dagestan
DATE OF BIRTH	1795
DATE OF DEATH	October 29, 1832

[1] Cf. Gammer: Muslim Resistance to the Tsar. 1994, p. 49.

[2] See Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan. 2009, pp. 85–100, here p. 85.

[3] See Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan. 2009, pp. 85-100, here SS 85 f.

[4] See Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan. 2009, pp. 85–100, here p. 86.

[5] See Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan. 2009, pp. 85–100, here p. 87.

[6] See Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan. 2009, pp. 85–100, here p. 91.

[7] See Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan. 2009, pp. 85-100, here pp. 94-100.

[8] See Kemper: Ghazi Muhammad's Treatise against Daghestani Customary Law. In: Gammer (Ed.): Islam and Sufism in Daghestan. 2009, pp. 85-100, here pp. 87 f.