Gazawat/Muridism resistance movement
It’s a mysticism-based political movement, which has been started by the North Caucasian Muslims in the 18th century; called “Gazawat” by Muslims, and Muridism by Russians. It was identified with Sheikh Shamil. Muridism became a major factor in the emergence of an independent Caucasian ideal by gaining a national quality short after its beginning.
In 1785 the Imam Sheikh al-Mansur, who was descent of Chechen, started Gazawat in Chechnya and continued under the leadership of the Naqshibendi with the support of the Qadiriyya until the 1920s. Before Imam al-Mansur, even there had been started a movement that supported the autonomy of Caucasus by a group of people who were affiliated with the Tsar regime, it failed to succeed. Muridism became a major factor in the emergence of an independent Caucasian ideal by gaining a national quality short after its beginning. After the death of Sheikh al-Mansur, Caucasian Muslims united under the leadership of Imam Ghazi Mohammed (Kazi Mullah). He emerged in 1826 and started the second Gazawat movement in 1830.
In 1835, Sheikh Shamil headed up the movement. He fought against Russians for 25 years but because of his limited facilities and lack of armament, he failed. In this process of struggle, his wife, son and sister also martyried. As he realized that he could not continue the war with the remaining 200 people, he made truce with the Russians and surrendered in 1859. He was taken to Russia as a captive but gained the admiration of the Russian Czar for his long years of struggle and for his closing the Caucasus doors to Russia for a long time. One day, the Russian Czar takes Sheikh Shamil to eat while he is a captive. When the Czar sees Sheikh Shamil eating heartily, he says to his entourage, “I’m afraid this guy’s going to eat us too.” When Sheikh Shamil hears this, he responds, “Don’t worry, it’s forbidden by our religion to eat pork meat.”
The Ottoman Empire wants Sheikh Shamil to be released based upon the Treaty of Paris in 1856 but Russia objects it by saying that he isn’t an Ottoman soldier and that he is rebellious.
Sheikh Shamil, who had been a captive for ten years, was accepted to make a pilgrimage and departed after putting his son Mohammed Shafi to ransom. Sheikh Shamil, who came to Istanbul in 1869, was hosted in the palace by Sultan Abdulaziz, the Ottoman sultan of that period. People ran to the palace to see this hero. Then he went to hajj and died in Medina. His grave is in the Baqi Cemetery in Medina.
After the surrender of Sheikh Shamil, the disciples maintained the Gazawat movement for five more years under the command of Mohammed Amin, the proxy of Northwest Caucasus. However, in 1864, also they had to cease fire.
After this date, the people of the Caucasus took their positions and maintained their resistance from time to time. During the Ottoman-Russian War in 1877-1878, the insurrection in Daghestan, led by Abdurrahman, one of Imam Shamil's disciples, was suppressed gorily by the Russians. The insurrection under the leadership of the Naqshbandi sheikh Isan Ali in 1876, The Geok Tepe defence of Akhal Teke Turkmens in 1881, and the two insurrections started in North Caucasus in 1920-1921 under the leadership of the Naqshbandi Sheikh Gotizan Necmeddin and (Saltılı Uzun Hacı), are the other important Muridism-based resistance movements. (Suleyman Uludag, DİA)
Gazavât movement began with the ideal of the independence of the Caucasus, where many languages were spoken and where different ethnicities were living together. Although the movement failed to succeed, it created a common consciousness of homeland among the Muslim Caucasian people. These people neutralize the wicked rituals emerged from discrimination, which had been arise from nationalism and regionalism, by uniting under the same cult and seeing each as siblings by latching on to the same Imam. It provides the order among North Caucasian Muslims and their discipline.
Muridism was regarded as a national liberation movement, a progressive and democratic resistance by the Soviet administration in 1917-1922, and the attack on the Caucasus by the Czarist administration was seen as an imperialist act and was cursed.
In 1924, the region Chechen-Ingush Autonomous, and later in mid-1930s the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established in Caucasus. The Soviet Administration qualified the national liberation movement as feudal and bourgeois movements during the Second World War. General Dzhokhar Musayevich Dudayev, who took control of Grozny with the disbanding of the Soviet Union in 1991, declared the Chechen Republic of Chechnya (CRIC). However, the Russian Federation did not recognize it and fought since 1994. Semi-autonomy was given to Chechen with the Khasavyurt Treaty signed in 1997, but in September of 1999 the peace ended with the Russian forces occupying Chechnya again.