1. Here, the term “Islamic revival” or “Islamic renaissance” refers to the process of rediscovering the cultural and ethnic identities of post-Soviet Muslims which was triggered by the Gorbachevian political liberalization in the late 1980s.Google Scholar

2. Scholars are divided over the origins of the term “Sufism,” or at-tasawwuf. Some derive it from the Arab word safawa (to be pure); some from the Greek word sophia (wisdom); yet some others from the Arab word suf (coarse wool, from which the gown of an ascetic-hermit was made). Sufism represents a mystical side of Islam. It developed in parallel to mainstream Islam. The Sufis believe that Sufism is a higher form of Islam. The leading Sufi thinkers were Abu Yazid al-Bistami (died in a.d. 875), as-Sarraj at-Tusi (died in a.d. 988), al-Kalabazi (died in a.d. 990), al-Khudzhviri (died in 1072), as-Sulami (died in 1021), al-Ghazali (died in 1111), as-Suhrawardi al-Maktul (died in 1191), Ibn Arabi (died in 1240), Abd ar-Razzak Kashani (died in 1329), and Bahauddin Naqshband (died in 1389). By the end of the twelfth century specific Sufi organizations—tariqas (a “way,” or a school in Sufism)—had emerged, headed by particular Sufi shaykhs. By the fourteenth century there were 12 major tariqas: Rifaiyya, Yasawiyya, Shadhiliyya, Suhrawardiyya, Chishtiyya, Kubrawiyya, Badaviyya, Kadiriyya, Mawlawiyya, Bektashiyya, Khalwatiyya, and Naqshbandiyya. For more information see: John S. Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973); The Naqshbandis in Western and Central Asia: Change and Continuity (Istanbul: Svenska Forskningsinstitutet, 1999); Al-Janabi, M. M., Al-Ghazali: Mystical Theologico-Philosophical Synthesis (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000); Alexandre Bennigsen and S. Enders Wimbush, Mystics and Commissars. Sufism in the Soviet Union (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), p. 1.Google Scholar

3. The North Caucasus occupies some 255,000 square kilometers (1.5% of the territory of the Russian Federation) and is populated by some 12.8 million people (8% of the total population). Hanson, P. and Bradshaw, M., The Territories of the Russian Federation (London: Europa Publications, 1999), p. 50.Google Scholar

4. There has been no sociological survey of Sufis in the North Caucasus, or elsewhere in Islamic Russia. According to some experts in Dagestan alone Sufis constitute over 60% of the Muslim population. Some others believe that they make up only about 30% of Dagestani Muslims. Interview with Magomed Kurbanov, the Deputy Minister of Nationalities of Dagestan, Makhachkala, Dagestan, 30 June 1998; interview with Murad Zargishev, the editor-in-chief of the journal Musul'mane, Moscow, 27 April 2000.Google Scholar

5. The territory of Dagestan is 50,300 square kilometers and its population was 1,954,252 in 1995. The urban population makes up 43.6% of the total and the rural population is 56.4%. Dagestan is one of the least economically developed autonomous republics of the Russian Federation and is strongly dependent on federal subsidies and other suppliers. It is populated by over 30 different ethnic groups, which belong to various Ibero-Caucasian, Turkic, and Persian ethno-linguistic families. Each ethnic group has its own culture and speaks a distinctive language incomprehensible to the rest. The largest ethnic groups are the Avars, Dargins, Kumyks, and Laks. Until 1990 Chechens and Ingushes lived within the single autonomous republic of Checheno-Ingushetia, the territory of which was 19,300 square kilometers. Acccording to the census of 1989 there were 956,879 Chechens and 237,438 Ingushes in the republic. Both the Chechen and Ingush peoples belong to the northeastern branch of the Ibero-Caucasian ethno-linguistic family. In 1990 the Chechen nationalists headed by General Dzhokhar Dudayev proclaimed Chechen independence, which facilitated the emergence of the Ingush Republic. The Chechen secessionist drive triggered the protracted Russian–Chechen conflict, which has brought about heavy human and material losses. Also, the Chechen war has hampered adequate academic investigation into the Sufi dynamic there. The Territories of the Russian Federation, pp. 50, 61.Google Scholar

6. In this article the term “Islamic fundamentalism” refers to the desire to return to the pure, unadulterated Islam of the period of the Prophet Muhammad and the four righteous Caliphs.Google Scholar

7. Historically, Wahhabism was a religious and political movement within the most strict and rigid Khanbali maddhab of Sunni Islam. It originated in the mid-eighteenth century in Arabia and was named after its leader, Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab. Strictly speaking, the use of the term “Wahhabism” in relation to Islamic fundamentalism in the North Caucasus and elsewhere in the Islamic regions of the former Soviet Union is incorrect because the latter is based on a wider doctrinal foundation than the teaching of Abd al-Wahhab. However, due to the term's wide acceptance by politicians, journalists and the wider public this article uses it to denote the local form of the Islamic fundamentalist movement.Google Scholar

8. The article is based on the findings of the Economic and Social Research Council (E. S.R. C.)-funded projects “Islam, Ethnicity and Nationalism in post-Soviet Russian Federation” (1997–1999) and “Ethnicity, Politics and Transnational Islam: A Study of an International Sufi Order” (1998–2001) and the Leverhulme-Trust-funded project “Ethnic Politics and Islam in the Western North Caucasus” (2000–2003).Google Scholar

9. Literally, in Turkic languages, “Dagestan” means “the mountain country.”Google Scholar

10. Zargishev, I., “Dagestan—strana alimov,” Musul'mane, No. 2, 1999, p. 35.Google Scholar

11. Muhammad Abu Bakr ad-Derbendi was the author of the famous Sufi treatise Reykhan al-khakaik va bustan al-dakaik (The Bouquet of Truth and the Garden of Subtleties).Google Scholar

12. Zelkina, Anna, In Quest for God and Freedom. Sufi Responses to the Russian Advance in the North Caucasus (London: C. Hurst, 2000), p. 47.Google Scholar

13. The Naqshbandiyya is one of the major Sufi tariqas. It was founded by Yaqub al-Hamadani in the twelfth century. It is named after Muhammad Baha ad-Din an-Naqshbandi (1318–1389), who gave it its final structure.Google Scholar

14. The Mujaddidi branch of the Naqshbandiyya derives from Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi al-Mujaddid (died in 1624). Gammer, Moshe, Muslim Resistance to the Tsar. Shamil and the Conquest of Chechnya and Daghestan (London: Frank Cass, 1994), p. 39.Google Scholar

15. The Kadiriyya was founded in Baghdad by Abd al-Kadir al-Ghilani in the mid-twelfth century.Google Scholar

16. Wimbush, , Mystics and Comissars, p. 3.Google Scholar

17. Zelkina, , In Quest for God and Freedom, p. 15; Robert Bruce Ware and Enrev Kisriev, “Ethnic Parity in Dagestan,” Europe–Asia Studies, Vol. 53, No. 1, 2000, p. 109.Google Scholar

18. The term tariqatism derives from the Arab word tariqa (way), which also means a specific Sufi way towards comprehension of Allah.Google Scholar

19. Wimbush, , Mystics and Comissars, p. 3.Google Scholar

20. Bennigsen-Broxup, Marie, ed., The North Caucasian Barrier (London: Hurst, 1992), p. 34.Google Scholar

21. The term muridism derives from the Arab word murid (a disciple of a Sufi shaykh).Google Scholar

22. See also: Gammer, , Muslim Resistance to the Tsar; Zelkina, In Quest for God and Freedom, pp. 121–159; Smirnov, N. A., Muridism na Kavkaze (Moscow: AN SSSR, 1963), pp. 136–179.Google Scholar

23. Adyghs belong to the Western Caucasian or Abkhaz-Adygh ethno-linguistic group, which also includes Abkhazs, Abazins, Circassians, and Kabardins. The majority of Adyghs are Sunni Muslims of Khanafi madhhab. Compared with various peoples of the eastern North Caucasus, the Adyghs did not succumb to Sufi Islam. The Adyghs, alongside the Chechens, fled the region en masse after the Caucasian war. Most of them settled in the Ottoman Empire.Google Scholar

24. Interview with Ibragim Tadzhuddinov, a Naqshbandi, Ashali, Dagestan, 12 August 2000.Google Scholar

25. Wimbush, , Mystics and Comissars, p. 10; Prozorov, S., ed., Islam na Territorii Bivshei Rossiiskoi Imperii, Vol. 1 (Moscow: Vostochnaia Literatura, 1998), pp. 61–62.Google Scholar

26. Wimbush, , Mystics and Comissars, p. 10; interview with Shamyl Beno, a Naqshbandii and a Moscow representative of the government of Chechnya, Moscow, 24 April 2000.Google Scholar

27. Interview with Shamyl Beno, Moscow, 24 April 2000.Google Scholar

28. Interviews with Naqshbandi Shaykh Sayid-efendi Chirkeevskii, Naqshbandi Shaykh Tadzhuddin Ramazanov, and Naqshbandi Shaykh Siradzhuddin Tabasaranskii, Dagestan, August 2000.Google Scholar

29. Broxup, Bennigsen, ed., The North Caucasian Barrier. The Russian Advance towards the Muslim World (London: Hurst, 1992), p. 115; interview with Shamyl Beno, Moscow, 24 April 2000; interview with Magomed Rasul Mugumayev, an alim of Dagestan, Makhachkala, 15 August 2000.Google Scholar

30. In 1920 the Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed, which comprised Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kabarda, Balkaria, and North Ossetia. In 1924 the Mountain Republic was disbanded. During the administrative delimitation of 1922–1924, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and North Ossetia were transformed into autonomous regions of the Russian Federation. In 1921 the Autonomous Soviet Socialist republic of Dagestan was formed within the Russian Federation.Google Scholar

31. Broxup, Bennigsen, ed., The North Caucasian Barrier, p. 116.Google Scholar

32. Interview with Shamyl Beno, a Naqshbandi and a Moscow representative of the government of Chechnya, Moscow, 24 April 2000.Google Scholar

33. Wimbush, , Mystics and Commissars, p. 10.Google Scholar

34. In 1934 the Chechen and Ingush autonomous regions of the Russian Federation were unified to make the autonomous region of Checheno-Ingushetia, which in 1936 was transformed into the autonomous republic of Checheno-Ingushetia within the Russian Federation.Google Scholar

35. Interview with Shamyl Beno, Moscow, 24 April 2000.Google Scholar

36. The institution of the Muftiyat was introduced by Tsarina Catherine the Great in 1789. During the Soviet period there were four Muftiyats: the Muftiyat in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) administered the Muslims of Central Asia; the Muftiyat in Baku (Azerbaijan) was in charge of the Muslims of the Transcaucasus; the Muftiyat in Makhachkala (Buynaksk) controlled the Muslims of the North Caucasus; and the Muftiyat in Ufa (Bashkortostan) dealt with the Muslims of the Volga-Urals and central Russia.Google Scholar

37. Islamskii Vestnik, No. 22, 1999.Google Scholar

38. In the Islamic regions of the former U. S.S. R. the term “traditional Islam” is applied to all forms and branches of regional Islam which have integrated local pre-Islamic traditions and adat norms. Traditional Islam is widely regarded as the antithesis of foreign Islam, which is associated with Salafism, or Wahhabism. Here the term “Islamism” is applied to the political activity of the proponents of Salafism, Wahhabism, and other forms of Islamic fundamentalism.Google Scholar

39. The I. D.P. was formed in 1990 by Dagestani intellectuals of democratic orientation under the leadership of Abdurashid Saidov. The original programme of the party presented a paradoxical combination of Islamic and democratic ideals, opposing the rule of the corrupted party nomenklatura and calling for its replacement by an Islamic-democratic government. In doctrinal terms it favored tariqatism although it was also tolerant towards Wahhabism. Interview with Abdurashid Saidov, Moscow, 16 April 2000.Google Scholar

40. Among new Islamic periodicals were the newspapers Tawhid (The Unity), As-Salam (The Peace), Nur-ul-Islam (Light of Islam), Islamskii Vestnik (Islamic News), Islamiskie Novosti (Islamic News), Islam Minbire (Tribune of Islam), Musul'manskaia Gazeta (Muslim Newspaper), Persona (Personality), Mezhdunarodnaia Musulmanskaia Gazeta (International Islamic Newspaper), Altyn Urda (Golden Horde), Islam Nuri (Light of Islam), Iman (The Faith), Gratis, Tugran-Yak, As-Salam (The Peace), Hakikat (The Truth), Islamskii Poriadok (Islamic Order), Put' Islama (Path of Islam), Znamya Islama (Banner of Islam), Zov Predkov (Call of Ancestors), and Khalif. The Islamic journals included Iman Nuri (Light of Faith), Islamskii Mir (Islamic World) and Musul'mane (Muslims).Google Scholar

41. For example, in the 1980s only 179 mosques, affiliated to the Spiritual Board of Muslims of European Russia and Siberia (the D. U.M. E.S.), based in Ufa, and the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the North Caucasus (the D. U.M. S.K.) in Makhachkala were functioning. There were only two medresses at the level of secondary Islamic education in Ufa and no higher Islamic schools at all. Muslim clerics from Russia could receive higher Islamic education in the Islamic Institute in Tashkent, which produced only 15 graduates per year. In 2000, by contrast, there were already over 5,500 registered mosques, 106 religious schools and 51 registered religious centers and boards (around 1,000 mosques in Tatarstan, 500 in Bashkortostan, 1,670 in Dagestan, 400 in Ingushetia, 140 in Kabardino-Balkaria and 2,000 in Chechnya). Agrumenti i Fakti, Dagestan, No. 24, 1998; R. Mukhametshin, “Islam in Russia,” manuscript; interview with Takhir Atmurzayev, the Deputy Muftii of Kabardino-Balkaria, Nal'chik, Kabardino-Balkaria, 31 October 2000.Google Scholar

42. Yemelianova, Galina, “Islam and Nation Building in Tatarstan and Dagestan of the Russian Federation,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 27, No. 4, 1999, p. 619; interview with Murad Zargishiev, the editor-in-chief of Musul'mane, Moscow, 27 April 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

43. Makarov, D., Ofitsial'nii i Neofitsial'nii Islam v Dagestane (Moscow: NIOPIK, 2000), p. 10.Google Scholar

44. Nurul-Islam, No. 3, 1997; Makarov, D., Ofitsial'nii i Neofitsial'nii Islam v Dagestane (Moscow: NIOPIK, 2000), p. 10.Google Scholar

45. Interview with the members of the Department for Religious Affairs of the government of Dagestan, Makhachkala, 22 June 1998.Google Scholar

46. Interview with M. Kurbanov, Makhachkala, 17 July 1997.Google Scholar

47. In spite of close collaboration between the D. U.M. D. and the Dagestani authorities, relations between them have not been trouble free. For example, in 1997–1998 the D. U.M. D. bitterly criticized the government for slowing down the Islamization project promoted by the D. U.M. D., and for “insufficient” hostility towards Wahhabis. As-Salam, No. 23, 1997.Google Scholar

48. As-Salam, No. 22, 1997; As-Salam, No. 13, 1988.Google Scholar

49. Dagestanskaia Pravda, 29 May 1996; As-Salam, No. 23, 1997; As-Salam, No. 24, 1997; Nur-ul-Islam, No. 12, 1998; Islamskii Vestnik, No. 24, 1998.Google Scholar

50. The new Central Mosque in Makhachkala, opened in 1996, was built with Turkish aid, and until 1998 a representative of Turkey was the Imam of the mosque.Google Scholar

51. In 1997–1998 the D. U.M. D. was critical of the government for not conforming to “Islamic” ethical standards and its insufficiently firm approach towards Wahhabism. After the assassination of Muftii Abubakarov in August 1998 the D. U.M. D. accused the authorities of criminal passivity towards the advance of Wahhabism. As-Salam, No. 15, 1998.Google Scholar

52. In the aftermath of the break-up of the U. S.S. R. the Dagestani authorities were the most resistant to any democratic reforms. They hung on to the Soviet political system until 1995, much longer than anywhere else in Russia.Google Scholar

53. The term “ethnic party” was introduced by the Dagestani sociologist Enver Kisriev to describe quasi-party political organizations based on ethnic and clan solidarity. See Enver Kisriev, “Dagestan,” in V. Tishkov, ed., Mezhetnicheskie Otnosheniia i Konflikti v post-Sovetskikh Gosuarstvakh, Ezhegodnii Doklad (Moscow: Nauka, 1998), p. 39.Google Scholar

54. The Dagestani constitution of 1994 nominated the 14 largest ethnic groups as titular. They are: Avars, Dargins, Kumyks, Lezgins, Russians, Laks, Tabasarans, Chechens, Azeris, Nogays, Mountain Jews and Tats, Rutuls, Aguls, and Tsakhurs. Konstitutsiia Respubliki Dagestan (Makhachkala, Dagestan: Yupiter, 1994), p. 20.Google Scholar

55. The Dargin clan includes, for example, M. Magomedov, the head of the State Council of Dagestan, and Amir Saidov, the Mayor of Makhachkala. The leaders of the Avar clan are M. Aliev, the chairman of the People's Assembly (the parliament), G. Makhachev, the Vice-Premier and former leader of the Avar national movement, S. Asiyatilov, the leader of the Islamic Party of Dagestan (the I. P.D.) and Muftii Abdullaev of Dagestan.Google Scholar

56. Interview with Idris-khadzhi, Makhachkala, 15 July 1997; interview with Ilyas-khadzhi, Makhachkala, 22 June 1998.Google Scholar

57. For example, one of the main donors of the D. U.M. D. is Sharapuddin Musaev, the head of a large organized crime group in the town of Kaspiisk known as the “Kaspiisk mafia.”Google Scholar

58. According to some figures, financial machinations made the D. U.M. D. some US$182,000 profit from the hajj in 1998 alone.Google Scholar

59. Interview with A. Magomedov, Imam of Karlabko, Makhachkala, 16 June 1998.Google Scholar

60. For more information, see Fowkes, Ben, ed., Russia and Chechnya: The Permanent Crisis. Essays on Russo-Chechen Relations (Basingstoke, U. K.: Macmillan, 1998); Sebastian Smith, Allah's Mountains. Politics and War in the Russian Caucasus (London: I. B. Tauris, 1998); E. W. Walker, No Peace, No War in the Caucasus: Secessionist Conflicts in Chechnya, Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), pp. 1–11.Google Scholar

61. Broxup, Bennigsen, The North Caucasus Barrier, pp. 112–146; interview with Shamyl Beno, Moscow, 24 April 2000.Google Scholar

62. The tariqa of Shadhiliyya took root in Dagestan in the nineteenth century.Google Scholar

63. The data were provided by Magomed Kurbanov, the Deputy Minister of Nationalities of Dagestan, Makhachkala, 30 June 1998.Google Scholar

64. Interview with Professor Maissam al-Janabi, Moscow, 26 October 2000.Google Scholar

65. Interview with Ibragim Tadzhuddinov, a son of Shaykh Tadzhuddin Ramazanov, Ashali, 16 August 2000.Google Scholar

66. Ibid. Google Scholar

67. Trimingham, , The Sufi Orders in Islam, p. 241.Google Scholar

68. Interview with Ibragim Tadzhuddinov, Ashali, 23 August 2000.Google Scholar

69. Kurbanov, M. R. and Kurbanov, G. M., Religiia v Kul'ture Narodov Dagestana (Makhachkala, 1996), p. 66; Bennigsen and Wimbush, Mystics and Commissars, pp. 9–11.Google Scholar

70. Interview with Sayid Usmanov, a Kadirii, Moscow, 27 October 2000.Google Scholar

71. Zelkina, , In Quest for God and Freedom, pp. 108–115; interview with Magomed Rasul Mugumayev, Makhachkala, 29 August 2000.Google Scholar

72. Interview with Abdul Wahid, a representative of the line of Shaykh Sharafuddin, Makhachkala, 29 June 1999.Google Scholar

73. Nur-ul-Islam, No. 3, 1997; interview with Naqshbandi Shaykh Sayid from Syria, Moscow, 4 November 2000.Google Scholar

74. Shaykh Tadzhuddin Ramazanov is almost 100 years old. He is very frail. He cannot see and can hardly hear. However, his mind remains clear. He is fluent in Arabic and demonstrates a good knowledge of the Koran, Sunna, and the Sufi writings. Interview with Shaykh Tadzhuddin, Khasavyurt, Dagestan, 21 August 2000. The silsila of Shaykh Tadzhuddin was obtained during the interview with him.Google Scholar

75. Interview with Magomed Rasul Mugumayev, Makhachkala, 29 August 2000. The silsila of Naqshbandi tariqa was provided by representatives of the D. U.M. D., Makhachkala, August 2000.Google Scholar

76. See, for example, Musul'mane, No. 2, 1999, pp. 12—14; Nur-ul Islam, No. 1, 2000, p. 5.Google Scholar

77. Among Sayid-efendi's widely advertised books are, for example, Majmuat-ul-Favaid (The Questions and Answers), Kisasu-l-Anbiyat (The Life of Prophets) and Nazmabi (The Book of Verses).Google Scholar

78. Interview with Shaykh Sayid-efendi Chirkeevskii, Dagestan, August 1999.Google Scholar

79. Interview with Abdul Kerim, Imam of Buynaksk mosque, Buynaksk, 28 July 1997.Google Scholar

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81. The material and financial resources of the Wahhabis are a matter of extreme secrecy and controversy and it has been impossible to obtain direct information on the issue. However, indirect sources suggest that their funding has foreign origins, derived from various official and non-official Islamic organizations and funds that have provided generous assistance to the Muslims of the former U. S.S. R. under the banner of da'awa (summons to Islam). Among such foreign sponsors have been the University of Imam Muhammad ben Saud, the Islamic Development Bank, the Organization of Islamic Conference, the World Islamic League, the World Association of Islamic Youth and the World Center of Islamic Sciences of Iran. Non-official Islamic assistance has been even more impressive. It has been provided by the Committee of Muslims of Asia of Kuwait, the Iranian world organization Madaris, the Islamic charities Taiba and Ibraghim al-Ibraghim of Saudi Arabia, the international Islamic charities Ibraghim Hayri, Igatha, and Zamzam and the U. A.E. Islamic charity organization Al-Khairiyya. Google Scholar

82. The I. R.P. was founded in 1990 in Astrakhan. It opposed the Soviet/party regime and the collaborationist Islamic establishment and sought re-Islamization of traditionally Islamic areas of the U. S.S. R. and the return of Soviet Muslims to an original pure Islam. Originally, the I. R.P. claimed to have a nationwide character. In 1992 it split into a number of separate parties representing Muslims of different Islamic regions of the former Soviet Union. The Dagestani branch of the I. R.P. subsequently evolved into an Islamic educational and cultural organization, Al-Islamiyya. Ermakov, I. and Mikulskii, D., Islam v Rossii i Srednei Azii (Moscow: Lotos, 1993), pp. 175–176.Google Scholar

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85. The centers of Wahhabism in Kizilyurtovskii raion were the villages of Zubat-Miatli, Miatli, Kirovaul, Komsomolskoye, Chontaul, and Sultan-Yangiyurt; in Buynakskii raion—the villages of Karamakhi, Chaban-Makhi, Kadar, Verkhnee Kazanishe, and Nizhnii Dzhangutay and the Lezgin town of Belidzhi. Interview with Ahmed-qadi Akhtaev, Makhachkala, 19 July 1997.Google Scholar

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87. Video recording of a mosque address, Kizilyurt, Dagestan, 5 January 1996.Google Scholar

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93. The Islamic Shura of Dagestan consists of 40 representatives of Wahhabis and traditionalists from Akhvakhskii, Botlikhskii, Tsumadinskii, Buynakskii, Untsukulskii, Novolakskii, Karabudakhkentskii and Khunzakhskii raions of Dagestan. Moskovskie Novosti, No. 31, 1999.Google Scholar

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96. The new leader of the Al-Islamiyya, Sirazhuddin Ramazanov, also from Kudali, lacked the charisma, knowledge and political skills of Akhtaev and failed to ensure the integrity of the organization. Novoe Delo, No. 38, 1998.Google Scholar

97. Abdurahman Khattab Ibn Ul was born in 1963 into a well-known Cherkess family in Jordan. In the 1980s he fought against the Russian troops in Afghanistan. Later on he graduated from the Military Academy in Amman and served several years in the Cherkess Guard of King Husseyn. Then he took part in the war in Bosnia, where he organized a military training camp for local Muslims. From December 1994 Khattab has been in Chechnya, where he became one of the most influential and charismatic military commanders.Google Scholar

98. The agreement about cooperation between the Kadiriis and Naqshbandiis was reached in 1996 at the meeting between Muftii Kadyrov, a Kadiri leader, and Shamyl Beno (a Naqshbandi leader). Interview with Shamyl Beno, Moscow, 24 April 2000.Google Scholar