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permanent relationships and thus alliances could not be set up in the North 
Caucasus. 
By the beginning of the 19
th
 century these jama’ats, however, as a result of 
the emergence of aggressive enemies, i.e. Russian controlled Cossacks, began to 
develop permanent central political formations. The most powerful among them 
included the Shamkalat, the Avar Khanate, the Khanate of Ghazi-Kumuk and the 
principalities of Kaytak and Tabasaran. Over time, with the expansion of these 
associations, ruling dynasties came into being. The way in which these dynasties 
came into being and the titles they used varied from one jama’at to another. While 
in some parts they took the name Khan or Sultan, in others they used the titles of 
Maysum,  Ustmi,  Shamkhal or Qadi. These central rulers, in parallel with the 
establishment of their authority, began to remove local rulers by appointing their 
own agents as governors, mostly named naib or bek, to the jama’ats under their 
authority, and in turn they formed the local gentry. 
Nevertheless, all these political structures were transitory bodies with 
enduring struggles within themselves and with the outside rival powers. Therefore, 
it is not possible to speak about the existence and even the establishment, of a 
coherent social or political governing body, which encompassed the entire, or at 
least the great part of the North Caucasus. 
Nevertheless, with the coming of alien great aggressive power with the 
intention of occupying the North Caucasus changed the course of event severely. 
The Russians appeared on the scene of the Caucasus for the first time in the middle 
of the 16
th
 century and initiated the great power rivalry, mainly with the Ottomans, 
that lasted for more than two centuries. This resulted in a striking change within the 

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attitudes and the political formations of the Mountaineers. They faced with an 
aggressor and defined a common enemy that forced the Mountaineers to set up a 
common front to balance it. In the second half of the 18
th
 century, during the reign 
of Catherine the Great, the Russian Empire at last established its dominion 
southward to include the northern shores of the Black Sea. The Empress, in order 
to demonstrate her belief in its future importance to the Empire, labelled these 
newly conquered territories as ‘New Russia’ and focused the Empire’s attention 
southward. 
The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca signed in 1774, concluded the six year 
Russo-Turkish war, and following it, the annexation of Crimea in 1783, marked 
Russian dominance over the Ottomans in the Caucasus. Thus, the Crimean Tatars, 
the main agents and the vassals of the Ottoman Empire formally became the 
Russian vassals and their territories transformed from the historic northern bastion 
of the Ottoman Empire into the southern bastion of the Russian Empire. After that, 
with the establishment of the first Russian province, or guberniya, in May 1785 
with its center in Yekaterinodar the North Caucasus underwent drastic changes. 
From then on the Russian civil and military officials started to interfere directly in 
the internal affairs and the daily life of the Caucasus and of course the 
Mountaineers. Thus, for the first time, at least nominally the Mountaineers were 
subjected to an ‘infidel’s rule’. The most conspicuous result of this interference and 
rule was the emergence of reactionary movements among the Mountaineers. Under 
the auspices of the Naqshbandiya, Islam surfaced as the most dynamic and 
comprehensive political force and by the help of its network among the Chechens 
and Dagestanis instigated a struggle in entire Chechnya and Dagestan. 

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The Naqshbandiya was in fact introduced into the North Caucasus in early 
18
th
 century and established its first roots primarily in Dagestan. Until the arrival of 
Russian forces prominent sheikhs or tariqat leaders always fulfilled the roles of 
spiritual guides and supervisors of the existing local rulers. Nevertheless, because 
of the failure of traditional local authorities and their cooperation with the Russians 
the  Naqshbandiya, as the sole institution, which could reach beyond petty tribal 
loyalties and offer an ideology capable of uniting these various peoples into a 
broader independent political movement, emerged as a reactionary force. 
The emergence of this movement called ‘muridizm’ was not accidental. It 
coincided with the establishment of the new Russian province and Mansur’s 
proclamation of ghazavat. Moreover, the Ottomans’ last defeat, and thus their 
forced relinquishment of all positions and claims in the Caucasus after the 1828-29 
Russo-Turkish war, also coincided with the emergence of the new Imam, Ghazi 
Muhammed. These were the basic results of religious reactions to the alien 
Christian power, the Russian Empire. 
Mansur, the de facto religious and national leader, laid the foundation for a 
future union and prepared the ground for the later Naqshbandi  Imams who saw 
themselves as his disciples. Although Mansur himself never mentioned a 
brotherhood, nor did he try to establish a Sufi network, he left a long-lasting legacy 
in the North Caucasus. Mansur, had a prominent role in the Islamisation of the 
central North Caucasus, mainly the Ingush and Osetians. He consolidated 
Naqshbandiya and thus Islam in these territories. He managed to establish contacts 
with the Chechen, the Ingush, and Dagestani communes and even the Kabardian 
and Circassian princes and for the first time in the North Caucasus established a 

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