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common front in the struggle with Russians. In spite of Mansur’s defeat, the new 
Imam, Ghazi Muhammed emerged, almost 50 years later, as new leader who 
bridged the gap between the ‘political’ and ‘spiritual’ Naqshbandiya and merged 
the two into a unified movement. He once again declared a ghazavat against the 
infidel’s rule in 1830. His successors, Hamza Bek and Shamil managed to 
exterminate the existing local rulers and instead of being spiritual guides and 
supervisors they took the real authority into their hands and became the official 
leaders in the North Caucasus. 
Those new leaders’ position was very different to that of the earlier local 
leaders. These Imams accepted the Sharia as the only guarantee against the 
corruption of the North Caucasian peoples by Russian colonial rule, and so they 
called upon Muslims to replace the traditional adat system, which was identified as 
the main obstacle to unification, with Sharia-based legislation. Through 
comprehensive administrative, fiscal, and military measures based on an orthodox 
version of Sharia, they established a new central state encompassing Chechen, 
Ingush, Avar, Kumuk, Lezgin and Ghazi Kumuk territories. His authority through 
the Kabardians penetrated, at least nominally to the Circassian areas. 
These Imams saw the Mountaineers as a totality and denied the existence of 
tribal differences, accepting Islam as the primary denominator of the unified North 
Caucasian identity. Thus, Imam Shamil finally established the North Caucasian 
Imamate as the first unified North Caucasian State in the 1840s. Through his naibs, 
he brought isolated tribes and jama’ats under a unified Sharia-based legal system 
and ensured the coordination of efforts to resist the Russians. In line with this,  
 

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again through his naibs, at least theoretically, Shamil managed to spread his rule to 
the Circassian lands and thus the entire North Caucasus. 
Nevertheless, increasing Russian military might and emerging native 
resistance or reluctance to comply with the comprehensive changes in the social 
structure and daily life triggered Shamil’s downfall. Despite his defeat, because of 
his deep-rooted reforms, Islam substantiated its place among the Mountaineers 
irreversibly and became one of the principle components of the Mountaineers’ self-
identification during this period. 
 
The defeat of Shamil however, caused drastic changes in the demographic 
and political balances in the North Caucasus in favour of the Russian Empire. 
Between 1864 and 1878 a significant percent of the North Caucasian population, 
mainly the Circassians, were forcibly expelled to the Ottoman lands and dispersed 
throughout the territories from Balkans to the Middle East. The remaining religious 
leaders were either killed or exiled and the Sufi brotherhood discarded the idea of 
ghazavat and open resistance, with remaining groups forced into an underground, 
semi-clandestine existence. However, when the opportunity to rebel against the 
Russians presented itself, they took the lead to organize the masses. Meanwhile, the 
newly settled Cossack and Russian populations, began to dominate the region and 
thus, during the last quarter of the 19
th
 century Russians managed to suppress and 
subjugate the North Caucasus. 
 
This inevitably shifted the centre of the struggle of independence outside 
North Caucasian territory. While Russian’s ‘divide-and-rule’ policy was creating 

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divisions and frictions among the Mountaineers, the North Caucasians used the 
1877-78 Russo-Ottoman war to struggle for independence, but the defeat of the 
Ottomans left the Mountaineers’ dream of returning to the Caucasus and 
establishing their own state was unfulfilled. From then on, in compliance with 
Ottoman policy and the tradition of loyalty to the host state, North Caucasian 
emigrants in the Ottoman Empire had to keep silent until 1908. Afterwards, the 
new regime allowed these emigrants to set up their own organizations in İstanbul. 
These organizations became the engines of the independence struggle and in 
correlation with of their increasingly intensified activities the Mountaineers 
struggle grew in the homeland. 
Through the Circassian Association of Union and Relief, which was 
established by Gazi Mehmet Paşa, the son of Imam Shamil, as a social 
organization, the North Caucasians of the Ottoman Empire revatilized their 
political activities to liberate the motherland. Nevertheless they did not find the 
opportunity to realize their objective until the beginning of the First World War. A 
confluence of interests brought the Association and the leaders of the ruling party 
of the Union and Progress into alliance and the political activities of the emigrants 
increased impressively. When the First World War broke out, the North Caucasians 
took an active part in the formulation of a confederal state, which encompassed 
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and the North Caucasus as a ‘buffer state’ between 
Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Enver Pasha vehemently supported this idea and 
took an active part in the activities to organize an anti-Russian movement in the 
Caucasus. 
 

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During this period, the Russian viceroys ruled the Mountaineers, who were 
living in the North Caucasian territory. Despite the fact that the tariqats had still 
survived under-cover and were continuing their spiritual guidance among the 
Chechen and Dagestani peoples, a class of young North Caucasian elite, who were 
educated in Russian schools emerged and gained a foothold among the peoples of 
the North Caucasus. Despite their small number, these young peoples managed to 
take the destinies of their peoples. This new group, because of their education were 
familiar to the Russian society and the western thought and way of life. Some had 
close contacts with the Russian political parties and currents, had a part in the 
Empire’s political life. Nevertheless they failed to establish common political 
North Caucasian or Islamic political movement. As was the case with North 
Caucasian emigrants in Ottoman lands, World War I and then the Russian 
Revolution in February 1917 changed the course of events in the North Caucasus. 
These North Caucasian elites defined the Revolution as a ‘miracle’ and used the 
mottos of the French Revolution, ‘liberty, equality, and fraternity’ on every 
occasion. In line with this they organized a Congress with the aim of establishing a 
union or a common political structure encompassing all the peoples of the North 
Caucasus, from the Black Sea to the Caspian coasts. Thus, the Alliance of the 
Unified Mountaineers of the North Caucasus and Dagestan, including the 
Circassian tribes, Chechens, the Ingush and all of the Dagestani peoples, with a 
political program and a draft Constitution, emerged. Initially, the leaders of the 
movement undoubtedly agreed with the ideals of the Revolution, and the Alliance 
accepted itself as a constituent part of Russia. The first and the foremost priority of 
the Congress was the establishment of Federal-Democratic state structure in 

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