1
Alikber Alikberov, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
SUFISM AND SUFI BROTHERHOODS IN THE CAUCASUS
Paper presented at the International Conference The role of Sufism and Muslim
brotherhoods in contemporary Islam. An alternative to political Islam?, Edoardo Agnelli
Centre for Comparative Religious Studies, Turin, 20th – 21st – 22nd November 2002
The historical role of Sufism in the Caucasian region.
th
The history of Islam in the Caucasus dates back to the 7 century, when the Arab
expeditions
were launched against the Sassanids and Khazars. In the second quarter of the
th
8 century Muslims from Palestine, Syria and other parts of the Caliphate were resettled to
Bab al-abwab (Pers. Darband), turning it into a stronghold of Islam in the Caucasus.
According to the Darband-nameh, Maslama divided the town into separate quarters,
opened mosques there and named them after the Arab tribe predominating among other
Muslims.1 The Arabs’
settlement in the eastern Transcaucasian region was far more greater
th
2
extensive. In the 8 century frontier forts (ribats) near Bab al-abwab accommodating
families of the Arab migrants were built up to reinforce the defensive capabilities of its
bastion and the 40 km-long Dagh-bara Wall, erected earlier by the Sassanid rulers to guard
their northern borders against the nomadic raids. Abu Bakr ad-Darbandi (d. 1145) in his
Rayhan al-haqa’iq writes that each tower in Bab al-abwab used to shelter a “saint” (alawliya’); one of such "saints", Abu-l-Qasim al-Fuqqa‘i az-Zahid lived in the southwestern
corner tower of the Bab al-abwab fortress, where he had his zawiya.3
The relative stabilization of an inner situation in the Caliphate with the ‘Abbasids’
accession to power gave rise to gradual social and political changes on the periphery of the
Arab state. Subsequently, this factor reflected itself in the frontier ribats, too. As in other
parts of the Caliphate, in the new conditions “the frontier ribats changed their character
from centres of defence and proselytism to centres of Sufi devotion and teaching”4. The
prolonged transformation of ribats also predetermined characteristic shifts in the further
dissemination of Islam. As the study of Rayhan al-haqa’iq shows, the wide extension of
1
The Derbend-Nameh, or the History of Derbend, translated from a select Turkish version and published with
the text and notes, illustrating the history, geography, antiquities, etc. occurring throughout the work by Mirza
Kazem-Beg. SPb., 1851. See also: The Derbend-Nameh in Arabic, rewritten by Ghazi Muhammad al-‘Uri in
1925. MS kept at the Institute of History, Archaelogy and Ethnography, Makhachkala. F. 1, Op. 1, D.425, p.
16.
2
For details, see: N.M. Velikhanova. Izmeneniye istoricheskoy geografii Azerbayjana v resultate arabskogo
zavoevaniya. – Istoricheskaya geographiya Azerbaijana. Ed. Z.M.Buniyatov. Baku, 1987, pp. 50–51.
3
Abu Bakr Muhammad ad-Darbandi. Rayhan al-haqa'iq wa-bustan ad-daqa'iq. MS kept at the Institute of
History, Archaelogy and Ethnography, Makhachkala.
4
Trimingham J. Spencer. The Sufi orders in Islam. Oxford, 1971. P. 168.
2
Islam in this region proceeded in the form of Sufism. The Sufis found a more accessible
form for insemination of their ideas, which proved to be more understandable to the large
masses of local people. Evidently it was due to the capacity of Sufism to organically imbibe
local cults and synthesize deep-rooted folk beliefs on its own basis.
The Arab conquest made the Caucasus an integral part of extensive Muslim
possessions. Zuhayr al-Babi, a Muslim ascetic, who lived for half a century in Basra, came
originally from Bab al-abwab. The full name of this ascetic, Abu ‘Abd ar-Rahman Zuhayr
b. Nu‘aym al-Babi, was cited by Abu Nu‘aym al-Isfahani in his Hilyat al-awliya’;5
according to az-Zahabi, al-Babi thdied between 816 and 826.6 It means that he left al-Bab in
the sixties or seventies of the 8th century, in the “golden age” of Basrian mystical ascetic
tradition. Beginning in the 9 century, first the Mu‘tazilites and then the Ash‘aris
penetrated into the eastern parts of the Caucasus, primarily, Arran, Shirwan, and Bab alabwab. The founder of Ash‘arism, Abu’l-Hasan al-Ash‘ari (873–935), had even to write a
special treatise to meet the spiritual requirements of those who lived in Bab al-abwab and
their neighbours. His Kitab ar-risala ila ahl as-sagr bi-Bab al-abwab is a compendium of
the Sunni doctrines.7 In the 11th century, the Sufis and Ash‘aris in the Caucasus regarded
the Mu‘tazilites as their chief opponents.
The influence of Sufi teachings on the Ghazis, their special status first in
Transcaucasia and Bab al-abwab in the Eastern Caucasus and then in the Northern
Caucasus, as well as the Ghazis’ numerical predominance in the so-called “Islamic centers”
could not but affect the process of Islamization. The confessional traditions observable
today were set up during that classical period. Sufism came to predominate in local
communities not only ideologically but also in practice: “folk Islam” in the region still
retains many characteristic features of “practical Sufism”. Even the local places of worship
were erected according to the design of several principal construction elements inherent in
the Sufi architecture: for example, the well-preserved walls and portal of the mosque in
Qal‘a-Quraysh in Daghestan reveal their close affinity with the khanaqah on the banks of
Pirsagat River in Shirwan, which was used for services held by Pir-Husain al-Ghada’iri,
disciple of Shaikh Abu Sa‘id al-Mayhani and a nephew of qadi’l-qudat in Bab al-abwab
Ahmad al-Ghada’iri. B.A.Dorn describes the burial mosque of Shaikh Abu Sa‘id alMayhani in Baku8. Some researchers also point to a similarity of choice pictures in the
mosque of Karakyura in South Daghestan with the Kufi inscriptions on several historical
monuments,
in particular, the mazar of al-Hakim at-Tirmidhi, an eminent Sufi, in Termez
th
(9 century) and the burial-vault of Sultan Sanjar in Merv. It is noteworthy
that the facade
th
on the wall in al-jami‘ mosque of Bab al-abwab, rebuilt in the mid-8 century by Maslama
from a Christian church, up to its reconstrcution in 1368/9, carried a Persian legend of all
the 99 “beautiful names” attributed to Allah but underlining only the one, most popular
among the Sufis: [al-]Haqq, i.e., the “Supreme Truth”.
5
Hilyat al-awliya’ wa-tabaqat al-asfiya’ li... Abi Nu‘aym. I–X. Cairo, 1351–1357/1932–1938. X, 146.
Dahabio. Liber classium virorum. Cottingae, 1873. XII, 159–160.
7
Allard Michel. Le problème des attributs divins dans la doctrine d’al-Aš‘arī et de ses premiers grands
disciples. Beyrouth, Imprimere Catholique, 1965. Р. 188–190.
8
Otchet ob uchenom puteshestvii po Kavkazu I yuzhnomu beregu Kaspiyskogo moray. Akademika B.Dorna.
SPb., 1861, 21–22.
6
3
The establishment of Seljuqs’ political rule and their Sunni ideology in the Caucasus
caused profound inner shifts in religious and political orientations of local confessional
societies. A tendency towards consolidation of the Sunnites, primarily,th the Shafi‘ites,
Ash‘arites and Sufis, gained momentum in Darband at the close of the 11 century. It was
predetermined by the changed religious and political situation in the central parts of the
Caliphate. The Seljuqs fostered the institution of a new religious elite for the outlying areas,
who would be loyal to the new political realities. To this end, khanaqahs were set up on the
Pirsagat River in Shirwan, Rutul, and Bab al-abwab. A madrasah was built up in Zahur, the
capital of al-Lakz (South Daghestan), where sacred texts were translated into Lezghian
(lughat al-lakziya). Zakariya al-Qazwini associates its appearance with the endeavors of
Nizam al-Mulk, an oustanding Seljuq wazir. Many theologians, lawyers, and the Sufis from
Bab al-abwab were educated at an-Nizamiya in Baghdad, among them Abu’l-Hasan alBasri, imam of al-jami‘ mosque in Bab al-abwab, and Mammus al-Lakzi, author of the
chronicle Ta’rih al-Bab wa-Sharwan, published by V.Minorsky.9 Mammus al-Lakzi’s
father, Abu-l-Walid al-Hasan al-Balakhi as-Sufi, was even a teacher of al-Hatib alBaghdadi, a celebrated historian from Baghdad. Abu Bakr ad-Darbandi, the author
of
th
Rayhan al-haqa’iq, a major Sufi
encyclopedia
written
in
the
Caucasus
in
the
11
century
th
and preserved in the unique 14 -century manuscript, lived in Baghdad and worked in the
Nizamiya madrasah together with Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. Earlier, Abu Bakr ad-Darbandi
had studied at an-Nizamiya of Amul under the supervision of Abu’l-Mahasin ar-Ru’yani,
qadi’l-qudat of Tabaristan, who was assassinated in 1108 by the Isma‘ilis.
The triumph of Shafi‘ism in the southeastern part of the Northern Caucasus, owing
primarily to the objective alignment of social and political forces in the ‘Abbaside Caliphate
at the decisive stage in Islamization of its outlying domains, predetermined the confessional
belonging of the mountain peoples. Should Nizam al-Mulk have failed in his time to
overcome the resistance of his predecessor al-Kunduri, a powerful proponent of Hanafism,
a confessional situation in the Caucasus could be quite different now: for it is no accident
that Hanafism came to prevail in Mawarannahr and the other territories that had already
passed through the decisive phase of Islamization by the time Nizam al-Mulk launched into
his activities. Under the Seljuqs Sufi communities in the East Caucasus adhered mainly to a
rationalistic trend in Muslim mysticism represented by al-Junayd al-Bagdadi and Abu-lQasim al-Qushayri whose disciples included descendants from Bab al-abwab. The tradition
of al-Malamatiya spread to Bab al-abwab directly from Abu ‘Usman al-Hiri (d. 910/1)
through the local shaikhs, Ibraghim b. Faris, Abu-l-Qasim al-Warraq and Abu Bakr adDarbandi, who passed it down by the rights of ijaza. The extreme Sufi views advocated by
al-Hallaj, as well as the Mu‘tazilite teaching, were subjected to severe criticism. As for the
first organized Sufi fraternity, al-Qadiriya, Abu Bakr ad-Darbandi personally knew ‘Abd
al-Qadir al-Jilani (d. 1166) since the times of their joint learning under Ja‘far as-Sarraj (d.
1106), imam of the famous mosque al-Mu‘allak in Baghdad.
After the Mogols’ invasion, the “internal” Islamization embraced those living in the
plains, at the foothills and, partly, in the mountains. A rapid expansion of the new religion
from the “Islamic centers” located in the valleys along large rivers into the depth of the
9
V. Minorsky. History of Sharvan and Darband in the 10th - 11th Centuries. Cambridge, 1958.
4
mountains proceeded now on its own. The Sunnites continued their advance, predominantly
in the form of Sufism, Ash‘arism, and Shafi‘ism. The latter
turned into anth essential
th
component of Islamization not until the second half of the 11 century – early 12 century,
when it ousted Hanafism and Shi‘ism, which used to exert a profound influence on
confessional processes in the region. As for the Sufis, their decisive role remained intact.
Local Arabic inscriptions describe the construction of some khanaqahs in the region and
the endeavours of numerous Persian dervishes and Turkish baba. Ash-Shanghudi mentions
‘Izz ad-din ad-Darbandi (d. 1206/7), ‘Ali b. Muhammad ad-Darbandi (d. 1336/7) and other
notable Sufis. In 1245/6 Shaikh Da’ud Ba‘am b. Sulayman al-Lakzi from Gdynk had copied
the Tanbih al-ghafilin by Abu’l-Lays as-Samarkandi (d. 955), a Hanafi mystic. Shaikh
Sulayman al-Lakzi, one of the most influential Muslim figures at the khans’ court in the
Golden Horde, was also a mystic and, possibly, son of Da’ud al-Lakzi. In 1342/3, a copy of
ad-Darbandi’s Rayhan al-haqa’iq was also made for practical needs of the Sufi khanaqah
in Majary. In 1444/5, Malik b. Musa ad-Daghistani copied al-Ghazali’s
al-Wajiz.
th
A sharp decline in the Arabic
inscriptions
in
the
late
15
century
and their almost
th
complete missing throughout the 16 century clearly outlined a transition to the new phase
in local development of Islam. It was determined by two major factors interrelated in many
respects: the Shi‘a revival under the Safawids whose religious and political ventures
plunged the region into protracted discord, and the general enlargement of populated areas
through a merger of isolated communities and clans (tukhums) formerly living in small
settlements. It is not yet clear which factor thhad the greatest impact on subsequent
confessional developments. By the end of the 15 century, the scope of Islamization caused
cardinal changes in the structure of local communities: the idea of Islamic unification
fostered the collapse of tribal cults and the traditional tribal interrelationships. The role of
such Sufis as Sultan-baba from Minor Asia, who came to settle down in South Daghestan,
remains extremely important in this process. Sultan-baba’s mausoleum in Mishlesh attracts
many pilgrims up to date.
Two influential brotherhoods came into play in the eastern parts of Transcaucasia.
One of them, as-Safawiya, initially Sufi and Sunni, within the 15th century was converted
into Shi‘ism under the influence of Zaydites, Ibadites and Imamites, who had strong
positions in the southern and southwestern Caspian region, and owing to its claims for the
‘Alid origins. The other one, an-Ni‘matullahiya, underwent exactly the same transformation
owing to the Safawids’ increasing influence. Zayn al-‘Abidin Shirvani Ni‘matullahi, a
member of this brotherhood, wrote the Bustan as-siyaha, a historico-geographical volume,
MS of which has not been published yet. In contrast to Shirvanshahs and rulers of the
Turkish Qara-Qoyunlu state, the Safawids encroached on cults and beliefs, turning the
region into a firing ground for their rise. As a head of the “fighters for the faith”, Shaikh
Junayd waged several battles with local peoples before he was killed in Daghestan. His
personality gave rise to numerous legends and tales in the Northern Caucasus, where he is
still remembered under the name of “Juney” or “Juhey”. The latter’s son and father of great
shah Isma‘il, Shaikh Haydar, was also killed in Daghestan. The Junayd Mausoleum near the
Lezghin village of Khazry bears a close resemblance in its architectural design to the Sufi
5
th
14 -century mausoleums erected near Essentuki and in Majary. It was exactly during this
period that the Sufi khanaqah founded by the Iraqi Shaikh was functioning in Majary.
Under the Safawid dynasty Shi‘ism came to predominate in Azerbaijan, and not
only among its Turkic-speaking population. As a result, Sufi brotherhoods in Transcaucasia
had lost their influence and almost disappeared. In the Northern Caucasus, however, the
Sufis and Shafi‘ites managed to withstand the Shi‘ites’ onset. In the 17th –18th centuries
Islam spread to Chechnya, Ingushetia, Balkaria and Karachai, also embracing certain social
upper strata in Ossetia. Islamization had two footholds there, one in Daghestan and the
other, in Kabarda. The cult of “saints” in the region still retains clear-cut signs of the Sufi
rituals. In Chechnya, several Sufith shaikhs intensified their activities, in particular, Shaikh
Mut in the first half of the 17 century. In 1650, Sha‘ban al-Chiraghi had copied an
anonymous Sufi treatise for his community in Daghestan. Islamization in the mountains
th
went on within the renovation of Sufism. This process that ended only in the 19 century
dates back to the events in 1785–1791, associated in Chechnya with the name of Shaikh
Mansur Ushurma.
The largest movement of murids, headed by Daghestani imams Ghazi-Muhammad,
Hamzat-bek and Shamil, kindred in spirit and sharing the views and ideas propounded by
Shaikh Mansur, emerged in direct response to the entry of local communities into the
Russian Empire and radical changes in their traditional ways of life. It all started when the
Sufi shaikh Muhammad al-Yaraghi called for ghazawat. During the Caucasian War imam
Shamil set up an imamate at the junction of Daghestan and Chechnya, governed by the
Islamic administration according to the Shari‘a law. In the wake of the war, many treatises
were written in the region, enriching the spiritual thlegacy of local schools of the
Naqshbandiya and Qadiriya tariqas. Up to the early 20 century, these treatises retained
many Sufi qualities, including their encyclopedic coverage. The idea of jihad was adapted
to the changed social and political conditions. Moreover, it is during this period that the
type of religious practice, commonly defined now as traditional, took shape in the
mountains of Daghestan.
Soviet power was established in the Northern Caucasus in stiff opposition to
traditional Sufi structures. Many researchers make an absolute of this antagonism, reducing
an extremely intricate spectrum of relations between the Soviet government and local
religious communities to opposition of “Sufis and commissars”.10 During the Civil War in
Russia, new theocratic entities reappeared on the political map of the Northern Caucasus:
an imamate headed by Najm ad-din al-Gutsi (Najmutdin Gotsinsky) in the Avar villages of
Daghestan, an emirate of Dargwa Shaikh Uzun-hajji with its centre in the Chechen village
of Vedeno, etc.
10
A. Bennigsen and Ch. Lemercier-Quelquejay. Islam in the Soviet Union. Leningrad, 1967; A. Bennigsen
and E. Wimbush. Mystics and Commissars. Sufism in the Soviet Union. California, Berkeley-Los Angeles,
1985; A. Bennigsen and Ch. Lemercier-Quelquejay. Le soufi et le commissaire. Les confreries musulmanes en
URSS. Paris, 1986.
6
The present situation with Sufi brotherhoods in the Caucasus
The latest research findings provide detailed information about organization forms,
ideology, spiritual values and political orientations of modern Sufi structures in the
Caucasus. Up to the mid-1990s, it was extremely difficult to conduct these studies because
Sufi communities in the mountains were too closed to outsiders11. Following the Soviet
Union’s collapse, the number of Sufi adherents was significantly growing, which markedly
increased their influence on political processes in the North Caucasus; Sufi brotherhoods
became more accessible; new communities were formed, expanding the social basis of
Sufism and involving the ethnic groups previously staying indifferent to it, such as the
Darghinians and Lezghins; inner contradictions and disputes between Sufi shaikhs on
various problems often escaped the confines of Sufi fraternities, being brought to the
public’s notice. With a view to regulating confessional relations, special committees were
set up under the local governments to survey and analyze the current religious processes.
However, the main problem is that the statistical methods of local government experts,
devoid of any valid criteria, often disregard the existing differences between the murids of a
shaikh, his supporters, and those believers who regard him as their preceptor.
The regional geography of Sufism in the Caucasus is scrappy in character. In Shi‘itic
Azerbaijan, where Sufism is practised only by few ethnic minorities, its influence has a
marginal effect. In Adzharia, a Muslim republic within Georgia, where the Turkish
traditions were nullified during the Soviet years, its influence is also negligible. It is a
different matter with Daghestan, where the Islamic idea actually inspires local societies
owing to their ethnical diversity either in the form of “folk Islam”, i.e., Sufism, or various
fundamentalist teachings preached by the Arab missionaries and certain graduates of
foreign Muslim schools. The Islamic idea is also much favored in Chechnya, Ingushetia,
and Karachai-Circassia but less popular in the other Caucasian republics.
Sufi communities in the Northern Caucasus started to exert influence not only on
the official Muslim religious authorities but also on the local political life by taking part in
the elections to legislative and executive bodies. Their influence particularly intensified
after a total fight was provoked against the so-called “Wahhabits” in the course of which
the political establishment in Daghestan entered into a private alliance with the Sufi elite. It
is no secret that the Muslim Religious Board for Daghestan (DMRB) has been under the
spiritual control of Said-afandi Chirkeevsky12 (born in 1937 in the village of Chirkey,
Buynaksk district), the most notable Sufi shaikh in the Caucasus, who also wields strong
influence on a major Muslim web-site in Russia, www.Islam.ru. One of his murids, Shaikh
Arsanali Gamzatov, is a head of the ‘Ulama’ Council at the DMRB, concurrently acting as
rector of the Saypullah-qadi Islamic University in Buynaksk.
Official statistics show widely varying numbers of practising Sufis in the Caucasus.
According to the Nur al-islam newspaper, the number of murids in the Shadhili
communities reaches 200 thousand in Daghestan alone.13 The Shadhili tradition is not so
11
Alikberov A.K. Sovremennoye musul’manskoye vozrozhdeniye na Kavkaze: osobbenosti, tendentcii i
perspektivy. – Islam I problemy mezhtcivilizatcionnykh vzaimodeystviy. Мoskva, 1994, pp. 21–32.
12
13
Nurul Islam, No. 3, March 1997.
7
widespread as an-Naqshbandiya. As as-Salam newspaper reports, Said-afandi Chirkeevsky
has over 200 000 murids adhering to the Naqshbandi tradition. Apparently, these highly
overestimated figures are indicative of Sufi shaikhs’ political and religious influence, rather
than the number of their murids. According to some mass media, by the early 1990s, there
were 20 local communities of the Naqshbandiya tariqa, commonly known as wirds (alawrad), whereas now their number allegedly exceeds 40. By the local religious tradition, a
wird implies a group of murids engaged in certain Sufi practices established by ustaz. To
found a wird, a shaikh has to get ijaza (permission) from another shaikh entitled to a
transfer of ijaza: this Sufi practice is strictly observed. In the Northern Caucasus, Sufism
extends in three chief tariqa lines: an-Naqshbandiya, al-Qadiriya, and ash-Shadhiliya. The
first Naqshbandi shaikh in Daghestan and Chechnya was Muhammad al-Yaraghi, a
Lezghin; he received ijaza from Shaikh Khas-Muhammad ash-Shirvani and passed it down
to a Lak, Jamal ad-din al-Ghazighumuqi from Kumukh (the latter’s son ‘Abd ar-Rahman
was married to Imam Shamil’s daughter), and to an Avar, ‘Abd ar-Rahman as-Sughuri from
Sogratl, where al-Yaraghi lived in his last years. Two shaikhs al-Kikuni, as well as other
local shaikhs, are regarded as disciples of as-Sughuri. The opponents of these shaikhs’
successors claim that as-Sughuri failed to transfer his ijaza to other shaikhs, therefore, his
death has broken off as-Sughuriya line of the Naqshbandi tradition. According to their
opponents, the shaikhs whose silsila includes as-Sughuri’s name are “false” (mutashayikh).
At any rate, the number of more or less influential wirds currently existing in Daghestan
does not exceed a dozen.
The most powerful Chechen wirds go back to Shaikh Kunta-hajji, who came from
Mecca after Imam Shamil’s capture in 1859, upon receiving there, according to the local
tradition, ijaza from three al-Qadiriya shaikhs. Wis-hajji was the last one who had inherited
ijaza from the disciples of Kunta-hajji. The followers of Wis-hajji are called “the whitehapped” because of identical white skull-caps worn by the murids. Wis-hajji died in
Kazakhstan, where the Chechens were deported to, along with some other nationals of the
Northern Caucasus during the Second World War. His death has broken the lineage of alQadiriya traced back to Kunta-hajji. It appears, that today in Chechnya not a single shaikh is
entitled to pass down ijaza, but some religious authorities still maintain the traditions of
Kunta-hajji and Wis-hajji. Although there are no more then five or six al-Qadiriya wirds
there, they have complete authority over the Chechen society.
The Naqshbandi tradition penetrated into Chechnya through Tashu-hajji
Sayasansky, Doku-shaikh, and Deni-shaikh Arsanov (killed in 1917). The followers of
Deni-shaikh still live in the Nadterechny district of Chechnya, where General Dudaev met
the fiercest opposition. In the mountains of Chechnya, bordering on Daghestan, there are
still some communities of those adhering to the Naqshbandiya wird of Uzun-hajji, a
Darghin shaikh, who fought against the Soviets during the Civil War in Russia.
The same as in Chechnya, the Qadiriya tariqa is more influential than anNaqhshibandiya in Ingushetia. Most Ingushes cherishing a family tradition rank themselves
among the followers of Chechen shaikh Kunta-hajji, rather than just as adherents of alQadiriya. There are still many supporters of al-Qadirya shaikh Bammat-Ghirei-hajji in both
Chechnya and Ingushetia. The only “pure Ingush” wird goes back to Batal-hajji Belharoev,
8
whose devotees live in the village of Surkhakhi near Nazran. This shaikh set up a wird
embracing only the Orstkhoys, an Ingush subethnic group, which has almost dispersed by
now among the Wainakhs (both Chechens and Ingushes). This community remains closed,
but its members have already lost their sectarian ways, keeping now not so alienated and
resentful of outsiders as previously. The Naqshbandi tradition in Chechnya is mostly
maintained by the followers of Deni-shaikh.
The Shadhili tradition existing in Daghestan go back to the Naqshbandi shaikh
Saypulla-qadi Bashlarov, who was earlier exiled to Bashkiria where he received ijaza.
According to the DMRB, the republic has four “true” Shadhili shaikhs: Said-afandi
mentioned above, Batrudin Botlikhsky (Kadyrov), born in 1919 in Botlikh, Arslanali
Paraulsky (Gamzatov), born in 1954 in Buynaksk, and Abdulwahid Kakamakhinsky. These
persons, the same as their predecessor, Saypulla-qadi, are acting as shaikhs of not one but
two tariqas at once – an-Naqshanbandiya and ash-Shadhiliya.
In addition to these four shaikhs, the most influential Sufi authorities in Daghestan
include the Naqshbandi shaikhs, such as Tajudin Khasavyurtovsky (Ramazanov), born in
1919 in the town of Khasavyurt, Magomed-Mukhtar Babbatov Paraulsky, born in 1954 in
the settlement of Kyakhulay, and Serazhutdin Israfilov, born in 1954 in the village of
Khurik, Tabassaran district. Quite recently the right to have their own murids was granted
to Ilyas Ilyasov (born in 1947), imam of the Safar mosque in Makhachkala, and Magomed
Ghaji Gajiev (born in 1954), prorector of the Imam ash-Shafi‘i Islamic University in
Makhachkala.
According to the Committee for Religious Affairs functioning under the government
of Daghestan, Shaikh Said-afandi Chirkeevsky has about 6000 murids, who live in the
Buynaksk, Kizilyurt, Khasavyurt, Shamil, Gergebil, Gumbet, and Kazbek districts, i.e.,
almost in all the territories inhabited by the Avars.14 Moreover, his murids and relatives
work at the DMRB. The shaikh brought his influence to bear on al-Muslimat society
founded by the schoolgirls, graduates of the Islamic madrasah in Makhachkala. This
society has its own column in as-Salam newspaper. Its editor, a supporter of Said-afandi,
and the head of al-Muslimat both belong to the ethnic group of Avars, the same as the
shaikh himself. According to some sources, Said-afandi’s murids include Tatars and some
newly-converted Russians; one of the latter is working as a librarian at the DMRB, while
Abdalla (formerly, Sergei) heads the “Society of New Muslims” embracing two or three
dozens of the Muslim neophytes from among the local Christians. These facts are widely
used as an ideological counterbalance to the spread of Christianity among the Tabassarans,
who had adopted Islam as early as in the Middle Ages.
Three groups can be clearly identified among the followers of local Sufi shaikhs: (1)
staunch adherents, forming the backbone of a tariqa, ready to carry out any command of
their shaikh and, if necessary, take up arms (still kept by the Sufi militants); (2) conscious
supporters who have chosen only one shaikh as their preceptor and follow his spiritual path;
and (3) the wavering ones. Therefore, statistics for the followers of any shaikh are tentative
14
K. Khanbabaev. Misticheskiye ordena i ikh lidery okazyvayut ser’eznoye vliyaniye na politicheskuyu zhizn’
Dagestana (Mystic Orders and Their Leaders Exert Strong Influence of the Political Life in Daghestan). –
Rossiya I musul’manskiy mir. Moscow, 2001, No. 8 (110), p. 60.
9
in many respects. According to the same source, Shaikh Ramazanov has 3000 followers
living in the town of Khasavyurt, and in the Khasavyurt, Tcumada, Kizilyurt, Buynaksk and
Akhvakh districts, mainly Avars; Shaikh Babbatov, 3000 followers, mainly Kumyks and
Darghins, living in Makhachkala, Kaspiysk, Kyakhulay, Tarki and Alburkent; Shaikh
Israfilov, another 3000 supporters living in Tabassaran, Khiv, Suleyman-Stalsky and Akhty
districts, i.e. Lezghins and Tabassarans; Shaikh Kadyrov, 1000 followers living in Botlikh,
Akhvakh and Khunzakh districts; Shaikh Ghamzatov, 1000 followers living in the town of
Buynaksk, and also in Buynaksk and Karabudakhkent districts, i.e. mainly Kumyks and
Avars; Shaikh Ghadjiev, 1000 followers living in Karabudakhkent, Buynaksk, Khasavyurt
and Babayurt districts, and also in Makhachkala, Tarki and Khushet; Shaikh Ilyasov, about
one hundred followers living in Alburkent, Leninkent, and also in Karabudakhkent
district.15
Sufi communities in the Caucasus are characterized by their mono-ethnic
composition largely preconditioned by their isolation and secluded life during the Soviet
period. Therefore, these fraternities still pull their ranks from among the ethnic group
predominating in a given locality. For example, the Avars belong mainly to the
Naqshbandiya wirds, while al-Qadiriya tariqa encompasses the Chechens, and the ashShadhiliya incorporates the Avars and, to a lesser extent, the Kumyks.
The degree of involvement and religiosity of ethnic groups is varying. The Darghins
remain traditionally indifferent to Sufism; the “Qadar zone” in Daghestan which declared
its legal independence in 1998, when the inhabitants of Karamakhi announced that their
village constituted “an independent Islamic territory”, is located not only in the Darghins’
place of residence, but also involved one of their subethnic groups. Backed up by different
Daghestani shaikhs, the wirds appearing in this territory are designed to involve the
Darghins into the system of Sufi interrelationships. With this purpose in view, ijaza has
been handed down to some Darghin shaikhs. This process is controlled by the DMRB and
through it, by Said-afandi. thReligiosity
of the Lezghins, Laks and Tabassarans, who had
th
adopted Islam back in the 7 –13 centuries, is still extremely low, in contrast to the other
mountain peoples who were generally converted into Islam in the 17th–19th centuries. The
mosques destroyed in the first Soviet years have not been yet reopened in the most of
populated areas. The leaders of the Sadwal Lezghin movement once even proposed to
return to Christianity in order to stop the assimilation processes in North Azerbaijan. To
keep these peoples bound to traditional Islam, the Sufi elite encourages a transfer of ijaza to
their representatives, even if the latter may be hardly prepared and influential enough to
meet the tasks assigned to them. Take, for instance, the Naqshbandi shaikh Tazhudin
Khuriksky (Israfilov) who has recently appeared on the scene in South Daghestan.
Since the early 1990s representatives of the most diverse Muslim religious schools
and brotherhoods came into play in the Northern Caucasus. Of the greatest interest among
them is the Naqshbandi–Haqqani tariqa, which was set up in the mid-1970s and named
after its founding shaikh Muhammad-Nazim ‘Akil al-Haqqani an-Naqshbandi (born in
15
Ibidem.
10
1922)16. In the summer of 1997 Shaikh Nazim arrived in Daghestan; the local press hailed
him as «the supreme murshid of the Naqshbandiya tariqa». He set up divisions of his
brotherhood in Daghestan and Karachai, which are organized as study groups of persons
sharing the shaikh’s religious views. The reports about achievements of this fraternity in the
region are highly overestimated: e.g., after the opening of its divisions in California and
Michigan their spokesmen announced that its ranks included now 10 000 neophytes in the
USA17. After taking some organizational actions in the Caucasus, a considerable influx of
his followers was also expected here but, in actual fact, the number of its active members in
Daghestan turned out to be as small as in Karachai. Nevertheless, under certain conditions,
the Naqshbandi–Haqqani tariqa has far more chances than any other fraternity to assert
itself as an influential international Muslim movement enrolling representatives of the
diverse ethnic groups. Such possibility is due to the coincidence of several major factors, in
particular: (1) Shaikh Nazim is a devoted disciple of two shaikhs descending from
Daghestan. One of them, ‘Abd Allah ad-Daghistani (d. 1973) handed down a baraka to
Shaikh Nazim, who had spent much time in Damascus as a member of his wird. (2) AlHaqqani does not only follow the Naqshbandi line, which is quite popular in the Northern
Caucasus but also tries to combine the Sufi teaching with the prophetic tradition (at-Tariqat
al-Muhammadiya), which gained currency in Daghestan, especially during the times of
Shamil18; and (3) Being international in character, al-Haqqaniya showed its worth as a force
capable of unifying peoples in the context of ethno-cultural and confessional differences in
the North-Caucasian republics. It endeavors not only to unite the Sunnites but also reconcile
the Shi‘ites with them, using the idea of Mahdi and adapting its teaching to ecumenical
trends evoking a keen response in local communities. It is no accident that Shaikh
Karachaev, the influential rector of the Imam al-Shafi’i Islamic University in Makhachkala,
visited Shaikh Nazim in Cyprus last year to receive ijaza from him. In this way alHakkaniya tariqa gained a reliable mainstay for the further spread of its ideas in the
influential Kumyk clan of Karachaevs who control the largest Muslim educational centre in
the Northern Caucasus.
There are some apparent contradictions between Sufi communities in the Northern
Caucasus19. To my mind, main reasons of these contradictions lie in ethnic and clannish
opposition, narrow local interests, intolerance against lack of conformity, intense rivalry
and covert struggle of the leaders for influence and the for positions of imam or mufti,
particularly in towns; political dissention, and a difference in views about the future of
Islam in the region. An entry of the Federal armed forces into Chechnya has revealed
political orientations of local Muslim leaders. Most of the Sufi shaikhs in Daghestan lead
16
For his new ideas, see: Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani an-Naqshbandi. Mystical Secrets of
the Last Days. Haqqani Islamic Trust for New Muslims. Los Altos, California, 1994.
17
David Damrel. A Sufi Apocalypse. – ISIM Newsletter. 2001. № 4. Р. 4.
18
Copies of at-Tariqat al-Muhammadiya by Muhammad al-Barkali is still kept in Daghestan Academic
collection. For example, see MS № 1071 from Institute of History, Archealogy and Ethnography,
Makhachkala.
19
As to the basic contradictions between Sufis, some religious parties, as-Salafiya communities in the
region, see: Kudryavtcev A.V. Islam na Severnom Kavkaze. – Postsovetskoye musul’manskoye prostranstvo.
Religiya, politica, ideologiya. Moskva, 1994, pp. 154–175; Makarov D.V. Ofitcial’niy i neofitcial’niy islam v
Dagestane. Moskva, 2000.
11
by Said-afandi remained loyal to local government authorities, but Shaikh Babbatov
Paraulsky openly called for a jihad and even sent his murids to fight against “the infidels”.
The connection between classical and modern Sufism
A major source of classical Sufism created in the Caucasus is Abu Bakr adDarbandi’s Rayhan al-haqa’iq. The publication of its unique MS, so far unknown to a wide
range of researchers or to the Sufis in the Caucasus, is currently in preparation. It made a
basis of my monograph devoted to the period of classical Islam in the Caucasus.13 The case
in point is the encyclopedia of Sufism, which in many respects maintains and enriches the
traditions systematized by Abu’l-Qasim al-Qushairi in his ar-Risala fi ‘ilm at-tasawwuf.
However, after the protracted Sawafid expansion, the local traditions of Sufism were
severed and even the memory of them was erased from the peoples’ minds. Among other
things, this fact is evident from Hasan Alkadari’s Asar-i Daghistan, where he complained
that previously there were neither scholars nor treatises written on religious subjects in
Daghestan.
The Sufi tariqas in the Caucasus appeal, first and foremost, to the authority of
shaikhs who lived in the late 19th – early 20th centuries, followed by the first Daghestani
Naqshbandiya shaikhs (al-Yaraghi and al-Ghazigumuqi), and then to their spiritual
forerunners, up to Baha’ ad-din an-Naqsh(a)bandi. As to classical Sufi texts, top priority in
the local madrasahs is given to the works of al-Ghazali. According to A.R. Shikhsaidov
and A.B. Khalidov, al-Ghazali’s writings, primarily, his Ihia’ ‘ulum ad-din, were widely
popular in Daghestan20. It is encountered here everywhere in numerous manuscripts dating
back to the 12th – 19th centuries, many of which were copied by local warraqs and qatibs. In
his report delivered at the annual RAS scientific session in Saint Petersburg in 1996,
P.A.Gryaznevich stressed that al-Ghazali’s works are highly popular in Yemen, too. He
associated this fact with a clash of ideas between the Sunnites and the Zaydi Shi‘ites. A
similar situation prevails in Daghestan, where the Sunnites, primarily the Sufis, were
traditionally in opposition to the Imami Shi’ites14.
13
A.K.Alikberov. The Period of Classical Islam in the Caucasus. Abu Bakr ad-Darbandi and His Sufi
Encyclopedia “Rayhan al-haqa’iq”. Moscow, 2002.
20
Shikhsaidov A.R., Khalidov A.B. Manuscripts of al-Ghazali’s works in Daghestan. – MO. Vol. 3. No. 2.
June, 1997. St.Petersburg –Helsinki. P. 18–30.
14
Their struggle has often passed from the domain of theoretical debates to taking practical actions: during
the years of Perestroika, the Shi‘itic community of Derbent succeeded in bringing the historical al-djami‘
mosque in the town back under its control.