He was born to Sultan Ahmad Khan of Elisu and his second wife Tuti Bike, daughter of Surkhay II of Gazikumukh[6] c. 1809.

His father was serving as a commander of local regiment under Paskevich, but soon fell ill in Tbilisi and returned to Elisu where he died on 21 January [O.S.

Succession crisis ensued afterwards, with Russian authorities not preferring the eldest son Imran bek, whose mother Shamay was his father's third cousin as well.

[8] Second and third sons of deceased sultan were born from Pari Jahan Khanum, a daughter of Bala Agha beg, a close associate of Abbas Mirza who was arrested by Yermolov as a rebel and kept in Metekhi prison.

In addition to that, Musa was also married to a daughter of Murtuzali (d. 1815), another son of Surkhay II, as well as half-brother of Aslan, who was killed by his father.

His elder half-brother Muhammad beg assaulted Daniyal with a dagger in December 1832 in the village of Baylar, but was stopped by the blow of the latter's nuker.

[10] Same year Daniyal was granted the rank of major by Russian authorities for resisting Hamzat Bek's invasion of Jar.

General Schwarz's continuation of curbing his power finally led Russian authorities to accuse Daniyal of swearing allegiance to his old foe Imam Shamil on 16 June 1844[14] and summoned him to Zaqatala, wanting arrest.

The sultan managed to escape to the mountains, after which he became Shamil's naib in the Avar village of Irib [av] (in modern Charodinsky district).

[16] According to Karl Heinrich Koch, up to this point, he was the most sincere Russian vassal, protected the country against the raids of Tushetians and Lezgis faithfully.

In early October, Daniyal, Kebet Muhammad and Hadji Murad settled down at Miskindzha with 7,000 fighters in order to prevent Argutinsky from coming to the aid of the defenders of the Akhty, who were still holding out.

Daniyal joined Shamil's delegation in March 1853 to be sent to Istanbul in order to convince the Ottoman Empire to start the Crimean War as early as possible.

[21] Danyal captured Zakatala in October, of the 5,000 Russian soldiers present there, 3,000 were wounded or died, and the rest escaped, realizing that they could not resist after fighting for 36 hours.

Subsequently, when Daniyal turned towards Shirvan and captured Signakh and Sheki in this region, General Grigol Orbeliani asked some of the Russian soldiers in Crimea, Abkhazia and Anapa to reinforce the Tbilisi front.

In April 1859, the Russian troops captured the capital of Shamil - the village of Vedeno, after which the last pockets of resistance on the territory of Chechnya were suppressed.