Ghāzī Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿil al-Gimrāwī al-Dāghistānī[1] (Arabic: غازي محمد ابن إسماعيل الڮمراوي الداغستاني; Avar: ГъазимухIамад; c. 1790 – 29 October [O.S.

After studying under several notable teachers, Ghazi Muhammad joined the Naqshbandi Sufi order and became a reputed Islamic scholar.

He promoted adherence to sharia over customary law (adat), attracting many followers but often clashing with local secular and religious leaders.

After a number of military setbacks in late 1831 and 1832, Ghazi Muhammad lost most of his support and was killed in a last stand against a Russian force in his native village of Gimry in October 1832.

The imamate founded by Ghazi Muhammad continued fighting against the Russians and their local allies under his successors until its final defeat in 1859.

[10] Modern scholars believe that Ghazi Muhammad came from an influential family of uzdens (free peasants) from the Gidatl confederation whose ancestors had lived in the village of Urada in the mid-18th century.

"[13] The historian M. G. Nurmagomedov believes Ghazi Muhammad to have been descended from the well-known Dagestani Islamic scholar Ibrahim Hajji al-Uradi.

After completing his initial training, he visited other Dagestani centers of learning and studied under various respected ulama, such as Sayyid al-Harakani, the chief qadi (village judge) of Harakan.

Al-Yaraghi gave Ghazi Muhammad his daughter in marriage and, according to some sources, granted him the title of sheikh and permission (ijaza) to initiate new members into the order.

[18] Modern historians disagree on whether Ghazi Muhammad was considered a Sufi sheikh in his lifetime or just a disciple of Jamal al-Din and al-Yaraghi.

[19] According to Abd al-Rahman al-Ghazi-Ghumuqi (son of Jamal al-Din), Ghazi Muhammad "loved to read books about the sharia" (Islamic law) and had a good knowledge of them.

Sometime in the mid-1820s, he began calling on Muslims to adopt sharia as the sole legal system and abandon the use of customary law (adat or urf).

[22] He was drawing from an older tradition of criticism of customary law within the Dagestani context going back to Muhammad ibn Musa al-Quduqi (died c. 1717).

He demanded that Muslims show a basic level of Islamic knowledge, namely the meaning of the shahada (profession of faith) and the "467 great sins."

Ghazi Muhammad's condemnation of customary law brought him into conflict with local elites, the village elders and mullahs, since adat was the basis of their authority.

Ghazi Muhammad then sent messages to the people and rulers of Dagestan exhorting them to closely adhere to sharia and threatening to use force against those who would not comply.

He created a treasury (bayt al-mal), which regularly received zakat and sadaqa (almsgiving) payments and confiscated property of the movement's enemies and the local nobility; later it was also supplemented with military booty.

"[32] In February 1830, Ghazi Muhammad entered into negotiations with Pakhu Bike, the regent of the Avar Khanate for her underage son.

[29] After this defeat, Ghazi Muhammad lost many of his supporters and went to live in isolation, praying and fasting in a hut on the outskirts of his home village.

In late February-early March, a powerful earthquake occurred in Dagestan, which Ghazi Muhammad presented as divine punishment for the people's rejection of sharia.

[34] The Russian capture of Jar-Balakan (south of Dagestan, in modern-day Azerbaijan) in March 1830 provoked many to flock to Ghazi Muhammad's banner.

[36] In March 1831, Ghazi Muhammad's forces took up positions in Aghach Qala, from which they could simultaneously defend Hindal and threaten the Russians in the nearby lowlands.

In response, Ghazi Muhammad advanced on Vnezapnaya and on August 18 he raided near Amir-Hadji-Yurt on the Terek River, drew 500 Cossacks into a forest and killed or wounded 155 of them.

[41] In the week following the battle, the Russian artillery officer Pavel Bestuzhev-Ryumin made a drawing of a half-naked corpse thought to be that of Ghazi Muhammad.

[49] In it, Ghazi Muhammad asserts that those who follow adat instead of sharia are unbelievers and alludes to his debates with other villagers on this issue, probably in his native Gimry.

[19] According to Hasanilaw, Ghazi Muhammad married for the first time when he was fifteen years old, to a girl from Gimry named Shabay, but the marriage soon ended in divorce.