Initially organized by Shamil as a combat unit, the border troops, in peacetime, performed the functions of the police, and were also the personal guards of the imam.

Murtazeki (murtizikatun) — translated from Arabic «chosen, secured, hired warrior.» In addition to this form, there are variants of «murtazikyats, murtazigates, murtazigaters».

[1] The emergence of a special guard of murtazeks before Shamil took office as imam in 1834 is evidenced by the testimony of Muhammad Tahir al-Qarahi, contained in his chronicles.

Already in 1833, the chronicler reports, a messenger came to Shamil from Hamzat with an order that he and the murtazeks of that district should oppose the village of Mushuli and break the disobedience of the inhabitants… The fact that during the period of the Hamzat Bek imamate there were detachments of mercenary soldiers-murtazeks, and some of them were commanded by Shamil, is evidenced by the first mention of murtazeks.

Murtazeks were freed from household chores and were supported by their communities; they were chosen from every 10 yards (families), according to other sources, they were kept at the expense of those auls where they were sent.

According to Major General Kluka von Klugenau, the naib himself commands the murtazikats and elects only hundreds of commanders … The difference in these explanations may have come from the fact that the order of leadership shown by сolonel Freytag exists in Chechnya, and the latter in Dagestan[5] According to the military historian N. F. Dubrovina: To help the naibs, only in Chechnya alone was a special estate of murtazeks established.

[6] The number of murtazeks, according to Russian intelligence, at the end of the winter of 1843, from the villages of Assa to Sugratal, was up to 4 thousand people; in Chechnya there were more than 1,000 of them.

[7] As N. F. Dubrovin writes (according to Major General D. V. Passek), it was easier to deal with a gathering of several thousand free militia, at least under the leadership of the bravest highlanders, than to attack several hundred murids surrounding the leader and the forces of their chosen position.