Religious Council of the Caucasus

[2] In 1872, Alexander II of Russia created the Transcaucasian Muslim spiritual administrations of Sunni and Shia schools.

[3] Each of these two subdivision located in Tbilisi consisted of a chairman (mufti or shaykh al-Islam), 3 members of the board, a secretary with 2 assistants, a translator, a scribe and an archivist.

[citation needed] The spiritual jurisdiction of these institutions extended to the Muslims of Baku, Elisavetpol, Tiflis and Erivan governorates.

[4] Thus, at the beginning of 1918 the Administration was transferred to Baku, and akhund Agha-Alizadeh became the only candidate for the highest clerical rank, Sheikhul-Islam.

[5] At the congress, Agha-Alizadeh was re-elected chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Transcaucasia and again received the religious rank of shaykh al-Islam.

[6] After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it received its modern name — "Religious Council of the Caucasus" (Caucasian Muslims Board).

The period of their tenure is given in the following table:[11] 1944–1954 The first mufti of Muslims belonging to the Sunni Islamic school in the Caucasus was established in 1832.

Shaykh al-Islam Haji Allahshukur Pashazadeh at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin . January 10, 2001
Meeting of Richard Morningstar and Haji Salman Musayev during the Iftar table opened by the US Embassy . July 10, 2014 [ 12 ]