[4] In 1916 he participated in a Lausanne meeting billed as the "Congress of the 26 Oppressed Peoples of Russia", organised by the Union des Nationalités of Juozas Gabrys.

[3] He married the daughter of Mehmet Fazıl Paşa [ru], another Dagestani émigré, but the two maintained a strictly formal relationship[6] and never bore any children.

On 11 May 1920 a group of anti-communist North Caucasian political figures gathered in the village of Vedeno, where they selected Muhammad Kamil as leader of their uprising.

[3] Cem Kumuk, a Turkish historian, disputes the notion of Muhammad Kamil's illness, noting that he lived another 31 years, and suggests that his refusal may have been for other reasons.

Despite his demurral, however, his appointment as leader continued, and he was formally inaugurated as a monarch during a meeting with imam Najmuddin of Gotzo in the village of Gidatli [ru].

[3] Kumuk states that Shamil's role in the uprising was likely intended to be to incur support from the Allied Powers and the Ottoman Empire's community of North Caucasians.

He also provided significant moral support to the rebels as the grandson of Imam Shamil,[9] and, despite his official status as the uprising's monarch,[10] held little actual power.

Karabekir claimed that Shamil was an agent of the Allies and that he would be handed over to the Bolsheviks as soon as he was captured; in fact, it is unclear if he was ever subject to prosecution in Turkey for his role in the uprising, though it is likely that any litigation which may have existed was covered up by his cousin, sports executive Mehmet Şamil Bey.

After spending two months in Erzurum doing nothing, Shamil began to write to Karabekir threatening to support the Allies if he was not allowed to launch his uprising.

Rather than caving to his threats, Karabekir introduced him to Bekir Sami Kunduh, then based in Paris, so that he could get acquainted with both Caucasian emigrant circles and the French political scene.

Much of the information Shamil provided to the Polish government at this time was outdated and ordinary, but he relayed it to colonel Tadeusz Schaetzel, Poland's military attaché, as if it was of critical importance.

In a particularly notable instance, a 21 April 1927 letter by Shamil to Schaetzel informed him of the creation of the Circassian Cavalry Detachment in French Syria.

In this capacity he worked to further anti-communism in the Islamic world, and played a significant role in encouraging the governments of Muslim states to take decisions that opposed the Soviet Union.

[3] When the Battle of the Caucasus began German forces sought to use propaganda and the existence of the North Caucasian and Mountain-Caucasian legions in an effort to sway Dagestan's population to their side, but were met with unexpected resistance.

Along with Pshemakho Kotsev, the Mountainous Republic's former Prime Minister, he founded the North Caucasians' Cultural and Mutual Aid Society in 1951.

He was buried alongside his family and Jamal ad-Din Kazimukhsky [ru] in the Caucasian Mujahid Shamil section of the Karacaahmet Cemetery.