Imam Shamil

Imam Shamil (26 June 1797 – 4 February 1871) was the third Imam of the Caucasian Imamate (1840–1859), and a Muslim sheikh of the Naqshbandi Sufi order. Nicknamed the "Caucasian Eagle", he was the political, military, and spiritual leader of North Caucasian resistance to Imperial Russia in the 1800s; his rule was recognized in Dagestan and Chechnya, and indirectly through his representative Muhammad Amin, in Circassia. He is considered a hero by peoples of the Northern Caucasus.