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Najmuddin of Gotzo
Najmuddin of Gotzo (1859 – October 1925) was a North Caucasian religious, military, and political leader who led multiple uprisings against the Bolsheviks during and after the Russian Civil War. A poet and teacher of Arabic prior to the Russian Revolution, Najmuddin first served as Mufti of the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus.
Najmuddin was born into a family of landowning nobles who had defected from the Caucasian Imamate of Imam Shamil. Prior to the Russian Revolution, he was part of both the ulama and the Russian government, and he was briefly a bureaucrat for the Russian Provisional Government following the February Revolution. Najmuddin led a series of rebellions in both Dagestan and Chechnya against Russian authorities, seeking to establish an independent Islamic theocracy in the North Caucasus under his leadership. Following the failure of a 1924–1925 insurgency in Chechnya led by Najmuddin, he was captured by the Red Army in September 1925. He was then executed by the Soviet government.
Najmuddin was born in 1859 in the village of Gotsob, in the Russian Empire's Dagestan Oblast to an aristocratic family. His Avar father, Muhammad Donogo, had been a naib under Imam Shamil that defected to the Russian government, becoming a high-ranking military officer and significant landowner as a result of his defection. Najmuddin's mother was an ethnic Kumyk from the village of Nizhny Dzhengutay. Najmuddin's elder brother, Abdulatip, was a teacher of Islamic theology. Najmuddin followed his brother into a religious career, joining the ulama after receiving a religious education.
Najmuddin joined the court of Nikolay Chavchavadze as a horse trainer on 19 December 1880, after completing his formal education. The next year, he became an employee of the court of Dagestan Oblast. He worked at the court until 1895, leaving the job with the police rank of Junker. He next was naib of Koisubu Prefecture within the Avar District of Dagestan Oblast, the same office his father had held, from 1895 to 1903. Alibek Ṭahaq̇adiqala, a Bolshevik revolutionary in Dagestan during the Russian Civil War, later claimed that Najmuddin was on one occasion removed from office and imprisoned for seven months after inflicting injury upon a thief as punishment for stealing. This thief was popularly claimed to be Mahmud of Kakhabroso, an Avar poet and later Bolshevik revolutionary. Mahmud later criticised Najmuddin in a satirical poem as greedy and an infidel.
Following the deaths of his father and brother, Najmuddin inherited large tracts of land, including 10,000 sheep across both mountainous and lowland pastures. He defended his inheritance, saying that if claims were filed in sharia court against the argument that his father had honourably obtained the land, he would voluntarily surrender it.
Najmuddin travelled to the Ottoman Empire on the permission of the Russian government briefly in 1903. There, he engaged in writing literature, particularly poetry. This was the first time he ever ventured beyond the borders of the Russian Empire, and it would prove to be the only such time. While in the Ottoman Empire, Najmuddin met Muhammad Zapir, a religious educator to Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and a meeting was arranged between the two. The meeting primarily concerned the conditions of Muslims living under the Russian Empire, and Najmuddin requested permission to become imam of Dagestan. Abdul Hamid agreed to Najmuddin's request, but noted that it was impossible to fulfil, as Dagestan was then under the control of Russia. He urged Najmuddin to "try, [and] if you succeed, it will be very good."
Upon his return, Najmuddin became a teacher at a kuttab in the Avar District. During the 1906 Russian legislative election he stood in the Temir-Khan-Shura District as a candidate for a deputy, as he owned land in the district. However, due to extremely low turnout in Dagestan Oblast, the provincial executive bureau decided against sending any deputies to the State Duma of the Russian Empire of the First Convocation. At this time, Najmuddin, who had begun to partake in protests against the Russian government, came under the suspicion of the state, which suspected him of being an Ottoman spy and receiving weapons from the Ottoman government so that he would organise a rebellion. Sigismund Volsky, governor of Dagestan Oblast, accused him of leading the Dagestan movement, and sought to have him sent into internal exile.
On the eve of the Russian Revolution, Najmuddin was publicly known in Dagestan and Chechnya for his devotion to charity. During Islamic holidays, he slaughtered his sheep and distributed the meat to the poor. He also had a reputation as someone who sought to minimise ethnic conflicts between Chechens and Dagestanis. Xalilbeg Musajasul, an Avar artist who was acquainted with Najmuddin, noted that despite his wealth, he personally was characterised as a simple, humane, and kind individual.
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Najmuddin of Gotzo
Najmuddin of Gotzo (1859 – October 1925) was a North Caucasian religious, military, and political leader who led multiple uprisings against the Bolsheviks during and after the Russian Civil War. A poet and teacher of Arabic prior to the Russian Revolution, Najmuddin first served as Mufti of the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus.
Najmuddin was born into a family of landowning nobles who had defected from the Caucasian Imamate of Imam Shamil. Prior to the Russian Revolution, he was part of both the ulama and the Russian government, and he was briefly a bureaucrat for the Russian Provisional Government following the February Revolution. Najmuddin led a series of rebellions in both Dagestan and Chechnya against Russian authorities, seeking to establish an independent Islamic theocracy in the North Caucasus under his leadership. Following the failure of a 1924–1925 insurgency in Chechnya led by Najmuddin, he was captured by the Red Army in September 1925. He was then executed by the Soviet government.
Najmuddin was born in 1859 in the village of Gotsob, in the Russian Empire's Dagestan Oblast to an aristocratic family. His Avar father, Muhammad Donogo, had been a naib under Imam Shamil that defected to the Russian government, becoming a high-ranking military officer and significant landowner as a result of his defection. Najmuddin's mother was an ethnic Kumyk from the village of Nizhny Dzhengutay. Najmuddin's elder brother, Abdulatip, was a teacher of Islamic theology. Najmuddin followed his brother into a religious career, joining the ulama after receiving a religious education.
Najmuddin joined the court of Nikolay Chavchavadze as a horse trainer on 19 December 1880, after completing his formal education. The next year, he became an employee of the court of Dagestan Oblast. He worked at the court until 1895, leaving the job with the police rank of Junker. He next was naib of Koisubu Prefecture within the Avar District of Dagestan Oblast, the same office his father had held, from 1895 to 1903. Alibek Ṭahaq̇adiqala, a Bolshevik revolutionary in Dagestan during the Russian Civil War, later claimed that Najmuddin was on one occasion removed from office and imprisoned for seven months after inflicting injury upon a thief as punishment for stealing. This thief was popularly claimed to be Mahmud of Kakhabroso, an Avar poet and later Bolshevik revolutionary. Mahmud later criticised Najmuddin in a satirical poem as greedy and an infidel.
Following the deaths of his father and brother, Najmuddin inherited large tracts of land, including 10,000 sheep across both mountainous and lowland pastures. He defended his inheritance, saying that if claims were filed in sharia court against the argument that his father had honourably obtained the land, he would voluntarily surrender it.
Najmuddin travelled to the Ottoman Empire on the permission of the Russian government briefly in 1903. There, he engaged in writing literature, particularly poetry. This was the first time he ever ventured beyond the borders of the Russian Empire, and it would prove to be the only such time. While in the Ottoman Empire, Najmuddin met Muhammad Zapir, a religious educator to Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and a meeting was arranged between the two. The meeting primarily concerned the conditions of Muslims living under the Russian Empire, and Najmuddin requested permission to become imam of Dagestan. Abdul Hamid agreed to Najmuddin's request, but noted that it was impossible to fulfil, as Dagestan was then under the control of Russia. He urged Najmuddin to "try, [and] if you succeed, it will be very good."
Upon his return, Najmuddin became a teacher at a kuttab in the Avar District. During the 1906 Russian legislative election he stood in the Temir-Khan-Shura District as a candidate for a deputy, as he owned land in the district. However, due to extremely low turnout in Dagestan Oblast, the provincial executive bureau decided against sending any deputies to the State Duma of the Russian Empire of the First Convocation. At this time, Najmuddin, who had begun to partake in protests against the Russian government, came under the suspicion of the state, which suspected him of being an Ottoman spy and receiving weapons from the Ottoman government so that he would organise a rebellion. Sigismund Volsky, governor of Dagestan Oblast, accused him of leading the Dagestan movement, and sought to have him sent into internal exile.
On the eve of the Russian Revolution, Najmuddin was publicly known in Dagestan and Chechnya for his devotion to charity. During Islamic holidays, he slaughtered his sheep and distributed the meat to the poor. He also had a reputation as someone who sought to minimise ethnic conflicts between Chechens and Dagestanis. Xalilbeg Musajasul, an Avar artist who was acquainted with Najmuddin, noted that despite his wealth, he personally was characterised as a simple, humane, and kind individual.