Who was the man who the “The London Times” defined as “the greatest chieftain who ever lived”?
Who was the man who “The Times” a 150 years ago wrote so many articles on, that the articles, such that the cuttings reached him in the mountain of Caucasus.

Well, this legendary man was born in a village called Gimry in Dagestan in 1797 and belonged to a family of Avars (people who live in Caucasus and who have a high nasab and family) . He is called as Iman Shamil. As a child he would spend much of his time in the Masjid and was very pious.
One day he was stabbed by a sword, which caused him a serious injury in his chest. He removed the sword and ran into the forest and trained himself so much, that later they would say no man could run like him, nor ride a horse, nor swim, nor fight like he did.
He could jump over a stream which was 27 feet, he could leap over the shoulder of a person and while riding a horse, he would have a rifle in one hand, a sword in the other and would control the horse with the reins in his mouth.

At that time the Russians zoomed into power; defeating the Persians, Turks and ruling all the way up to china. They had Serbia, Mongolia and Poland. Even the British were concerned, for if they took the Caucasus, they would be their neighbours in India.
As it is, the Russians spoke about a crusade, saying “if we take the Caucasus, then we will be able to start a new crusade and liberate the holy lands of Masjid Al-Aqsa.”
But Imam Shamil stood like a mountain in their way. Though they did whatever they could, but they could not defeat this valiant man. And for the next quarter of a century, he did not allow this superpower to move.
This is the legend, the knight, the chevalier who fought for this Muslim Ummah and stood like a barrier in the face of the enemy. He later on passed away in Madinah and is buried in Jannatul Baqi.

Bint hasan, AAT