Introduction

This paper is a contribution to the study of Kunta Ḥājjī al-Iliskhānī (1830?–67), the famous Chechen Sufi who is still enormously popular in Chechnya. Reportedly a representative of the Qādiriyya brotherhood, Kunta Ḥājjī established a Sufi network in Chechnya, Ingushetia and parts of Daghestan, and came into conflict with a rival brotherhood, the expanding Naqshbandiyya khālidiyya that had its stronghold in central Daghestan. According to Russian reports he was rebuked by jihād leader Shāmil (Shamwīl, Imām in central Daghestan and parts of Chechnya from 1834 to 1859), apparently on the issue of the loud dhikr ceremonies that Kunta and his disciples practiced, with round dances, chanting and musical instruments. Kunta is said to have rejected Shāmil's jihād, and to have called for non-violent resistance against the Russians instead. Many historians see him as a strong proponent of customary law (ʿādāt) against Islamic law. According to the many Chechen and Russian accounts, Kunta escaped conflict with Shāmil by making a second hajj pilgrimage, from which he returned in 1862. He then gained more adherents who were dis¬satisfied with the long and unsuccessful militant resistance to the Russians, and placed his representatives in various villages. The Russian authorities soon became suspicious of Kunta's network, which they apparently saw as a parallel administration.

In the last days of 1863, Kunta and some of his murīds were imprisoned, and exiled to the Vologda area of Russia's north. In 1864, a rebellion of his remaining murīds in Chechnya – armed with nothing but daggers, and apparently motivated by the expectation of the End of Times – was blood¬ily suppressed by the Russian military. The movement disintegrated into several groups called wirds (from the Arabic word for ‘Sufi litany’), which were led by his disciples of the first and second generations. Next to the ‘Kunta Ḥājjī’ wird proper, today there are still other groups that emerged by names such as ‘Bammat-Gireis’, ‘Ali-Mitaevs’ and ‘Chim-Mirzas’. These Sufi groups still exist today. Often with hereditary leaderships, these branches of the Kunta Ḥājjī network differ in their male headdress and the musical instruments they use, and some groups allow women to participate in their round dances while others do not.