Description

An important rare publication in Arabic language on the problem of the Muslims under the Bolsheviks in Russia was written by the representative of the Caucasian Muslims Said Shamil and representative of the Idel-Ural State Muslims Ğayaz İsxaqıy. It was printed by the Salafi Press in Cairo and dedicated to the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Mosque Muhammad al-Zawahiri.

Said Shamil (1901-1981) was a grandson of the Dagestani national hero, fighter for the independence, military and spiritual leader Imam Shamil (1797 – 1871).

By chance 19-year old Said was sent to a congress of Highlanders in the Chechen village of Kapsch to replace his at the time sick father Muhammad Kamil (1863-1951), the youngest son of Imam Shamil who served in the Ottoman army. Said Shamil became one of the leading figures in a shortly lived Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus (1917-1920). He was fighting in the rebellion against the Bolsheviks, where the was seriously wounded.

Said Shamil returned to Istanbul, where he was leading the activities against the Bolsheviks and for the independence of the Northern Caucasus. After he was expelled by Atatürk, he settled in Warsaw. Said was publishing books and articles in many languages, mostly on the subjects of anti-Communism, the problem of Palestine and the independence of the Norther Caucasus region.

The other author was Ğayaz İsxaqıy (1878 — 1954) a leading figure of the Tatar national movement and the president of the Independence Committee of the Muslims in Idel Ural.

In 1918, the Congress of Muslims from central Russia and Siberia founded the Idel-Ural State, also known as a Volga-Ural State, a short-lived independent state of Turkic peoples and Volga Germans. The Bolsheviks supressed the state and annexed Kazan to the Soviet Union. In the same year, the city was briefly sieged by the Czechoslovakian Legion.

We could one example outside the Arabian Libraries (Bibliothek der Humboldt-Universität Berlin).

References: OCLC 953833658, 4770448451 (Arab Union Catalogue).