Kunta-Hajji and the zikr of Shali
The Chechen Sufi teacher Kunta-Hajji Kishiev, who taught the loud Qadiri zikr and non-violence, was arrested by the Russian authorities; in January 1864 thousands of his followers, armed only with daggers, gathered at Shali to demand his release and were fired on.
1864 CE · 43.15, 45.90 · status: legend
The account
Kunta-Hajji was exiled to Ustyuzhna in Novgorod province, where he died in 1867, as documents found in 1928 showed. Many of his followers held that he did not die but went into hiding or occultation and would return. His mother Heda's tomb at Guni is a major ziyarat (pilgrimage site). The Qadiri brotherhoods he founded remain the largest in Chechnya and Ingushetia.
The sceptical view
The belief in his survival is a religious conviction; his death in exile is documented.