Imam Shamil (English: also spelled Shamyl, Schamil, Schamyl or Shameel; Avar: ???? ?????; Turkish: Seyh Samil; Russian: ???? ??????; Arabic: ????? ?????) (pronounced "Shaamil") (26 June 1797 – 4 February 1871) was the political, military, and spiritual leader of Caucasian resistance to Imperial Russia in the 1800s,the third Imam of the Caucasian Imamate (1840–1859), and a Shaykh of the Naqshbandi Sufi Tariqa.