in the campaign “Failed Attempt at Religious Subjugation of the Highlanders to the Empire through the Hiring of the Preacher Taj ad-Din Mustafin (1836-1841)”
In 1836, the command of the Russian Caucasus Corps under General Rozen established under its own control the post of spiritual leader of all the Sunnis of the Caucasus, and appointed to it the hired Kazan efendi (Muslim theologian) Taj ad-Din Mustafin, maintained at the treasury's expense - an attempt to tie the Sunni clergy of the colonized peoples, including the Nokhchi, to a figure subordinate to the empire. The historian N. I. Pokrovsky wrote: "a broad project emerges for subordinating the entire mountain Sunni clergy to a special spiritual person"; the task set was "to turn the highlanders onto the true path, subordinate them to the Russian government, and destroy or hand over Shamil to us alive" (Shamil - imam, leader of the Dagestani and Chechen highlanders' resistance to the Russian conquest)[1]. Only the establishment of the post, the appointment, and the preacher's years-long payment took place; subordinating the clergy did not succeed: "The preacher did not dare to show himself in the mountains"[1]. The empire wound down the project only six years later: Golovin, who succeeded Rozen, agreed to release Mustafin based on a report by Minister of War Chernyshev of 13 November 1841 - "the teaching of Tajudin Effendi over the course of 6 years did not change the highlanders' attitude toward us in the slightest"[1].