Magomed Vagabov, also known as Emir Seyfullah or Seyfullah Gubdensky, was the leader of the militant

Vilayat Dagestan Vilayat Dagestan (; russian: Вилайят Дагестан, Vilayyat Dagestan), formerly known as Shariat Jamaat, was an Islamist Jihadist group based in the Russian republic of Dagestan and is part of the Caucasus Emirate. The group is clos ...

organisation in the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n Republic of Dagestan, and the Supreme

Qadi A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...

of the

Caucasus Emirate The Caucasus Emirate ( ce, Имарат Кавказ, Imarat Kavkaz, IK; russian: Кавказский эмират, Kavkazskiy emirat), also known as the Caucasian Emirate, Emirate of Caucasus, or Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus, was a Jihadist ...

Biography

An ethnic Dargin, Vagabov was born in the Dagestani village of Gubden. In 1990, he took part in rallies, led by the

Salafist The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three generati ...

Sheikh Muhammad Bagauddin, for Soviet Muslims to be allowed to make the Hajj pilgrimage. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a group of Arabs in the Islamic

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

organisation

Tablighi Jamaat Tablighi Jamaat (, also translated as "propagation party" or "preaching party") is a transnational Deobandi Islamic Dawah, missionary movement that focuses on exhorting Muslims to be more religiously observant and encouraging fellow memb ...

visited his native village in 1992. Vagabov, who spoke Arabic, served as their interpreter, and travelled with them around Dagestan. In 1994 the 19-year-old Vagabov went for religious instruction in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

, where he memorized the

Koran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...

. He moved on to

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

, where he studied

Shariah Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

and learnt

Farsi Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken an ...

and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' In 1997 he returned to Dagestan and open a

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

in Gubden. In the same year he reportedly travelled to Chechnya and attended a training camp ran by the Arab field commander Khattab. He returned to Dagestan, and took part in militant activities before he turned himself into the authorities in 2001 during an

amnesty Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...

. He would return to militancy and work his way up the ranks of Shariat Jamaat. In mid-July 2010,

Dokku Umarov Doku Khamatovich Umarov ( ce, Ӏумар Хьамади кӀант Докка, translit='Umar Ẋamadi khant Dokka, ; russian: Доку Хаматович Умаров, Doku Khamatovich Umarov; 13 April 1964 – 7 September 2013), also known as ...

appointed Vagabov as both the

emir Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cer ...

and the

of the

Sharia court, filling the positions previously held by the late Umalat Magomedov and Anzor Astemirov respectively. In 2010 he took part in organizing the

2010 Moscow Metro bombings The 2010 Moscow Metro bombings were suicide bombings carried out by two Islamic female terrorists during the morning rush hour of March 29, 2010, at two stations of the Moscow Metro ( Lubyanka and Park Kultury), with roughly 40 minutes in betw ...

, killing 40 people and wounding more than 100. It was reported that one of the

suicide bombers A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...

, Mariam Sharipova, was his wife, although her father denied this. Vagabov and 4 other militants were killed during a raid by the FSB in the village of Gunib in August 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vagabov, Magomed 1975 births 2010 deaths People from Karabudakhkentsky District Russian Sunni Muslims Russian Islamists Caucasus Emirate members Caucasian Front (militant group) People of the Chechen wars Russian rebels Leaders of Islamic terror groups