No matter what happens, who wins or who claims to be in charge, the Chechens will endure as they have since they sprang from Shem the son of Noah. Mountain-bred and mean as polecats, the Chechens are an unaligned assortment of major clans that are constantly fighting for influence and shifting alliances with other clans. Each clan is led by a spiritual mystic. Some adhere to a Sufi mysticism branch of Sunni Islam called Muridism. This branch of Islam divides its followers into sects led by local feudal leaders. They are united only in their opposition to domination by outsiders.
They are not fundamental muslims. About half of Chechens belong to a Sufi brotherhood or tariqas. The two Sufi tariqas that spread in the North Caucasus were the Naqshbandiya and the Qadiriya. The Naqshbandiya in the North Caucasus is particularly strong in Dagestan and Eastern Chechnya, whereas the Qadiriya has most of its adherents in the rest of Chechnya and Ingushetia. Basayev and his foreign volunteers led by Khattab defend and control the eastern part of Chechnya. There are also elements of mysticsm mingled with islam in remote mountain areas.
Above all this is the teips or clans are based on land more than blood and they all have an uneasy relationship in peace and are bonded together during war. But its not that simple Commanders can be aligned to teips, religions, political allegiance, financial goals or a mixture of all.
During the war, the Chechens' military chain of command is like a pickup basketball game working towards a grand plan. If units of irregulars met up with each other, it was purely by happenstance. They go out and fight, then come back to eat and sleep. The fighters buy their own weapons, train on Russian conscripts and are about as coordinated as a demolition derby, but equally as destructive and resourceful. The man with the plan is Maskhadov but the man with the juice is Basayev who makes up for his lack of diplomatic skills by his ability to turn any firefight into a Russian bloodbath.
Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Homepage
http://www.chechnya.org/
Nashqabandi
http://www.naqshbandi.org/
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