Amīr al-Mu'minīn (Arabic أمير المؤمنين; latinized as Miramolinus, hence Italian Miramolino, Spanish Miramolín and Portuguese Miramolim) usually translated Commander of the Faithful or Leader of the Faithful, is the Arabic style of Caliphs and other independent sovereign Muslim rulers that claim legitimacy from a community of Muslims. It has been claimed as the title of rulers in Muslim countries and empires and is still used for some Muslim leaders.

Use[link]

The title Amir al-Mu'minin was first used for the second caliph Umar ibn al-Khattāb. Many other caliphs have been given the name as well such as , Uthman ibn Affan the third of the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs and Ali ibn Abi Talib the last of them.

The title is also used by Shia Muslims to refer to their first Imam, Ali ibn Abi Talib.

It has also been adopted by various Caliphs of the succeeding Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties, as well as by some contemporary Arab monarchs.

For current use, see below.

Sunni view[link]

Sunni view that Umar was the first person to be given the title:

Suyuti, a 15th century Sunni Islamic scholar

Shi'a view[link]

Shi'as view that Ali, the prophet of Islam's son-in-law and the progenitor of Muhammad's only continuing lineage, was given the title during Muhammad's era.

Shi'as believe the title is exclusive to Ali bin abi Talib. Being called the commander of the faithful does not entail only political authority, but spiritual and religious authority as well.

Some sunni Muslims refer to anyone in political power as Amir Al-Mumenin, the caliphate of past Islamic dynasties, and that both the present day kings of Morocco and Saudi Arabia can be referred to by this title. This is viewed in the Shi'a perspective as a wrong and unworthy use of the title.

Current positions that officially use this title[link]

• According to the Moroccan constitution the King of Morocco is also Amir al-Mu'minin.
• The spiritual leader and Caliph of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is also called Amir al-Mu'minin.

Others who have used the title[link]

• Various Caliphs.
• The founder of the Taliban Mohammed Omar was called this by his followers, after he donned the Cloak of the Prophet. Ayman al-Zawahiri still occasionally refers to him as the Amir al-Mu'minin in his radio addresses.

See also[link]

Islam portal

• Sunni view of the Sahaba
• Compare Fidei defensor

References[link]

1. ^ History of the Caliphs by Suyuti

Ibn al-Khattab
225px
Nickname	Khattab
Born	April 14, 1969 Saudi Arabia
Died	March 20, 2002(2002-03-20) (aged 32) Chechnya
Allegiance	Mujahideen of Afghanistan Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
Commands held	Arab Mujahideen in Chechnya Islamic Peacekeeping Brigade
Battles/wars	Soviet-Afghan War Tajikistan Civil War War in Bosnia First Chechen War Dagestan War Second Chechen War

Samir Saleh Abdullah Al-Suwailem (Arabic: سامر صالح عبد الله السويلم‎) (April 14, 1969 – March 20, 2002), more commonly known as Emir Khattab (also transliterated as Amir Khattab and Ameer Khattab) meaning Commander Khattab, or Leader Khattab, and also known as Habib Abdul Rahman, was a Muslim guerilla fighter and financier working with Chechen Mujahideen in the First Chechen War and the Second Chechen War.

The origins and real identity of Khattab remained a mystery to most until after his death, when his brother gave an interview to the press.^[1] He died on 20 March 2002 following exposure to a poison letter delivered via a courier that had been recruited by Russia's FSB.

Biography[link]

Khattab was born Samir Saleh Abdullah Al-Suwailem in Saudi Arabia.

Central Asia and the Balkans[link]

At the age of 18, Khattab left Saudi Arabia to participate in the fight against the Soviet Union during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. During this time, he permanently incapacitated his right hand and lost several fingers after an accident with improvised explosives.

Al-Khattab (while leader of Islamic International Brigade IIB) publicly admitted that he spent the period between 1989 and 1994 in Afghanistan and that he had met Bin Laden. In March 1994, Khattab arrived in Afghanistan and toured fighter training camps in Khost province. He returned to Afghanistan with the first group of Chechen militants in May 1994. Khattab underwent training in Afghanistan and had close connections with Al-Qaida. Several hundred Chechens eventually trained in Al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan.]^[2][3]

Armenian sources claim that in 1992 he was one of many Chechen volunteers who aided Azerbaijan in the embattled region of Nagorno-Karabakh, where he allegedly met Shamil Basayev, however the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence denied any involvement by Khattab in the Nagorno-Karabakh war.^[4][5]

From 1993 to 1995, Khattab left to fight alongside Islamic opposition in the Tajikistan Civil War. Before leaving for Tajikstan in 1994, Al-Khattab gave Abdulkareem Khadr a pet rabbit of his own, which was promptly named Khattab.

In an interview Khattab once mentioned he had also been involved in the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The fragment of this interview in which he makes this statement can be found in the 2004 BBC documentary The Smell of Paradise. His exact role or the duration of his presence there remain subject of debate.^{[citation needed]}

First Chechen War[link]

According to his brother, he first heard about the Chechen conflict on an Afghan television channel in 1995; that same year he entered Chechnya, posing as a television reporter. He was credited as being a pioneer in producing video footage of Chechen rebel combat operations in order to aid fundraising efforts and demoralize the enemy.

During the First Chechen War, Khattab participated in fighting Russian forces and acted as an intermediary financier between foreign Muslim funding sources and the local fighters. To help secure funding and spread the message of resistance, he was frequently accompanied by at least one cameraman.

His units were credited with several devastating ambushes on Russian columns in the Chechen mountains. His first action was the October 1995 ambush of a Russian convoy which killed 47 soldiers.^[6] Khattab gained early fame and a great notoriety in Russia for his April 1996 ambush of a large armored column in a narrow gorge of Yaryshmardy, near Shatoy, which killed up to 100 soldiers and destroyed some two or three dozen vehicles.

In the course of the war, Shamil Basayev became his closest ally and personal friend. He was also associated with Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, who gave Khattab two of the highest Chechen military awards, the Order of Honor and the Brave Warrior medal, and promoted him to the rank of general.

A senior Chechen commander by the name of Izmailov told press how Khattab urged restraint, citing the Koran, when at the end of the war the Chechens wanted to shoot those they considered traitors.^[7]

Chechnya[link]

After the conclusion of the war, Khattab, by then wanted by Interpol on Russia's request, became a prominent warlord and commanded the Arab Mujahideen in Chechnya, his own private army with a group of Arabs, Turks and other foreign fighters who had come to participate in the war. He set up a network of paramilitary camps in the mountainous parts of the republic that trained not only Chechens, but also Muslims from the North Caucasian Russian republics and Central Asia.

On 22 December 1997, over a year after the signing of the Khasav-Yurt treaty and the end of the first war in Chechnya, the Arab mujahideen and a group of Dagestani rebels raided the base of the 136th Armoured Brigade of the 58th Army of Russian Army in Buinaksk, Dagestan. Chechen sources reported destruction of all 300 vehicles in the base, including "50 brand-new T-72 tanks", while Russian sources reported only 10 destroyed and 15 damaged vehicles. During the war, the unit had been accused of committing atrocities against Chechens.^[7] The same year, Khattab survived a land-mine assassination attempt in Chechnya.

Dagestan War[link]

In 1998, along with Shamil Basayev, Khattab created the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade (IIPB) group (also known as the Islamic Peacekeeping Army). In August–September 1999, they led the IIPB's incursions into Dagestan, which resulted in the deaths of at least several hundred people and effectively started the Second Chechen War.

1999 bombings in Russia[link]

An Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) investigation named Khattab as the mastermind behind the September 1999 Russian apartment bombings. However, on September 14, 1999, Khattab told the Russian Interfax news agency in Grozny that he had nothing to do with the Moscow explosions; he was quoted as saying, “We would not like to be akin to those who kill sleeping civilians with bombs and shells.”^[8]

The credibility of the FSB's accusations was questioned, by, among others, former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, Johns Hopkins University/Hoover Institute scholar David Satter,^[9] and Russian lawmaker Sergei Yushenkov who asserted that the bombings were in fact a "false flag" attack perpetrated by the FSB in order to legitimate the resumption of military activities in Chechnya.

Other researchers such as Gordon Bennett, Vlad Sobell, Peter Reddaway and Richard Sakwa have criticized these claims, describing them as conspiracy theories and pointing out, among other things, that the theories' proponents have provided little evidence to support them.^{[10][11][12][13]}

According to Paul J. Murphy, a former United States counterterrorism official, the evidence for Al-Khattab's involvement in the attacks is clear.^[14]

Second Chechen War[link]

During the course of the war, Khattab participated in leading his militia against Russian forces in Chechnya, as well managing the influx of foreign fighters and money (and, according to the Russian officials, also planning of attacks in Russia).

He led or commanded several devastating attacks, such as the mountain battle which killed at least 84 Russian paratroopers, and the attack on the OMON convoy near Zhani-Vedeno, which killed at least 52 Russian Interior Ministry troops.

Death and legacy[link]

Khattab was falsely reported dead when Guantanamo captive Omar Mohammed Ali Al Rammah faced the allegations that he witnessed Khattab being killed in an ambush in Duisi, a village in the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia on 28 April 2002."^[15][16]

Khattab later survived a heavy-calibre bullet wound to the stomach and a landmine explosion. He was killed during the night of March 19–20, 2002, when a Dagestani messenger hired by the Russian FSB gave Khattab a poisoned letter. Chechen sources said that the letter was coated with "a fast-acting nerve agent, possibly sarin or a derivative".^[17] The messenger, a Dagestani double agent known as Ibragim Alauri was turned by the FSB on his routine courier mission. Khattab would receive letters from his mother in Saudi Arabia, and the FSB found this to be the most opportune moment to kill Khattab, rather than attack his mountain hideout and risk losing soldiers. It was reported that the operation to recruit and turn Ibragim Alauri to work for the FSB and deliver the poisoned letter took some six months of preparation. Ibragim was reportedly tracked down and killed a month later in Baku Azerbaijan on Shamil Basayev's orders.^[18] Ibn Al-Khattab was succeeded by Emir Abu al-Walid.

"Khattabka" (хаттабка) is now a popular Russian and Chechen name for a homemade hand grenade.

References[link]

1. ^ Islam Awareness site
2. ^ Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1267 (1999) concerning Al-Qaida and the Taliban and Associated Individuals and Entities
3. ^ QE.I.99.03. ISLAMIC INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE (IIB) "Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1267 (1999) concerning Al-Qaida and the Taliban and Associated Individuals and Entities"]
4. ^ "Chechen fighter’s death reveals conflicted feelings in Azerbaijan"
5. ^ "Terror in Karabakh: Chechen Warlord Shamil Basayev's Tenure in Azerbaijan". The Armenian Weekly On-Line: AWOL. http://ermeni.org/english/chechen-terrorists-azerbaijan.htm. Retrieved 2007-02-15. 
6. ^ The Wolves of Islam: Russia and the Faces of Chechen Terror, Murphy, Paul J., 2004
7. ^ ^{a b} Muslim Fighter Embraces Warrior Mystique, The New York Times, October 17, 1999
8. ^ ICT.org site
9. ^ Satter, David. Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State. Yale University Press:2003, ISBN 0-300-09892-8
10. ^ Sakwa, Richard (2008). Putin, Russia's choice (2nd ed.). Routledge. pp. 333–334. ISBN 978-0-415-40765-6. 
11. ^ Vladimir Putin & Russia's Special Services Gordon Bennet, 2002
12. ^ Western treatment of Russia signifies erosion of reason Dr. Vlad Sobell, 2007
13. ^ Russia Profile Weekly Experts Panel: Russian Presidential Election – Affirming Democracy or Confirming Autocracy?
14. ^ Murphy, Paul (2004). The Wolves of Islam: Russia and the Faces of Chechen Terror. Potomac Books Inc.. p. 106. ISBN 978-1-57488-830-0. 
15. ^ OARDEC (16 September 2005). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Al Rammah, Omar Mohammed Ali". United States Department of Defense. pp. 42–44. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_1_Factors_000794-000894.pdf#42. Retrieved 2008-01-08. "The detainee witnessed the ambush that killed Ibn al Khattab" 
16. ^ OARDEC (26 May 2006). "Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Al-Rammah, Omar Mohammed Ali". United States Department of Defense. pp. 25–27. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/ARB_Round_2_Factors_900-1009.pdf#25. Retrieved 2008-01-08. "The detainee was captured in a violent road ambush by Georgia Security Forces in Duisi, Georgia on 28 April 2002." 
17. ^ Ian R Kenyon (2002-06). "The chemical weapons convention and OPCW: the challenges of the 21st century". The CBW Conventions Bulletin (Harvard Sussex Program on CBW Armament and Arms Limitation) (56): 47. http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsp/bulletin/cbwcb56.pdf. 
18. ^ "Who Ordered Khattab's Death?", Jamestown Foundation, quoting Russian press sources

External links[link]

• BBC notice of Khattab's death
• Khattab info from Kavkaz Center (in Russian)
• The Rise and Fall of Foreign Fighters in Chechnya, The Jamestown Foundation

Video[link]

• Khattab's video of the Shatoy battle
• Biography of Khattab Part 1
• Biography of Khattab Part 2