SHEIKH AND MUHAJIR HAJI BAHAL TOLMIRZI AL-ZANDAKI (TO THE STUDY OF PERSONALITY)
The article attempts to combine the few data on the biography of the Chechen scholar-theologian, Muhajir Bahal-Haji Tolmirzi al-Zandaki (≈1784-1895/1896), a native of the village of Zandak-Ara of the present Nozhai-Yurt district of the Chechen Republic. The article uses fragmentary references to Az-Zandaki in the works of the authors, mainly using the personal archive of S. A. Dibirov, who visited Syria and Jordan, respectively, as part of his own research in 2009 and 2014, and recorded material on the biography of Bahal-Hadji according to his descendants. Sheikh Haji Bahal az-Zandaki (murid of Tashu-Khadzhi Sayasansky, founder of the village of Bahal-Yurt (present-day Turkey), spiritual mentor and religious preacher) at the end of the Caucasian War left his homeland and moved to the east of the Ottoman Empire, settled within the borders of the current Turkey (Bahal-Yurt), then moved to Syria, where he ended his life in the city of Quneitra in 1313 AH. The mausoleum with the burial of the sheikh was destroyed as a result of the Arab-Israeli wars. In the homeland of the sheikh (Zandak-Ara) there is now a religious school-madrasah, named after Bahal-Haji al-Zandaki.