leader was Imam Ghazi Muhammad, who ruled from 1828 until 1832 when he was succeeded by Gamzat-bek four years later. When he was murdered in 1834, by a band which included Hadji Murad, Shamil became the third imam. The Imamate reached its peak under Shamil's rule, spanning all of the Muslim Northern Caucasus. The Imamate was a highly militaristic country, having been at war since its establishment. Its politics were always concerned with the furthering of Islam or the Caucasian War. As such, the only people that ever sat on its council were Muslim scholars or military naibs. The war and the surrender of the Imamate The Caucasians gained several great victories early in their war with Russia, but at the time Russia hadn't really committed to the war seriously. With their great victory over Napoleon's Grand Army in 1812, the Russian people saw little concern in the petty "Asiatic" resistance occurring on their southern borders. However, the Caucasians did reach a point where they pushed the Russians back hard enough to warrant a full-scale Russian counter-attack. In 1832 Shamil and Ghazi launched a failed attack on Vladikavkaz, which was at the time a Russian military fort mockingly named "Ruler of The Caucasus" - from + . The Russians countered: General launched an assault on the de facto capital of the Imamate, the small settlement of Gimry. This resulted in the seizure of the town by the Russians (October 1832) and the death of Ghazi Muhammad. Shamil himself, the only man to escape the battle, went into hiding to evade the Russians. Everyone assumed that he had died. In the absence of Shamil, an imam by the name of Gamzat-bek ruled (1832-1834). Gamzat-bek, an imam who had played a vital role in securing the Avar Khans for the Imamate, had since been a naib to Shamil and Ghazi. Shamil returned a year later, but Gamzat-bek was assassinated by the same Avar Khanates he had defeated. With no one else to take the position, Shamil became the third leader of the Imamate. Shamil would turn out to be the greatest of the Imams by far and would rule for 25 years (1834-1859). Shamil sought to build on British popular support for his anti-Russian struggle in "the Great Game" context, but no official British assistance arrived. Shamil conquered the Western Muslim tribes, and transformed a group of small bickering villages into a