Allahshukur Pashazadeh

Who is Allahshukur Pashazadeh?

Haji Allahshükür Hummat Pashazade Sheikh ul-Islam and Grand Mufti of the Caucasus which includes his native Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Georgia, and Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Karachay–Cherkessia, and Adygea in the Russian Federation. He is also the current chairman of the Religious Council of the Caucasus.

Allahshükür Pashazade was born in Cil, Lankaran Rayon, Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic on August 26, 1949. He got his primary religious education from the local religious clergy in the city of Lankaran. In 1968, he went to the Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist Republic where he entered the Mir-i-Arab Madrasah in Bukhara and later relocated to Tashkent where he finished his religious education in Tashkent State University in 1975.

Finally returning to Azerbaijan in 1975, he became the acting secretary of the Caucasian Muslims Office, and Akhund and deputy chief of the Taza Pir Mosque in the Azerbaijani capital Baku. In 1980 he was elected chairman of the Caucasian Muslims Office and became Sheikh ul-Islam. After the collapse and dissolution of the Soviet Union and independence of Azerbaijan, in 1992, he was elected chairman of the Supreme Religious Board of Caucasian peoples of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Karachay–Cherkessia, and Adygea.