Muslim Abu Walid al Shishani

Murat Akhmetovich Margoshvili He was born into a poor family and did not attend any local schools, becoming a shepherd instead. Later in childhood, his family moved to the Russian SSR, where he finished basic education and served in the Soviet Army. The family moved back to the Pankisi Gorge and later to the Chechen-Ingush ASSR to settle in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, where Shishani worked in construction before the outbreak of the First Chechen War.

North Caucasus wars He joined a group led by the Saudi-born pan-Islamist Ibn Khattab in 1995.

Following the outbreak of the Second Chechen War in 1999, was severely wounded during the Second Battle of Grozny. After healing from his wounds, he participated in the Battle of Vedeno alongside many other battles. A few years later he was promoted to emir of Vedeno. An ambush near Galashki on 30 July employing a remote IED killed five Russian servicemen and another attack on 7 August, utilizing an RPG-18 and machine guns, near Nesterovskaya, killed six Russian servicemen. According to Memorial, a Russian human rights organization, he and four other companions were abducted in Ordzhonikidzevskaya. He was eventually found jailed in Vladikavkaz. Shishani was "convicted of involvement in an illegal armed group" in 2004, though he was acquitted of arms smuggling charges. In February 2006 Shishani was acquitted on all charges by the Supreme Court of Ingushetia and quickly left the courthouse; afterwards the courthouse was "besieged" by agents who his Moscow Bar Association lawyer suspected to be part of the Federal Security Service (FSB).

During the Russo-Georgian War, a group that included Shishani notified the Georgian government that they had prepared 250 people in the gorge to fight against Russia Shishani was a prominent figure in the Caucasus Emirate where he mainly trained soldiers. His presence opened up a passage for fighters from Georgia to travel to Dagestan. He continued training soldiers in Dagestan until a month and a half before the Lopota incident which happened around mid-2012. According to Sham Center, an outlet closely linked to Junud al-Sham, Muslim Shishani was wounded as a result of the battles. Later in October, Muslim Shishani, Abu Musa al Shishani and Sayfullakh Shishani merged their groups,

Following this merger, Shishani was in Aleppo, where he trained fighters associated with Sayfullakh Shishani's jamaat.

The group took part in the 2014 Latakia offensive in a coalition with Ahrar al-Sham, capturing several key points along the Turkish border including the strategic Observatory 45 and the border town of Kessab. In September of that year, Shishani was sanctioned by the US State Department for reportedly building a base for jihadist foreign fighters in Syria. Shishani was also in contact with Tarkhan Batirashvili (Abu Omar al-Shishani) before he joined Islamic State (ISIS). After joining ISIS, Abu Omar was approached by Muslim Shishani to attempt to persuade him that "the brutality of ISIS had nothing to do with Islam." Shishani blamed Batirashvili's inexperience for joining the group. On 22 April, the first day of the offensive, he is seen alongside his deputies Abu Turab al-Shishani and Abu Bakr al-Shishani. They are overlooking the city and communicating by radio. Two days later Shishani is seen in the city

According to the Turkish newspaper Yeni Akit, Shishani participated in the 2018 Turkish offensive. He denied this and said that his group was in the Hama countryside during the SAA offensive. In an interview from October 2018 he stressed the importance of Muslims needing to fund jihad. He also mentioned that there were injustices in many groups in Syria and that these groups regularly fought each other. He mentioned that this infighting could have been remedied if fighters were brought together and were financially supported. Later on in the interview he envisioned that "the Ummah will soon rejoice over our victories." At the end of the interview he advises the Mujahideen in Syria to be patient and prepare for the next round of jihad.

Junud al-Sham returned to the Latakia front after the 2018 offensive. They took part in many local battles during the broader Syrian Army offensives like the Battle of Kabanah, Their military activities lasted up to the 2020 ceasefire.

Shishani was also seen in a video from early 2019 encouraging people to donate to militants.

Decline and disbandment In 2021, members from Junud al-Sham were involved in numerous criminal activities and used the group as cover to evade conviction. Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) demanded Shishani cooperate to get the criminals arrested. Shishani released a statement saying that the criminals were not in the group when the crimes were committed. He also clarified that he was asked to dismantle Junud al-Sham and leave Idlib after a summons from the HTS-affiliated General Security Service on 22 June. HTS affiliated media released a video on 8 July where it is claimed that the group did not fight during heavy offensives in 2015 and 2016. Furthermore, criminals purportedly belonging to Junud al-Sham said that they were members of the group. Following this, Shishani disbanded the group on 8 July and the group left their positions near Tuffahiyeh, which were taken over by the Turkistan Islamic Party.

In October 2021, there were clashes in the Bayirbucak Turkmen Mountain region between Jundallah and HTS. Shishani was allied with Jundullah but was forced to abandon them after learning that HTS was mobilising troops to fight Jundullah. He left the area of conflict with 70 soldiers. Shishani later settled with his family