Allahshukur Pashazadeh
Haji Allahshükür Hummat Pashazade () Sheikh ul-Islam and Grand Mufti of the Caucasus which includes 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. Biography. Allahshükür Pashazade was born in Cil, Lankaran Rayon, Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (today the Republic of Azerbaijan) on August 26, 1949 and is of Talysh descent. 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 (today the independent Republic of Uzbekistan) 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. Although he is himself a Shiite Muslim and originally a Shia cleric, he is also the world's only Sunni-Shia Grand Mufti (The title of Grand Mufti actually refers and is normally reserved to the highest official of religious law in a Sunni Muslim country), giving each group fatwas according to their relevant madhab, reflecting Azerbaijan's Sunni-Shia mix. Allahshükür Pashazade is the member of the Management Board of World Islamic Congress, the Management Board of  Eurasia Islamic Council and a number of other international organizations. He was elected co-chair of CIS Interreligious Council in 2004. On November 21, 2009, he was included in a "500 Most Influential Muslims of World" book Honors, awards, and decorations. In 1986, he was elected a member of Royal Academy of Jordan.