Timur Mucuraev

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Timur Mucuraev Тимур Муцураев

Background information
Birth name	Timur Mucuraev
Born	July 25, 1976 (1976-07-25) (age 31)
Origin	Grozny, Chechen-Ingush ASSR, Soviet Union
Genre(s)	Music of Chechnya, Bard (Soviet Union), Nasheed
Occupation(s)	Singer
Instrument(s)	Voice, Guitar

Timur Mucuraev (Chechen: Тимур Муцураев) (born July 25, 1976 in Grozny, Chechnya) is a popular Chechen nasheed singer and bard. Also spelled Mucurayev.

[edit] Biography

Timur was born in Grozny, although his ancestors hailed from the village of Novye Atagi. He studied at Grozny's School No. 30, and would eventually graduate from the same secondary school.

As a youth Timur excelled in karate, winning the championship title of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR at the age of fifteen in 1991, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, capturing the championship title for the Chechen Republic in 1993 and qualifying for the Russian national team.

His martial arts career abruptly ended in December 1994, when Russian forces entered Chechnya and effectively started the First Chechen War. Timur then enlisted in the units of the Central Front division in the Chechen resistance, and was seriously wounded in the village of Serzhen-Yurt. During this war Timur would compose and sing songs as a personal hobby.[1]

Timur's first recorded song, Jerusalem, became a hit on the Caucasian television channels, gaining extensive airplay and becoming an anthem for many Chechen fighters during the 1999-2000 Battle of Grozny. It was reported during the war that Russian paratroopers mocked the song with cries of, "Guitars won't take Jerusalem!" The song also gained a degree of controversy from some Chechens who felt that it was politically inappropriate to sing about Jerusalem during a war inside Chechnya, but in response Timur indicated he was an Islamist who identified with the worldwide Jihad movement, and was not solely a Chechen nationalist.[2]

Many of Timur's songs are stridently supportive of Chechen independence, and he personally believes that peace negotiations will eventually end the Chechen war.[3] Distribution of his songs are currently banned by the government in Chechnya, but widely distributed openly.[4]

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