At this period the greater part of Daghestan, a territory lying on the Caspian, and eastward from the Lesghian highlands, had been brought under the yoke of the Russians. General Jermoloff, then governor-general of the Caucasus, had been very successful in extending the imperial dominion and influence, being himself no less a hero than the Circassian chieftains, possessing a noble form, a soul of bravery, hardy, persevering, and chivalrous. He secured by his gentle treatment the respect of those tribes which submitted to his rule, and by his ruthless severity made a terrible example of those who refused to do so. Going in advance of his arms, his intrigue penetrated into the fastnesses of the mountaineers, and taking advantage of the mutual jealousy of the tribes, fanning the hate of private feuds, widening the breach between the two hostile religious sects, and tempting all the chiefs by the promise of imperial honors, the people by the offer of free trade at the forts and market towns, it succeeded in gradually preparing the way for the advent of Russian intervention and authority with force of arms throughout all the less mountainous portions of Daghestan. When, then, the active and sagacious governor heard that Mahomet-Mollah was preaching in Jarach a holy war against the Muscovites, and that he had erected in his house an altar before which the murids who came in from all the neighboring parts hourly prayed and said, "Moslem war against the infidel! war against the infidel! death to the Giaour!" he sent a request to Arslan, khan of the Kasi-Kumucks, in whose territory was Jarach, that he should seize upon the person of the mollah. But Arslan, fearing to lay violent hands upon a teacher so venerated by the people, suffered him to escape into the adjacent territory of Avaria. There he lived until the recall of General Jermoloff permitted him to return to his native district; having meanwhile diligently called upon all believers to forget their sectarian differences, upon the members of the different tribes to lay aside their animosities, and upon all lovers of their country to rise in arms and drive back the infidel dogs who had dared invade the sanctity of the mountains.