"If such original conclusions on the long-term evolution of Islamic statehood in the Nothern Caucasus will probably raise discussion in academic and other circles, it makes no doubt that this work, written according to the highest standards of research, has already taken a prominent place in the modern historiography of Dagestan. It remains to be hoped that it will soon be translated into Russion language, and become accessible to the largest possible audience."

Julietta Meskhidze

In: Central Eurasian Reader. 2 (2010). pp. 214-215.

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"Kemper gives the reader a picture on why this area of the world today is unpredictable and unstable, and shows that the desire these peoples have for a Muslim state is not a recent phenomenon. from his work, one can infer that unless this region is governed under some form of strict Islamic law and given some kind of local autonomy, it will remain volatile."

Mary Ann Wilkes

In: Iran and the Caucasus. 13 (2009). p. 158.

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"The chapter's main contribution, however, is the detection of what Kemper calls "the shari'a movement" in Daghestan in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. (This "shari'a movement," being contemporary to similar movements all over the world of Islam, must be studied in connection with and as part of them.) This leads to Kemper's major thesis that the jihad movement was not connected to the arrival of the Naqshbandiyya in Daghestan but was rather an internal, independent development. The Naqshbandiyya merely converged into and reinforced this movement. In this Kemper joins other scholars denying any role to the Sufi Naqshbandi brotherhood in the resistance movement. Such a division between internal developments and external influences, however, errs in looking at Daghestan as isolated from the outside world, while it was, in fact, an integral part of the Muslim world and its cultural and intellectual life. It is this latter point that needs to be studied thoroughly in Oorder to give us a clearer picture of Daghestan itself as well as the wider world of Islam.
In conclusion, Kemper's is a major work of scholarship, an eminent contribution to our knowledge and a must for anyone dealing, not only with Daghestan, but with Islamit revival and anticolonial resistance movements in general. One can only hope that the book will be translated into English, for the benefit of those who do not read German."

In: Slavic Review. 66 (2007) 1. S. 143-144.

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"Zunächst stellt der Autor die politische und rechtliche Entwicklung Daghestans dar - von den ersten arabischen Feldzügen im 7. Jahrhundert bis zur Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts. Danach behandelt er die islamischen Bewegungen des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts und das Imamat.
Viele politische und rechtliche Entwicklungen im Nordostkaukasus erscheinen so in neuem Licht. Wichtigstes Ziel der Arbeit dürfte die Feststellung sein, daß es sich bei dem Imamat nicht um die islamische Antwort auf das russische Vordringen handelte. Vielmehr waren die Durchsetzung der Scharia und der Aufbau eines islamischen Staates unter den Imamen die letzte Stufe einer autochthonen Entwicklung.
(...) Im Gegensatz zu anderen Bänden der Reihe [Kaukasienstudien] hat das Buch keinen Kompendium- oder Lexikoncharakter. Trotzdem ist es sehr gut geeignet, sich einen fundierten Überblick über die politische und rechtliche Entwicklung Daghestans und des Nordostkaukasus zu verschaffen."

In: Georgica. 28 (2005). S. 256-257.