The Caucasian Imamate, also known as the Caucasus Imamate (Arabic: إمامة القوقاز‎ `Imāmat al-Qawqāz), was the state established by the imams in Dagestan and Chechnya during the early-to-mid 19th century in the Northern Caucasus, to fight against the Russian Empire during the Caucasian War, where Russia sought to conquer the Caucasus in order to secure communications with its new territories south of the mountains.

Previously in the Northeast Caucasus, there had, since recordable history, been a large array of states.

Caucasian Albania had existed in Southern Dagestan, for most of its history being a vassal under the direct rule of the Parthians and later the Sasanid Persians, but eventually, the majority converted to Islam following the Muslim conquest of Persia, as their overlords did. Traveling Arabs proved to be instrumental in this, and after they left, they relinquished the new Muslim states of Lezghia (centered in the Islamic learning center of Derbent), Lakia (centered in another, rival city of Islamic learning, Kumukh) and their less important neighbors. In these areas (Southern and Southeast Dagestan), where interethnic conflict was often present, Islam served a unifying role, and it was often the clerical establishment which mediated disputes. To this day, this is the most devotedly Islamic region of the Caucasus, with this as one of the major reasons.

Islam was far less well-ingrained, but still highly important, in Central and Western Dagestan. These areas had always lain far outside the influence of Caucasian Albania and similarly fiercely fought off (as the neighboring Chechens, or Vainakh at that time, did) the Arab invaders, with assistance from the Khazars. Here lay Massaghetia, the Dargins and their neighbors, Didoya (probably a state of the modern, now marginal Dido peoples), and Sarir. The Georgian chronicles noted the existence of a Dzurdzuketia (Dzurdzuks, the Georgian name for the Vainakhs, the ancestors of Chechens and Ingush), which appears to have been absorbed into Alania at times, constituting an important part of the latter. Sarir was the strongest. Sarir at times adopted Christianity as the nominal, but not in reality, official religion. It was reduced at various times to a puppet state of Alania, Khazaria, or Sarmatia. In this area, kingdoms arose and fell or were subjugated frequently, and the Dido were reduced to their current state.

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