The object of this research is the poems (“Erpeli” and “Chir-Yurt”) by A. I. Polezhaev. The authors explore the peculiarities of artistic presentation and interpretation of the image of the Muslim scholar and theologian, first imam of Dagestan and Chechnya, leader of the Caucasian highlanders – Imam Ghazi-Muhammad (Qazi-Mullah) in the poetry of A. I. Polezhaev. The relevance of this publication is caused by heightened interest and enormous controversy around the topic of the Caucasian War and its leading figures. It is noted the evolution of views on the liberation movement of highlanders headed by Ghazi-Muhammad can be traced on the works of A. I. Polezhaev. The article reveals Polezhaev’s perception of the activity of the imam as the manifestation of religious fanaticism. Herewith, A. I. Polezhaev describes the idealized image of Qazi Mullah in a hyperbolized form, objectively depicting his positive qualities. The novelty of this research lies in the fact that the analysis of the image of Imam Ghazi-Muhammad through literary works contributes to comprehension of the heroic concept of a real person in literature and profound understanding of the problem of historicism overall. The article leans on the contrastive method, which involves comparative analysis (subjective personal reflections and manifestations of the author are correlated with the historical facts).