TURKS, HUNS, MONGOLS IN KAZAKHSTAN

TURKS, HUNS, MONGOLS IN KAZAKHSTAN

In the late first millennium B.C. and the early A.D. first millennium, powerful tribal groups emerged that had hints of centralized state power, These included the Usuni and Kangyugi (in southern Kazakhstan and Semirechie), which had contacts with Bactria and the Empires of Kushan, Panthia and China. Around 200 B.C., Kazakhstan was under the control of Hsiung-nu, a confederation of nomadic tribes from what is now northern China and southern Mongolia. Huns roamed through Kazakhstan in the early centuries after Christ.

The earliest well-documented state in the region was the Turkic Kaganate, which came into existence in the sixth century A.D. The Karluks, a confederation of Turkic tribes, established a state in what is now eastern Kazakhstan in 766. In the eighth and ninth centuries, portions of southern Kazakhstan were conquered by Arabs, who also introduced Islam. The Oghuz Turks controlled western Kazakhstan from the ninth through the eleventh centuries; the Kimak and Kipchak peoples, also of Turkic origin, controlled the east at roughly the same time. The large central desert of Kazakhstan is still called Dashti-Kipchak, or the Kipchak Steppe. [Source: Library of Congress, March 1996 *]

In the late ninth century, the Karluk state was destroyed by invaders who established the large Qarakhanid state, which occupied a region known as Transoxania, the area north and east of the Oxus River (the present-day Syrdariya), extending into what is now China. Beginning in the early eleventh century, the Qarakhanids fought constantly among themselves and with the Seljuk Turks to the south. In the course of these conflicts, parts of present-day Kazakhstan shifted back and forth between the combatants. The Qarakhanids, who accepted Islam and the authority of the Arab Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad during their dominant period, were conquered in the 1130s by the Karakitai, a Turkic confederation from northern China. In the mid-twelfth century, an independent state of Khorazm (also seen as Khorezm or Khwarazm) along the Oxus River broke away from the weakening Karakitai, but the bulk of the Karakitai state lasted until the invasion of Chinggis (Genghis) Khan in 1219-21. *

After the Mongol capture of the Karakitai state, Kazakhstan fell under the control of a succession of rulers of the Mongolian Golden Horde, the western branch of the Mongol Empire. (The horde, or zhuz , is the precursor of the present-day clan, which is still an important element of Kazakh society — see Population and Society, this ch.) By the early fifteenth century, the ruling structure had split into several large groups known as khanates, including the Nogai Horde and the Uzbek Khanate. *

Huns in Kazakhstan

Huns roamed through Kazakhstan in the early centuries after Christ. The process of establishing a state, which had begun in the Sakas period, continued in the Hun community, which created the first nomadic empire in the interior of Asia, and soon after that some proto-Turkic structures existed in Central Asia. When, in the 2nd century B.C., the Hun confederation became politically dominant, the State of Huns, called Jueban in some Chinese sources, was then established and existed until the 5th century. Its structure was similar to those which existed in Hun nomadic states in the 3rd to 1st centuries B.C. [Source: B.E. Kumekov, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2010 ]

The Hun state had an early class organisation. It was governed by four aristocratic families. The supreme governor, shanjui, could at that time only be from Luyandi, the noblest family bound with three others by conjugal ties. These families were the Hun elite. The specific character of the supreme power in the nomadic community was that the entire family headed by shanjui ran the state. There was a hierarchy of clans and tribes playing a significant role in the Hun society. The subjugated tribes which were included in the Hun system were the lowest rank in this division.

The supreme shanjui was followed by the left and the right “wise princes”, usually his sons or closest relatives. They governed in the western and eastern regions, being at the same time military commanders over the right and the left wings, correspondingly. Then there were twenty four local governors’ having different titles, military commanders. The rule of shanjui was exclusively hereditary, blessed by the divine power, the divine kharism (Tengri Kut). The sacred rule of the shanjui was perfectly inserted into the main features of the universe. Heaven and Earth were described as powers giving birth, and Sun and Moon as powers promoting life. A jasper seal symbolized the authority of the shanjui.

The army and population were organised in tens, hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands for military structuring and census taking. Beginning from the 2nd century B.C., the Huns made records of the quantity of population and cattle, according to which people paid an income tax and a tax on cattle. Records were kept in a written form, and decrees and laws were issued. The territory was quarded by frontier sentinels. The economy was based on nomadic cattle breeding, and special attention was paid to horse breeding. The Hun cavalry was divided in four armies, according to colours of horses: white, grey, black, and chestnut. Well-trained and capable of great endurance, the cavalry was the main unit of the army and power of the state. The favourite expression of Huhanie, a shanjui of the Huns, says that, “the Huns created their state fighting on horseback”.

Slavery was widespread. In population numbering 1.5 million people, more than 190 thousand were slaves, i.e. the one-tenth of the population. Slaves tended sheep, and were engaged in agriculture and craftsmanship. There was private property in the society for cattle and slaves. Subjugated tribes were to pay tribute. The traditions of the Hun state served as a prototype for nomadic states in Central Asia.

Turks in Kazakhstan

In the 6th century” the development of state system in Kazakhstan attained a new stage, which was connected with the first empire in Eurasia, the Turkis Khaganat. The historiography of China associates the Turkic people’s history with the breakup of the Hun state. In the mid 6th century, the Turks subordinated Zhetysu (Semirechie), Central Kazakhstan, and Khorezm. Some time later, the Khaganat borders expanded to the Northern Caucasus and the Black Sea, allowing for establishment of relations with Iran and Byzantium. Gradually, the centre of the Turkic ethno genesis moved from the east westward to Central Asia. In the 6th-7th centuries, ancient Turkic military and administrative systems of governing became more popular among the Turkic nations of Kazakhstan. Central Kazakhstan began to be influenced by the politics and culture of the Turkic Khaganat. [Source: B.E. Kumekov, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2010 ]

Turkic tribes from northern China and Mongolia began moving into Kazakhstan around A.D. 500. This era was characterized by a shift to feudalism and a progressions of rule under Turkic tribes—including the Old Turks, Tyurgesh, Karluk, Ogus, Kumak and Kipchak. From A.D. 550 to 750, Kazakhstan was part of the Blue Turk empire.

The earliest well-documented state in the region was the Turkic Kaganate, which came into existence in the sixth century A.D. The Karluks, a confederation of Turkic tribes, established a state in what is now eastern Kazakhstan in 766. In the eighth and ninth centuries, portions of southern Kazakhstan were conquered by Arabs, who also introduced Islam. The Oghuz Turks controlled western Kazakhstan from the ninth through the eleventh centuries; the Kimak and Kipchak peoples, also of Turkic origin, controlled the east at roughly the same time. The large central desert of Kazakhstan is still called Dashti-Kipchak, or the Kipchak Steppe. [Source: Library of Congress, March 1996 *]

Turkish State and Society in Kazakhstan

In the Turkic conception, the Khagan was in the centre, personifying the entire state. There was the Turkic Khagan dynasty Ashina, originating, according to legend, from a she-wolf. People believed that their Khagans were blessed and had special power and features, which were granted by Heaven. They comprehended and honored Heaven as having two constituents: the material essence and the supreme Deity. Turkic inscriptions prove this assumption, stating that the khagan and his dynasty were born at the will of Heaven, Earth, water, and by deeds of the Turks themselves.[Source: B.E. Kumekov, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2010 ]

An army flag and state authorities were located in the Khagans “headquarters”. Military administration covered 29 titles, with 5 ranks being superior: yabgu, shad, tegin, elteber, and tutuk. The other 24 were regarded as inferior. Each position was herediatory. The Khagan’s closest surrounding was “wolf” guardsmen, whose flag was decorated with a wolf head. The traditional structure featured the governing centre, the east and the west regions, providing government and defensive stability.

The Turks had a developed common law. They collected taxes and tributes. Every region and its population could offer ten, one hundred, one thousand or ten thousand soldiers. The society was divided into the nobility, the subjugated, and vassals, arranged in a strict hierarchy.

The main economic activity was nomadic cattle breeding; however, a part of the settled population was engaged in agriculture. Towns and steppe were interdependent elements of a single economic structure. Private property as cattle, slave, and other possessions was prevailing in the Sakas community. Cattle was stamped with tamga, a sign of ownership.

The Turkic ideological principle was shamanism, with the “official” cults of Tengri (Heaven) and Earth. Apart from these, Manihaeanism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism were also popular. One off the best achievements of that time was the wide spreading of the ancient Turkic written language, which, obviously, became necessary for the development of administrative, and diplomatic relations, and furnishing documentary evidences of state decrees and customs.

Three powerful state organisations appeared on the territory of Kazakhstan with the fall of the Western Turkic Khaganat: the Oguz state in the Syr Darya and Aral region, the Karluk state in the Zhetysu, and the Kimak Khaganat in Central, Northern and Eastern Kazakhstan. These ethnic and political unions continued the state administrative, military, social, and cultural traditions of Turkic Khaganats in 9th-10th centuries. Similarity in the organisation of society, the political structure, as well as in ethnic and cultural relationship allows consideration of the time of their existence as a relatively integral period in the history of steppe empires and their cultures.

Kimeks in Kazakhstan

The Kimek Khanate, (Turkish: Kimek Hanligi) also spelled Kimäk Khanate and Kimak Kaganate, was a prominent medieval Turkic state formed by the Kimek and Kipchak people in the area between the Ob and Irtysh rivers. From approximately 743 to 1050, it existed as the Kimek Kaganate, and as the Kimek Khanate until the Mongol conquest in the early 13th century. The Kimek or Kimak (Yemek, Yamak, Djamuk) were one of the Turkic tribes known from Arab and Persian medieval geographers as one of the seven tribes in the Kimek Khanate in the period of 743-1050 AD. The other six constituent tribes, according to Abu Said Gardizi (d. 1061), were the Yamak, Kipchaks, Tatars, Bayandur, Lanikaz, and Ajlad.

During the 8th-9th centuries, the Kimek tribes strengthened their positions over the territory stretching from the Altai to the south Ural Mountains and the Syr Darya River. These events became the impulse for developing the local state system. It was first mentioned in the Arabic literature of the 9th-10th centuries. The Arabian historian Al-Yakubi, remarkable for being well informed and exact, wrote that “Turkestan and the Turks themselves are divided into several nations, and several states(mamalik) ... Each Turkic tribe has a separate state, some of them are engaged in wars with others”. The Arabian geographer Ibn al-Fakih mentioned that the Turks respected Oguzes, Kimeks, and Tokuz-Oguzes, and all of them had kings. [Source: B.E. Kumekov, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2010 ]

During formation of the Kimek state, the quantitative composition of the tribes had changed. According to the “Hudud al-alam” (the 10th century) and al-Idrisi (the 12th century), the core of the state was constituted of 12 tribes. The largest tribal unions were the Kipchaks (Central Kazakhstan) and the Kumans. These tribes included in the Kimek Khaganat were politically dependent to the late 10th century.

Kimeks State and Culture

The power of the Kimek ruler was significant. Beginning from the 9th century, he was given the highest title of Khagan. The state authority belonged to the ruling dynasty, which was the cradle for khagans. The consecutive transition in titles of the rulers can be observed which the social and political development of a tribe to become a state. Historians have marked the inherited connection of the Kimek titles from the ancient Turkic: khagan, yabgu, shad, and tutuk. The traditional administrative and territorial structure of the ancient Turkic state, the system of wings, is founded in Kimek state power. The East Side (the Left Wing) was located in the area of the Irtysh River, while the West Side (the Right Wing) was between the Ural and Emba Rivers. [Source: B.E. Kumekov, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2010 ]

Khagans enjoyed the real power and appointed rulers and tribal nobility. The hereditary power structure existed inside each khagan dynasty, khan family, or tribal nobility. The appanages, a total of eleven, were handed down. However, the appanages’ owners were subordinated to the Kimek Khagan. As the military and administrative powers were consolidated in one person, chiefs and commanders of the main tribal unions strove for strengthening their political importance and for independence.

The majority of the Kimeks were engaged in nomadic cattle breeding. They performed long migration to seasonal grazing lands. Also, there were some compact groups of settled and semi-settled communities. With a reference to the book of the Kimek prince, Zhanah ibn Hakan al-Kimeki, geographer al-Idrisi wrote about towns along water bodies and in the mountains, at the sites of quarries, and on trade routes. The sources of the Middle Ages and archaeological findings prove that there was social stratification, taxes, and an ancient Turkic written language. Kimek tribes adopted ancient Turkic beliefs, of which the most important were the cult of Tengri and the forefathers. Some groups worshipped fire, the sun, stars, rivers, and mountains. Shamanism was widespread. Manichaeanism was also professed, along with Islam, which was popular among the nobility.

The Kimek Khagans were often engaged in wars, though raids to neighboring states altered with peaceful communications. Many trade routes led to Kimek lands from Eastern Europe, the Volga, Central Asia, Eastern Turkestan, and Southern Siberia. Numerous caravan routes led to the Khagans’ headquarters.

Medieval Kazakhstan

In the late ninth century, the Karluk state was destroyed by invaders who established the large Qarakhanid state, which occupied a region known as Transoxania, the area north and east of the Oxus River (the present-day Syrdariya), extending into what is now China. Beginning in the early eleventh century, the Karakhanids (Qarakhanids) fought constantly among themselves and with the Seljuk Turks to the south. In the course of these conflicts, parts of present-day Kazakhstan shifted back and forth between the combatants. The Karakhanids who accepted Islam and the authority of the Arab Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad during their dominant period, were conquered in the 1130s by the Karakitai, a Turkic confederation from northern China. In the mid-twelfth century, an independent state of Khorazm (also seen as Khorezm or Khwarazm) along the Oxus River broke away from the weakening Karakitai, but the bulk of the Karakitai state lasted until the invasion of Chinggis (Genghis) Khan in 1219-21. [Source: Library of Congress]

Southern Kazakhstan was ruled by the Bukhara-based Samanid dynasty beginning around mid-9th century. The cities of Otyrar and Yasy (present-day Turkestan) grew rich on Silk Road trade during this period. The Samanids were driven out of Kazakhstan in the late 10th century by the Karakhanid Turks. They were displaced around 1120 by the Khitans, or Liao, a Buddhist people driven from Mongolia and northern China, who established the Karakitay empire which occupied a large part of Central Asia . The Khitans in turn were conquered by the Uzbekistan-based Khorezmshah empire to southwest and the Mongol to the east.

During the medieval period in Kazakhstan, cattle breeders, settled populations and urban dwellers were interacting in the same ways as they had in the earlier periods of history, but through economic and cultural relations within the framework political unity such as the Karakhanid State. The town and steppe were not two opposed world; they had mutual economic foundations. The growth of towns in Central Asia from the 9th century to 13th century in most cases was connected with the process of the nomads settling. The settled nomads brought much steppe folklore into urban life and in this way the urban culture was formed. The culture was distributed not only in the South but in Central, West and East Kazakhstan. [Source: “Code for Monuments of History and Culture of Kazakhtan, South-Kazakhstan region”, 1994, heritagenet.unesco.kz]

The cultural and economic relations of nomads and town dwellers were revealed later by the study of the history of the development of Ak-Orda, Mogulistan and the Kazakh Khanate. The latest towns of the Middle Ages Sairam, Sauran, Signak and Suzak were centres for the establishment of the economic connections between nomads and farmers. Here the cultural and trade exchanges took place not only between the town dwellers of Southern Kazakhstan and nomads of Sari-Arka but also with the people of Central Asia, the Volga region and East Turkestan. These exchanges were of great importance for the political, economic and cultural life of the Kazakh Khanate. [Ibid]

Karakhanid Turks

By the middle of the 10th century, some Muslim trends appeared there. They marked the initiation of a new Turkic state, Karakhanid.The Islamization of the Karakhanid Turks was a not a result of short-lived missionaries efforts, but a process of Islamic penetration into the Turkic environment, causing the replacement of the ancient Turkic written language with the Arabic script. Despite the general adoption of the traditions of the Turkic Khaganats, the Karakhanid state repeated them neither in the social sphere nor in the economy. Unlike the political systems of nomadic communities in the territory of Kazakhstan, the military power was separated from the administrative. These structures were based on the principle of hierarchy. The state was divided into appanages, whose governors had great authority, up the stamping of coins with their names. [Source: B.E. Kumekov, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2010 ]

A feudal military system was the main social and political institution in the Karakhanid state. The Khans granted their relatives authority to levy taxes on the populations of specific regions in their favour. Turkic tribes were developing a more urbanised culture and practiced agriculture. During this transition, the formation of an ethnic community, which was more developed than a tribe, became clearly determined. The growth of self-consciousness of Turkic nations under the Karakhanids induced the development of literature in the Turkic language.

In the 11th century, Jusup of Balasagun wrote a poem, Kutadgu Bilig (“Knowledge to become happy”), composed of advice and lessons. The book described the reality, public conscience, and political concepts of particular social layers. In 1074, Mahmud of Kashgar wrote Divine lugat at-Turk (“Dictionary of Turkic dialects”), containing rich linguistic, historical, and cultural, historical, geographical, and ethnographic facts about the Turkic peoples. The outstanding philosopher and poet Hajji Ahmed Yassawi, one of the famous Muslim preachers, has remained in the people’s memory as a person who managed to find a compromise between the Islamic dogmas and the pre-Islamic beliefs of the nomads. His poems, collected in Divine-i Hihmet (The Book of Wisdom), praise meekness, and asceticism, and contain information about cultural, moral, and didactic features of the peoples.

Karakhanids and Islamization in Kazakhstan

Islam was brought to the Kazakhs during the 8th century when the Arabs arrived in Central Asia but was not widely embraced. Islam initially took hold in the southern portions of Turkestan and thereafter gradually spread northward. Islam also took root in the south due to the zealous missionary work of Samanid rulers, notably in areas surrounding Taraz, where a significant number of Kazakhs accepted Islam. Additionally, in the late 14th century, the Golden Horde propagated Islam amongst the Kazakhs and other Central Asian tribes

Islam began to take hold in the 10th century when the new Turkic state, Karakhanid, became dominate in Central Asia. The first important Karakhanid ruler, Satuk Bughra Khan (920–958), adopted Islam in 932 and took power over Karluks, which had previously ruled much of Central Asia, in 940. The Karakhanids accepted the authority of the Muslim-Arab Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad during their dominant period. The Islamization of the Karakhanid Turks was a not a result of short-lived missionaries efforts, but a process of Islamic penetration into the Turkic environment, causing the replacement of the ancient Turkic written language with the Arabic script.

In the mid-10th century, the Karakhanids converted to Islam and adopted Muslim names and honorifics, but retained Turkic regnal titles such as Khan, Khagan, Ilek (Ilig) and Tegin. Later they adopted Arab titles sultan and sultan al-salatin (sultan of sultans). According to the Ottoman historian known as Munajjim-bashi, a Karakhanid prince named Satuk Bughra Khan was the first of the khans to convert. After conversion, he obtained a fatwa which permitted him in effect to kill his presumably still pagan father, after which he conquered Kashgar. Later in 960, according to Muslim historians Ibn Miskawaih and Ibn al-Athir, there was a mass conversion of the Turks (reportedly "200,000 tents of the Turks"), circumstantial evidence suggests these were the Karakhanids. [Source: Wikipedia]

Islamic attacks and conquest of the Buddhist cities east of Kashgar began when the Turkic Karakhanid Satuq Bughra Khan who in 934 converted to Islam and then captured Kashgar. Satuq Bughra Khan and his son directed endeavors to proselytize Islam among the Turks and engage in military conquests. Muslim accounts tell the tale of the four imams from Mada'in city (possibly in modern-day Iraq) who travelled to help the Islamic conquest of Khotan, Yarkand, and Kashgar by Yusuf Qadir Khan, the Qarakhanid leader. In the battles with the Buddhists, "blood flows like the Oxus", "heads litter the battlefield like stones" until the "infidels" were defeated and driven towards Khotan by Yusuf Qadir Khan and the four Imams.[26] The Imams were however assassinated by the Buddhists.

Islam and its civilization flourished under the Karakhanids. The earliest example of madrasas in Central Asia was founded in Samarkand by Ibrahim Tamghach Khan. The early Karakhanid rulers, as nomads, lived not in the city but in an army encampment outside the capital, and while by the time of Ibrahim the Karakhanids still maintained a nomadic tradition, their extensive religious and civil constructions showed that the culture and traditions of the settled population of Transoxiana had become assimilated.

Kipchaks

In the early 11th century, the Kimak state was broken up due to the Kipchak khans’ separatism and the migration of nomadic tribes from the interior of Asia. Consequently, the Kipchaks inherited vast lands from the Kimak state. The political importance of the Kipchaks increased as they subdued peoples in the areas of the Syr Darya and the Aral and Caspian Seas to their Khanate. The changed ethnic and political situation brought about the ethno-geographical term Desht-i Kipchak. The political organisation in the Khanate strengthened in the middle of the 11th century, when the Kimak and Kuman tribes migrated to the steppe near the Black Sea, and to Byzantium. These tribal unions established a basis for the centrifugal driving in eastern Desht-i Kipchak. [Source: B.E. Kumekov, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2010 ]

The Kipchak community was headed by Supreme Khans, whose power was hereditary. The ru1ing dynasty was El-borili. The semantics of the term borili is connected with the word “wolf”. The cult of the wolf, being the legendary “father” of some Turkic peoples, and a totem animal at several early stages of the Turks’ development, is well known in the historical and ethnographic literature.

In the Khan’s headquarters, called “horde”, there was staff in charge of the Khan’s property and army. The army had a two-winged structure similar to the traditional army of ancient Turks. The headquarters of the right wing were located on the Ural River, at the site of the medieval town of Saraichik. The Khanate centre was located in Central Kazakhstan, in the Turgai steppe. Military organisation and the system of military administration acquired great importance, as they represented a specific nomadic life style, the most convenient for the steppe. The strict hierarchy of the rulers (khans, tarkhans, jugurs, baskaks, beks, and bais) was inequitable. Eastern Desht-i Kipchak included 16 tribes. Their composition was not haphazard, but exactly regulated in accordance with the dynastic, social, and political level of every constituting people.

The composition of Kipchak tribes in the late 11th - early 13th centuries was mixed and complex. The Kipchak community “absorbed” some Turkic speaking Kimak tribes, Kuman, Oguz, ancient Bashkir, Pechenegs, and Iranian speaking ethnic groups which became Turkic, in addition to four Kipchak tribes (El-borili, Toksoba, Ietioba, and Durtoba). A strict clan and family hierarchy in the nomadic states of Asia served as the guideline for social and state development.

Kipchak Society and Culture

The Kipchak society was socially stratified. The basis for the inequality was the private property of cattle. Breeding of cattle suitable for migration, and development of methods to use grazing lands and water reserves of the territory created the ecological and material basis for the civilisation’s development. It promoted the intensification of communal production without damaging the environment. Nomadic tribes roamed for hundreds and even thousands of miles. The distances depended on historical traditions, prosperity, and features of natural conditions. The main pastures and migration routes were formed over many centuries. In this connection, the concept of a “native land” (or ethnic territory) originates from another concept - a “pasture land””. The migration routes could be changed only for some global economic, social, or political reasons. [Source: B.E. Kumekov, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2010 ]

Trespassing on cattle was strictly punished: considered a convictable offence, it was judged according to the customary law (Tore). The cattle were branded. If a person lost his cattle and could not migrate any more, he became settled (zhatak). But a soon as he had gathered enough cattle to migrate, he switched to the nomadic life again. The number of slaves was replenished from prisoners of wars, who were deprived of rights.

The vast steppe territory and geographical conditions promoted the development of several cultural and economic systems from nomadic pasturing to fanning. However, only a few groups were practicing settled agriculture, which is proved by the remains of irrigation systems. Mining was also developed. One of the metallurgical centres was the settlement of Miljuduk. Some Kipchak scientist and sages are mentioned in literary sources. The level of communications between nomadic civilisations on the vast steppe was rather high.

The rapid development of the Kipchaks promoted their literary language, the creation of literary masterpieces, which became a source for the Kazakh language and literature, and the formation of characteristic anthropological features of the Kazakh nation. The Kipchak ethnic community is directly connected with the ethno-genesis of the Kazakh nation. Consolidation of Kipchak tribes in the 11th-13th centuries was the main stage in the formation of the Kazakh nationality. However, the final stage was interrupted by the Mongol invasion in the early 13th century.

Khitans and Qara Khitai

The Khitan people or Khitai, Kitan, or Kidan, were a nomadic people originally from Mongolia and Manchuria (or Northeast China) from the 4th century that spoke a language distantly related to the Mongolic languages. As the Liao dynasty, they dominated a vast area north of and including parts of China, but left few relics that have survived until today. The Qara Khitai, also known as the Kara Khitan Khanate or Western Liao, was a sinicized Khitan empire in Central Asia. The dynasty was founded by Yelü Dashi, who led the remnants of the Liao dynasty to Central Asia after fleeing from the Jurchen conquest of their homeland in the north and northeast of modern-day China. The empire was usurped by the Naimans under Kuchlug in 1211; traditional Chinese, Persian, and Arab sources considered the usurpation to be the end of the Qara Khitai rule. The empire was later taken by the Mongol Empire in 1218. [Source: Wikipedia +]

Following the fall of the Liao dynasty in 1125, a number of the Khitan nobility escaped the area westwards towards Western Regions, establishing the short-lived Qara Khitai. After its fall, a small part under Buraq Hajib established a local dynasty in the southern Persian province of Kirman. These Khitans were absorbed by the local Turkic and Iranian populations, Islamized and left no influence of themselves. As the Khitan language is still almost completely illegible, it is difficult to create a detailed history of their movements. +

The Khitans in Qara Khitai ruled from their capital at Balasagun (in today's Kyrgyzstan), directly controlling the central region of the empire. The rest of their empire consisted of highly autonomous vassalized states, primarily Khwarezm, the Karluks, the Kingdom of Qocho of the Uyghurs, the Kankali, and the Western, Eastern, and Fergana Kara-Khanids. The late-arriving Naimans also became vassals, before usurping the empire under Kuchlug. +

The Khitan rulers adopted many administrative elements from the Liao dynasty, including the use of Confucian administration and imperial trappings. The empire also adopted the title of Gurkhan (universal Khan). The Khitans used the Chinese calendar, maintained Chinese imperial and administrative titles, gave its emperors reign names, used Chinese-styled coins, and sent imperial seals to its vassals. Although most of its administrative titles were derived from Chinese, the empire also adopted local administrative titles, such as tayangyu (Turkic) and vizier. European maps showed the land of "Kara-Kithay" somewehere in Central Asia for centuries after the disappearance of the Qara-Khitan Khanate. This 1610 map by Jodocus Hondius places it north of Tashkent. +

The Khitans maintained their old customs, even in Central Asia. They remained nomads, adhered to their traditional dress, and maintained the religious practices followed by the Liao dynasty Khitans. The ruling elite tried to maintain the traditional marriages between the Yelü king clan and the Xiao queen clan, and were highly reluctant to allow their princesses to marry outsiders. The Qara-Khitai Khitans followed a mix of Buddhism and traditional Khitan religion, which included fire worship and tribal customs, such as the tradition of sacrificing a gray ox with a white horse. In an innovation unique to the Qara-Khitai, the Khitans paid their soldiers a salary. +

The empire ruled over a diverse population that was quite different from its rulers. The majority of the population was sedentary, although the population suddenly became more nomadic during the end of the empire, due to the influx of Naimans. The majority of their subjects were Muslims, although a significant minority practiced Buddhism and Nestorianism. Although Chinese and Khitan were the primary languages of administration, the empire also administered in Persian and Uyghur. +

Mongols in Kazakhstan

A ruler of the Karakitay Empire, Kuchlung, infuriated Genghis Khan. In 1218, he sent a Mongol army to Kazakhstan to crush the Khitans. In 1219, the same army crushed the Khorezmshah empire after an Khorezmshah ruler killed 450 Mongol merchants and a Mongol ambassador and sacked Samarkand, Bukhara and Otyar.

After Genghis Khan died in 1227 his empire was divided among his four sons. Northern Kazakhstan became part of the khanate ruled by the Golden Horde. The southern part of Kazakhstan became part of the Chaghatai knanate ruled by Genghis Khan’s second son Chaghatai and his descendants

The 14th century the Chaghatai knanate split. The group in the north retain their nomadic, pagan traditions. The group in the south settled down and adopted Islam. In the late 14th century, Tamerlane sacked Otyar and constructed the great Mausoleum of Kozha Akmed Yasaui at Turkestan.

See Mongols and the Chaghatai knanate

After the Mongols

After the Mongol capture of the Karakitai state, Kazakhstan fell under the control of a succession of rulers of the Mongolian Golden Horde, the western branch of the Mongol Empire. (The horde, or zhuz , is the precursor of the present-day clan, which is still an important element of Kazakh society.) By the early fifteenth century, the ruling structure had split into several large groups known as khanates, including the Nogai Horde and the Uzbek Khanate. [Source: Library of Congress]

After the Mongol invasion, Kazakhstan was included in the Golden Horde. Mongols took over the political reign. However, the majority of the population was composed of he Kipchaks. The Mongol nobility was gradually absorbed, becoming relatives of noble Turkic families, and assimilated in the Turkic environment. The more developed Kipchak culture triumphed in this struggle between the two cultures. The concepts of Kipchak statehood turned out to be so enduring, that, at the end of the 13th century, they became the basis for the establishment of the Ak Horde, the first self-governing state after the Mongol invasion of the Kipchak territory. Apart from the Kipchaks, the Kereits, Naimans, Merkits, and Onguts dwelled in the areas near the Irtysh, Ishim, and Tobol Rivers, and further toward the Ulutau Mountains. [Source: B.E. Kumekov, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2010 ]

Internal wars between dynasties, and a campaign to Kazakhstan’s territory by Tamerlane (Timur) led to the decline of the Ak Horde, change of the dynasty, and establishment of the Abul Khair State, Mogulistan, Nogai Horde, and Siberian Khanate mostly coincided, and the differences consisted only of qualitative parameters of the ethnic components. The dominating groups in the Ak Horde and Abul Khair State were the Kipchaks, the Dulats in Mogulistan, and the Mangyts in the Nogai Horde. The ascending integrating trend in the ethnic processes gradually prevailed. In the 14th-15th centuries, the formation of the Kazakhl1s was completed. The name “Kazakh” underwent many transformations, and instead of the initial social name became the name for the entire nation.

The establishment of the Ak Horde, Abul Khair State, Mogulistan, Nogai Horde, and Siberian Khanate, which had many common features in their state systems (e.g. uniting of nomadic population in Uluses, structure of governing, army, and taxation) became a significant stage in the formation of the Kazakh nationality.

Image Sources:

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, U.S. government, Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Foreign Policy, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and other publications.

Last updated April 2016


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