History, Culture and Traditions of the Kazakh People

The origin of the ethnonym «Kazakh»

Each clan, tribe, and nation has its own names – ethnonyms, – which serve as identifiers. Ethnonyms are the names of nations, peoples, nationalities, tribes, tribal unions, clans, etc. Usually, in the names of peoples, there are patterns related to their way of life and economic activities (Nikonov, 1970). In scholarly literature, numerous perspectives exist explaining the origin of the ethnonym «kazakh». However, this issue remains a subject of ongoing debate, as each source relies on the available data as its argument. Therefore, it is currently impossible to definitively determine the truth.

Thus, A. Shakhmatov and V. Ushkov suggested that a Kazak was a warrior and militia member of Turkic-speaking tribes of southern Kazakhstan, while N. Michurin expressed the opinion that» a Cossack» is a transformed Chinese word «kasak,» meaning «large estate».

N. Karamzin and A. Vambery, in their works, mention that the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (mid-10th century) refers to the country of Kazakhia. Further research has shown that the correct inscription is «Kasakhia,» and that it refers to the Kasogs, not the Kazakhs. The Kasogs were a tribal confederation of Abkhaz-Adyghe origin, who lived in the North Caucasus and on the Kuban River, speaking one of the indigenous Caucasian languages. Thus, the connection between the ethnonym «Kazakh» and the names Kasog and Kasakhia is based solely on phonetic similarity and is purely declarative in nature.

The origin of the word «Kazakh» is associated by many scholars with the meaning of the word «Cossack», which has Turkic-Kipchak roots. The original significance of the ethnonym Cossack was social status, social position in society, the state. The word Cossack was understood as «homeless», «homeless», «wanderer», «exile». A Cossack was a person who, by the will of fate, was forced to separate from his clan-tribe, having lost his cattle and nomad camps, and therefore was doomed to wander. This status, as historical sources testify, was temporary. There were many people who led such a way of life. This was due not only to the complexity of the situation or good will, but also to the fact that this way of life was associated with numerous difficulties of survival alone in the wild. A Cossack person put himself in extreme conditions of wandering in forests, mountains or deserts. Since this status was temporary, anyone could become a Cossack, regardless of their nationality and social status. Cossackization knew no ethnic or state boundaries and was to some extent a prestigious phenomenon, as it tempered the spirit, made a person courageous, independent and self-sufficient. In this regard, the word Cossack acquired its secondary, arbitrary meaning: it is no longer a wanderer and homeless, but a free, daring, courageous person seeking freedom in military conquests and thereby deserving honor and respect among the steppe nomads.

Thus, the word Cossack was used to describe any free man, wanderer, adventurer. In the Middle Ages, the name Cossack, having no relation to any nationality or ethnic group, was truly international. In Russia, princes hired Polovtsians for their military fortifications, who were also called Cossacks. Some researchers believe that the Polovtsians originated from the western hordes of Kipchaks, among whom fair-haired Europeans predominated. For their straw-colored hair, they were given the name «Polovtsy,» by the Russians (Sopov, 2006).

Often, the Cossacks in Russia referred to people without specific occupations and permanent residences, free people, as well as hired laborers regardless of their ethnic background. In the 17th century, free people from the outskirts of the Russian state were called Cossacks, who were recruited into the tsar’s service to protect the country’s borders. However, evidence has been preserved that there were many isolated cases when Russian and Little Russian Cossacks attacked the southwestern border districts of Russia for hire, for example, of Polish feudal lords (Blagova, 1970).

As historian V. M. Viktorin notes, the Cossack class of the Russian state in the 17th-18th centuries included nomadic Turkic and Mongol-speaking tribes, so it included representatives of different religions and beliefs: Orthodox, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. (Viktorin, 2008b). The Cossacks became a stronghold of the tsarist autocracy only at the end of the 18th century. Until the middle of this century, almost 50% of the Ural Cossacks were of Turkic origin. At that time, they did not yet constitute a Russian military estate, but were a bandit free community that effectively obeyed no one (Domnin, 2011).

Therefore, it is quite understandable not just the similarity, but also the connection between the concepts of Cossacks and Kazakhs. The word Cossack also served to designate a group, a part of nomads who separated from the state to which they previously belonged and were in a state of war with it. Such a collective was represented by the nomads of Abulkhair Khan’s state. The descendants of Urus Khan, Girey (Kirey, Kerey) and Janibek, rebelled against Abulkhair and severed their ties with him in 1459 (Klyashtorny, S.G. & Sultanov, T.I., 1992). This group of people from the Uzbek ulus roamed the steppes of Semirechye for some time and came to be known as the Uzbek-Cossacks.

Semirechye – in Kazakh Zhetysu (Kazakh: Жетісу) – is a geographical region in Central Asia, located between lakes Balkhash in the north, Sasykol and Alakol in the northeast, the Dzungarian and Alatau ridges in the southeast, and the Northern Tien Shan ridges in the south. The seven rivers that gave the area its name are defined differently by researchers. Usually, the combination of seven rivers is made up of the following ten names: Aksu, Alguz, Baskan, Biyen, Ili, Karatal, Koksu, Kyzyl-Agach, Lepsa, Sarkan. According to G.N. Potanin, for the Kazakhs this area is associated with the idea of a blessed country through which seven rivers flow. Currently, the geographical region of Semirechye (in the pre-revolutionary period – Semirechensk region) includes the southeastern part of Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan.

Thus, the Uzbek origin of the Cossacks of Girey and Janibek is undeniable: they were formed from the fugitives of the Uzbek Ulus, which was reflected in their original name Uzbek-Cossacks. These tribes began to call themselves free people – Cossack (kazaktar), in Russian – Kazakhs. This fact became an important event in the formation of the ethnonym Kazakh, that is, not in the formation of the people themselves, but in determining its modern name. In other words, the migration of Janibek and Girey in 1459 did not determine the emergence of the Kazakh ethnicity, but only accelerated a process that had already begun.

The final stage of the formation of the Kazakh ethnic group is the process of distinguishing and isolating a specific group of tribes from a conglomerate of clans and emerging nationalities that were at various stages of development. This was the population of Eastern Desht-i-Kipchak by the beginning of the second half of the 15th century: the state of Abulkhair Khan, the Nogai Horde and other political entities (Desht-i-Kipchak is a historical region of Eurasia, representing the Great Steppe from the mouth of the Danube to the lower reaches of the Syr Darya and Lake Balkhash. In the 16th-18th centuries, the term «D.-i-K». was used in Central Asian historiography to name the lands of eastern Kipchak (modern Kazakhstan)). Among this multi-tribal population, known to neighbors under the common collective name of Uzbeks, the process of consolidation of several nationalities was already underway, including the one that later became known as Kazakh.

As historians note, the migration of Janibek and Girey in 1459 was not the beginning or the crown of the formation of the Kazakh ethnos. However, it was a pivotal moment in this multifaceted process. In 1459, a historical meeting took place between the emerging nationality and its future name. From that moment on, the history of the people, followers of the descendants of Urus Khan, and the history of the word Cossack merged into an inseparable unity.

After the death of Abulkhair Khan, a dynastic change occurred in the Uzbek ulus, with another branch of the Chingisids (Chingisids (Genghisids) are direct (genetic) descendants of Genghis Khan. Only they and their descendants inherited the highest power in the state and bore the family title of Chingisids), taking power. This shift did not lead to significant changes in the economic or social life of the nomadic Uzbeks but contributed to the alteration of the state’s self-designation and the emergence of the word «Kazak» as an ethnonym. The descendants of Urus Khan, who led the Kazakh Uzbeks and later became the leaders of part of the Uzbeks of the Uzbek ulus, generated a distinct form of competition with the descendants of Shiban, who were eventually displaced from power. Subsequently, tribes inhabiting the Uzbek ulus began to divide into Uzbeks (Shibanids), Kazaks (Kazakhs), and Mangyts (Nogais). Thus, the unchallenged dominance of the term «Uzbeks» came to an end.

In the 16th century, events occurred that led to significant ethnopolitical and economic changes in the history of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. Muhammad Sheibani (the leader of the Shibanids) emerged from the steppes of Desht-i-Kipchak and, taking advantage of the political fragmentation of the country, captured Bukhara in 1500, and in May 1501 subjugated Samarkand. The Shibanids continued to capture more and more small possessions of the Timurids, taking advantage of their fragmentation. Soon (1507) the power of the Timurids in Central Asia finally fell.

After the decline of the Timurid empire, a new dynasty – the Shibanids – ascended to power over a large territory in Central Asia. The Shibanids descended from Shiban, a grandson of Genghis Khan. The conquest of the Timurid state by Uzbek tribes became a significant event in the history of the ethnonym «Kazak». Subsequently, the departure of the Shibanids and many people from the territory of the modern Kazakh steppes led to differences in daily life, customs, and cultural practices between the Uzbeks of Central Asia and the Uzbek-Kazakhs (Kazakhs) of Desht-i-Kipchak.

This division largely became a key factor and played a decisive role in the final formation of the Kazakh ethnicity. The steppes of the eastern Desht-i-Kipchak were divided among the emerging peoples. The tribes that followed the Shibanids came to be called Uzbeks, while the other nomadic groups, united under the authority of another branch of the Chingisids, retained the name Kazakhs (Kazakhs), and their land was called Kazakstan (Kazakhstan). Since that time, the native inhabitants of this vast country have identified themselves exclusively as Kazakhs (қазақ).

Thus, all the processes driven by Janibek and Girey’s migrating movements, the crisis of Ablukhair Khan’s khanate, Muhammad Shaybani Khan’s conquests of Maverannahr (Maverannahr is a historical region in Central Asia that received its name during the Arab conquest (7th—8th centuries). Currently, the territory of Maverannahr includes most of Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, eastern Turkmenistan, and southern regions of Kazakhstan), the departure of part of the Mughals and Uzbeks from the territories of Southern, Southeastern, and Western Kazakhstan, as well as other political events, in one way or another, stimulated the formation of a collective self-awareness among the Kazakhs.

Substantively, all those who remained on the territory of Kazakhstan were Kazakhs. Kazakhs were all those who remained «faithful to the legacy of their ancestors» and did not adopt a sedentary lifestyle. Kazakhs were all those who left the state to «live as Cossacks» and rejected state control. Kazakhs were all those who were fully aware of their difference from the settled inhabitants and agriculturalists. Kazakhs were all those who predominantly ate meat and drank kumys, led a nomadic way of life, and did not engage in farming (Masanov, N.E., Abylkhozhin, Zh. B. & Erofeeva, I.V., 2007).

Meanwhile, in Imperial Russia, Kazakhs were called by various names such as Kaisaks, Kyrgyz, Kyrgyztses, Kaisak-Kyrgyz, Kyrgyz-Kaisaks, Cossack-Kyrgyz and Kyrgyz-Kazaks, among others. These terms appeared in Russian-language literature from the 18th century until the 1930s and were used to prevent confusion between the name «Kazakh» and Russian Cossacks. According to researchers studying this issue, the replacement of the ethnonym «Kazakh» with other terms resulted from an effort to distinguish this ethnicity in official documents from the Russian Cossack communities of neighboring Siberian regions. The incorrect use of the ethnonyms «Kazakh» and «Kyrgyz» before the revolution was also linked to errors made by authors and officials, but definitely not due to the absence of the self-designation «Kazakh» (or «Kazak») used by the people themselves. This name had existed since the 15th century and was already used in Russian documents in the 16th and 17th centuries. Until the 20th century, in many official documents, written sources and literature, instead of the name «Kazakh», «Kirghiz», «Kirghiz», «Kirghiz», «Kaisak-Kirghiz», «Kirghiz-Kaisaks», «Kazak-Kirghiz», «Kirghiz-Kazakhs», etc. were often used.

As early as the 1830s, the scholar A. Levshin argued that the terms Kyrgyz-Kaisaks were foreign names that neither the people themselves nor their neighbors – except the Russians – used to refer to them. «The name Cossack (Kazakh, author’s note) has belonged to the Kyrgyz-Kaisak hordes since the beginning of their existence: this is precisely how they call themselves,» the scholar wrote, adding that «they themselves are surprised when they hear that other peoples are also called Cossacks».

The word «Kazakh» first appears in Russian written sources in 1822, and in dictionaries in 1865 (Klyashtorny, S.G. & Sultanov, T.I., 1992). Initially, the ethnonym was fixed in the form «Cossack» (kazak) in 1925 in Soviet Russia – following the renaming of the Kirghiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to the Kazak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic – and in the form «Kazakh» after the transformation of the Kazak ASSR into the Kazakh SSR in 1936.

Thus, as noted by historians and Orientalists, the 16th century marks an important milestone in the history of the states of the Asian world. During this period, the Bukhara, Khiva, and Yarkend Khanates emerged in Central Asia. It was precisely at the turn of the 15th to 16th centuries that the Kazakh Khanate was formed and consolidated in the former Uzbek ulus. New ethnic groups appeared on the historical stage of Central Asia at this time: Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, and Karakalpaks. From this moment on, it is appropriate to speak not of tribes and tribal unions, but of a new ethnic and ethno-political identity, which became a defining characteristic of the Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia in general, and of the Kazakh people in particular, from the early 16th century onward (Syzdykova, 2012).