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What is the Kazakh people. Peoples inhabiting Kazakhstan

A people that does not remember its past is not worthy of the future. This phrase, like no other, is suitable to understand the topic of the article. We will talk about the formation of the Kazakh people. We will tell you who the Kazakhs are and where they came from, who the ancestors of the people of the Great Steppe were, and also about the origin of the term “Kazakh”. Read on: it will be interesting.

Who are the Kazakhs: the origin of the Kazakhs

The formation of a nation, or ethnogenesis, is a long and extremely complex process. It is necessary to form mutual language, external, spiritual and cultural traits. In addition, you need your own territory.

This is interesting! The term “Kazakh” comes from the Turkic word “Kazakh”, which means ‘free’, ‘free’, ‘independent’ or ‘wanderer’.

According to historians, the main event in the formation of the Kazakh people took place in the middle of the 15th century. Then the first Kazakh khans Zhanibek and Kerey took about 100 thousand people to Semirechye. This happened during the uprising against the Uzbek Khan Abulkhair.

Search a better life attached to people the term “Uzbek-Cossack”, which in translation is “free Uzbek” or “Uzbek who has gone to wander”. A hundred years later, the term "Uzbek" began to apply to the population of Central Asia, and the people who remained in the territory of the western Semirechye began to be called Kazakhs.

At the beginning of the 16th century, several Turkic tribes and nomads joined the Kazakhs, who finally formed an ethnic group. It was the final stage of the ethnogenesis of the Kazakh people. Now we propose to understand in more detail the processes that preceded the formation of modern Kazakhs.

Education of the Kazakh people

Where did the Kazakhs come from? This question spans nearly a thousand years of history. Conventionally, the process of ethnogenesis can be divided into three stages:

  • Stage #1

It originates in the Bronze Age. At this time in the territory Central Asia settle various tribes. They were based on Caucasian peoples, and appearance their was appropriate.

According to scientists, it was here that pastoral nomadism originated. Immediately tamed and traveled the first horse. A noticeable trace in the emergence of Kazakh culture at that time was played by the Andronovo tribes. Many of their buildings and burials have been preserved on the territory of Kazakhstan. And on the found pots and jugs, patterns can be seen that can be found on Kazakh carpets.

At the beginning of the Iron Age, Kazakhstan was inhabited by Saks, Sarmatians, Usuns and Kangyuis. According to the records of Herodotus, the Saks desperately fought the Persians, defending the borders of their lands. It is known that there was a war with the kings Darius I and Cyrus II.

The Turkic tribes had a strong influence on the education of the Kazakh people. The union of the Usuns and Kangyuis led to the emergence of the state of Kangyui and the settlement of Eastern Turkestan. The clans of Kanly and Sary Uysyn are still preserved in the Senior Juz. By the end of the Iron Age appearance the ancestors of the Kazakhs remained European. However, the migration of the Huns introduced a Mongoloid element into the appearance of the representatives of the ancient tribes of Kazakhstan.

  • Stage #2

Started in the 6th century AD. e. from the mass settlement of Turkic tribes. They mixed with the descendants of the Scythian tribes, the Usuns and the Kangyuis. The language and culture of the ancient people has changed. With the advent of the Arabs, Islam spread among the settled tribes, as well as the Islamic calendar.

From the 6th to the 13th centuries, large Turkic states arose on the territory of modern Kazakhstan. The Türgesh Khaganate was a powerful state, but over time it broke up into the Karluk and Kimak Khaganates, as well as the Oghuz state. After them, the Karakhanid state was formed, for the first time among Turkic countries adopted the Islamic religion.

In the XI century, the unification of the Turkic tribes led to the emergence of the historical region of Eurasia - Desht-i-Kipchak (Kipchak steppe). IN Russian history it is called the Polovtsian steppe. The development and interconnection of pastoral nomadism, agriculture and the urban way of life at that time seriously influenced the formation of the Kazakh ethnic group.

A significant contribution to the appearance of modern Kazakhs was made by the conquests of Genghis Khan and the emergence of the Golden Horde. Mongoloid features are due to the assimilation of scattered Mongolian tribes by the Turks.

  • Stage 3

The final stage of the formation of the Kazakh people is associated with the unification of all clans and tribes of the Turks, who have already acquired a single look. This happened in the period from the 14th to the 15th centuries, after the collapse of the Golden Horde. After it, separate states arose: Ak-Orda (White Horde), Nogai Horde and the Uzbek Khanate.

In 1458, Zhanibek and Kerey, dissatisfied with the rule of the Uzbek Khan, took people from the Syr Darya to the eastern Semirechye, where they founded the Kazakh Khanate. At that time, a single language had already been formed, later called Kazakh. Under the leadership of Khan Kasym, the Kazakhs recaptured Saraichik, the capital of the Nogai Horde, from the Nogais and expanded the territory of the state from the Irtysh to the Urals. By 1521, the number of Kazakhs reached a million people.

Who are the Kazakhs? This is a people with a distinctive language and culture, which has been formed for almost a thousand years. Many nationalities perished over time, but the Kazakhs survived and founded a country with great potential. Now more than 18 million people live in the Republic of Kazakhstan, and every year this figure is growing. Kazakhstanis sing the Great Steppe in memory of the state of Desht-i-Kipchak - the cradle of independent Kazakhstan, which we congratulate on the Constitution Day.

The Kazakh people are full of amazing features. Having formed unique culture, in which there are borrowings from other peoples, the Kazakhs have become one of the most interesting descendants of the Turkic-speaking population. Now they are actively developing national idea identity based on culture and tradition.

Story

The history of the Kazakh people covers several periods, including:

  • Early;
  • Middle Ages;
  • Kazakh Khanate;
  • History in the composition Russian Empire and the USSR;
  • History of modern independent Kazakhstan.

The formation of the Kazakh people is associated with the Huns, after the collapse of their empire, the Turks entered the arena, mainly living in the Altai Territory. It is this version that is voiced by Chinese scientists, researchers involved in Turkology.
After the defeat of the Golden Horde at the beginning of the 15th century, the formation of the Kazakh Khanate began. The Turkic tribes finally consolidated into the Kazakh nation around the middle of the 15th century. The unification of the tribes took place under the auspices of Khan Kasym, whose conquests affected the Nogai Horde.
The rapprochement between Kazakhstan and Russia was due to a policy that encouraged peasants working in the border areas. Many fortresses were built on the borders. The power of the Russian Empire was very great, so the Kazakh khans decided to swear allegiance to it.
With the advent of Soviet power, a number of changes took place, some of which were carried out by force. In particular, the Bolsheviks eliminated the Alash autonomy and dealt with its leaders. In the 20s of the last century, mass collectivization and dispossession took place, which led to several years of famine. Many Kazakhs were forced to flee to China. Later, the Bolsheviks began to carry out mass repressions, during which the most of intelligentsia. During the Second World War, about 500 thousand people were called to the front.
Now Kazakhstan is independent country. His geographical position obliges to conduct a special policy that takes into account the interests Russian Federation and China. All this has a significant impact on people's lives.

KAZAKH

ethnicity and nation indigenous people Kazakhstan

Kazakhs have long lived in regions of China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, adjacent to Kazakhstan, as well as in the west of Mongolia

  • Historically, they consisted of three large associations-zhuzes: the Senior Zhuz, the Middle Zhuz and the Younger Zhuz.
  • Language - Kazakh, which is part of the Kypchak subgroup of the Turkic group of languages
  • Kazakhs - of Turkic origin, belongs to the Turanian race (also known as the South Siberian), which is considered a transition between the Caucasoid and Mongoloid races

Story

  • Kazakhs have a complex ethnic history. The ancient roots of the material culture and anthropological type of the Kazakhs can be traced archaeologically among the tribes of the Bronze Age that lived on the territory of Kazakhstan. The ancient ancestors of the Kazakhs included the Iranian-speaking tribes of the Saks, Massagets, who lived on the territory of modern Kazakhstan and Central Asia.
  • 3rd-2nd century BC - on the territory of Southern Kazakhstan a tribal association of the Usuns arose, and in the South-West lived the tribes that were part of the Kangyuy tribal union. In the first centuries A.D. Iranian-speaking Alans lived to the west of the Aral Sea, who also influenced the ethnogenesis of the Kazakhs.
  • Starting from the 5th-6th centuries, with the emergence and expansion of the Turkic Khaganate, the process of Turkization of the Iranian-speaking tribes that inhabited the territory of modern Kazakhstan began.
  • VI-VП centuries - the tribes that inhabited the south-eastern part of Kazakhstan were under the rule of the Western Turkic Khaganate. At the same time, tribes that came from the East (Turgeshs, Karluks, etc.) settled on the territory of Kazakhstan.
  • Later, short-term political associations of the early feudal type appeared in various regions of Kazakhstan:
    • VIII century - Turgesh Khaganate
    • VSH-X centuries - Karluk Khaganate
    • IX-XI centuries - Oghuz associations
    • VSH-XI centuries - associations of Kimaks and Kypchaks
      • The latter occupied the vast steppe spaces of modern Kazakhstan, called Desht-i-Kipchak
  • X-XII centuries - the emergence of the state of Karakhanids contributed to the ethnic unity of local tribes
    • At the beginning of the 12th century, the territory of Kazakhstan was invaded by the Khitan, who subsequently mixed with the local Turkic-speaking population
  • At the beginning of the XIII century - to the territory of modern Kazakhstan from the east from the regions modern Mongolia and the Naiman and Kereit tribes moved from Altai
    • The ensuing hostilities on the territory of Central Asia and eastern Turkestan led to intensive processes of percolation, displacement, fragmentation and unification of tribes of various origins.
    • around the middle of the XV century - on the ruins of the Golden Horde in its eastern part, the Kazakh Khanate arises
  • By the XV century - the Kazakh nation is finally formed into a centralized national state
  • The Kazakh people historically formed from three groups of zhuzes, each of which expressed primarily national interests:
    • The elder zhuz - Semirechie, included the tribes of Dulat, Alban, Suan, Kangly, Zhalaiyr, Sirgels, Shanshkyly, Shaprashty, Sary-Uisin, etc.
    • Middle zhuz - mainly Argyn, Naiman, Kypchak, Kerey, Konyrat, Uak tribes
    • Junior zhuz - consisted of tribal associations:
      • alim-uly - shomekey, karasakal, kara cake, shekty, kete
      • Bai-uly - Adai, Alasha, Zhappas, Berish, Sherkesh, Maskar, Tana, Baybakty, Kzylkurt, Esentemir, Ysyk and Taz
      • jeti-ru - genera Zhagal-bayly, kerderi, etc.
  • the beginning of the 19th century - the Inner or Bukey Horde separated from the Younger Zhuz and went beyond the Ural River
  • the beginning of the 20th century - the formal division into zhuzes actually disappeared
  • the beginning of the 1930s - a massive famine occurred as a result of the repressive Stalinist agricultural policy pursued in Kazakhstan by the first secretary of the Kazkraikom of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Filipp Goloshchekin, and which consisted in the forcible selection of livestock from the indigenous population. Left without a livelihood, about one and a half million inhabitants of the republic died, hundreds of thousands fled to China
    • Partially, this catastrophe is also recognized by Soviet sources. According to official data, according to the USSR Population Census of 1926, there were 3.968 million Kazakhs, and according to the 1939 census - only 3.1 million people. There is an opinion that the data of this census cannot be trusted, since, in order to hide the monstrous consequences of the famine, the data was repeatedly altered and falsified.
    • According to the All-Russian census of 1897, the number of citizens of the Russian Empire, who indicated the Kirghiz-Kaisatsky (Kazakh) language as their native language, was 4.08 million people, which was only about 3 million people less than all other peoples of the Middle Asia taken together (taking into account 3 million inhabitants of the Russian protectorates of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khiva Khanate, not covered by the census. If not for this famine, the population of modern Kazakhstan could be much larger than in reality.
  • Kazakhstan is currently pursuing a policy of repatriation ethnic Kazakhs, forced or voluntarily left the territory of the country, or found themselves outside its borders modern borders after the national-state delimitation in Central Asia, and their descendants living in other countries (the term is used oralmans)
    • In total, over the past two decades, up to 1 million ethnic Kazakhs have moved to Kazakhstan, according to official estimates.
    • The program is currently being implemented "Nurly kosh" for 2009-2011, (literal translation "bright migration", "bright moving"). The program was approved by the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated December 2, 2008 No. 1126. This state program for rational resettlement and assistance in settling: ethnic immigrants; former citizens of Kazakhstan who arrived to carry out labor activity on its territory; citizens of Kazakhstan living in disadvantaged areas of the country.
  • The ethnonym appeared in the 15th century, when in 1460, dissatisfied with the harsh policy of the Khan of the Uzbek ulus Abu-l-Khair, the sultans Zhanibek and Kerey with their auls migrated from the banks of the Syr Darya to the east in Semirechye, to the lands of the ruler of Moghulistan Yesen-buga, where they formed the Kazakh Khanate (1465). These tribes began to call themselves free people - "Cossack" (Kazaktar"), in Russian - "Kazakhs". In Kazakh speech in this word, both letters "k" are pronounced as a hard k, but the spelling "Kazakh" has taken root in modern Russian grammar During the century under this name (Khazakh) all Turkic-speaking nomadic tribes Eastern Polovtsian steppe | Desht-i-Kypchak, forming a single Kazakh Khanate (1465-1729) from the Irtysh to Itil (Volga). In Tsarist Russia, the current Kazakhs were called Kirghiz or Kirghiz-Kaisaks. Initially, the ethnonym "Kazakh" was fixed in the form "Cossack" in 1925 after the renaming of the Kirghiz ASSR into the Kazak ASSR, and in the form "Kazakh" after the transformation of the Kazak ASSR into the Kazakh SSR.

Population

  • There are different versions of the origin of the meaning of the word "Kazakh" in terms of the degree of reliability. The most substantiated to date is the following etymology:
    • Translated from the ancient Turkic word "Cossack" means " free, independent person, daring, adventurer "
  • The total number of Kazakhs - St. 14 million people
    • Kazakhstan - 10.5 million people
    • China - 1.4 ... 1.5 million people
    • Uzbekistan - 0.8 ... 1.1 million people
    • Russia - 654 thousand people
    • Mongolia - 140 thousand people
    • Turkmenistan - 40 ... 90 thousand people
    • Kyrgyzstan - 39 thousand people
    • Türkiye - 15 thousand people
    • Afghanistan - 13 thousand people
    • Iran - 12 thousand people
    • USA - about 10 thousand people.
    • Tajikistan - 900 people
    • France - 10 thousand people
    • Germany - 7 thousand people
    • Italy - 4 thousand people
  • The number of Kazakhs and their share in the population of Russia has been constantly increasing. Despite the fact that Kazakhs live compactly in the border regions, newspapers and magazines in the Kazakh language are not published in the Russian Federation, there is also no secondary education in the Kazakh language, but there are several dozen schools where the Kazakh language is taught as a separate subject
    • The Astrakhan region remains the subject of the Russian Federation, most actively cooperating with Kazakhstan, there is only one school in the Altai Territory, where teaching is conducted in the Kazakh language according to the program of the Kazakh department of public education and according to Kazakh textbooks

Religion

  • The traditional religious affiliation is Sunni Muslim with influence from the Sufi teachings of Ahmad Yasawi.
    • Madhab - Muslim legal school of Imam Abu Hanif
    • there are also minor groups of Shiites - Imamis
  • The penetration of Islam into the territory of modern Kazakhstan took place over several centuries, starting from southern regions. Initially, Islam established itself among the settled population of the Semirechye and the Syr Darya at the end of the 10th century.
    • For example, Islam was already in the Karakhanid Empire at the end of the 20th century.
    • At present, the bulk of the Kazakh population consider themselves Muslims and observe at least part of the rituals to one degree or another.
    • For example, the rite of circumcision - sunnet / sundet, is performed by the overwhelming majority of the believing part of the Kazakhs, almost all Kazakhs are buried according to Muslim rites. Although it should be noted that only a certain part (minority) regularly prays and observes other religious requirements.
    • Currently, there are 2,700 mosques in Kazakhstan, while in the Soviet period there were only 63. The number of believers has now increased, including Muslims.
  • The spread of Islam among the nomads was not as active as among the settled population of the Turkic peoples, since the traditional religion of the nomadic Turks was Tengrianism. But Islam continued to spread in the following centuries.
    • So Islam was accepted by Khan of the Golden Horde Berke (1255-1266) and Khan Uzbek (Ozbek) (1312-1340). At that time, the influence of the Sufi clergy was strong among the Turks. A huge contribution to the propaganda of Islam among the Kazakhs was made by the founder of the Sufi order Ahmet Yasawi, who died in 1166 in the city of Turkestan.
  • Tengrianism arose in a natural historical way on the basis of the people's worldview, which embodied both the early religious and mythological representations associated with the relationship of man to the surrounding nature and its elemental forces. Peculiar and feature This religion is the relationship of man with the world around him, nature. Tengrianism was generated by the deification of nature, the eternal sky above the head and the veneration of the spirits of ancestors. The Turks worshiped objects and phenomena of the surrounding world not out of fear of incomprehensible and formidable elemental forces, but out of a sense of gratitude to nature for the fact that, despite the sudden outbursts of its unbridled anger, it is often affectionate and generous. They knew how to look at nature as an animated being. The Tengrian faith gave the nomadic Turks the knowledge and ability to feel the spirit of nature, to be more aware of being a part of it, to live in harmony with it, to obey the rhythm of nature, to enjoy its endless changeability, to rejoice in its many-sided beauty. Everything was interconnected, and the nomadic Turks carefully treated the steppes, meadows, mountains, rivers, lakes, that is, nature as a whole, as bearing a divine imprint.

Language

  • The ancient Turkic peoples, who later became ancestors, including modern Kazakhs, played a significant role in the history of Eurasia. It should be noted that in the period from the 5th to the 15th century, the Turkic language was the language of interethnic communication in most of Eurasia. Even under the Mongol khans Batu and Munk, all official documents in the Golden Horde, international correspondence, in addition to Mongolian, were also conducted in the Turkic language.
  • The formation and development of a language close to the modern Kazakh language took place in the XIII-XIV centuries. It should be noted that the modern Kazakh language as a whole is very close to the old Kazakh.
  • From the 13th century until the beginning of the 20th century, there was a single literary Turkic language - "Turks", which laid the foundation for all local Turkic languages ​​in Central Asia.
  • Scientists for the first time discovered a monument of ancient Turkic runic writing on the territory of modern Khakassia. Later - on the territory of Tuva, Mongolia, Altai, Kazakhstan, Talas (Kyrgyzstan), etc.
  • The material for writing was the surface of a stone, wood, bone, coins, household items, etc. Archaeological exhibits with samples of ancient Turkic runic writing are stored, among other things, in the Kazakh State Museum.
  • The runic alphabet consisted of 24 letters and a word separator
    • by the 8th century, the alphabet of the classical period in the Orkhon variety consisted of 38 letters and a word separator.
    • In total, taking into account regional and chronological variants, there are more than 50 graphemes.
  • The language of the inscriptions made on ancient Turkic runic script was Orkhon-Yenisei language(named after the rivers Orkhon in Mongolia and Yenisei in Russia), which belonged to the Karluk group of Turkic languages ​​and precedes the Uzbek language.
  • As Islam spread and strengthened at the beginning of the 10th century, the Arabic alphabet began to become more widespread.
    • Of course, it was significantly changed and adapted to the norms of Turkic speech.
    • The main centers for the dissemination of Arabic writing among Turkic peoples there were the cities of Bolgar (in modern Tatarstan) and Khorezm (in modern Uzbekistan) located outside the territory of the settlement of Kazakhs, where Islam was entrenched in the X-XI centuries
    • The Islamization of the majority of Kazakhs and the perception of the Arabic script by the literate part of the population occurred in the 18th century.
  • 1912 - Akhmet Baitursynov reformed the Kazakh script on the basis of the Arabic script, making it possible for millions of Kazakhs living abroad to use it. He excluded all purely Arabic letters not used in the Kazakh language and added letters specific to the Kazakh language. The new alphabet, called " JANA EMLE (New spelling)”, is still used by Kazakhs living in China, Afghanistan, Iran.
  • During the Soviet period in Kazakhstan, for political purposes, the Kazakh alphabet was translated into:
    • Latin graphics (1929)
    • Cyrillic (1940)
  • Currently, the Kazakh language in Kazakhstan uses the Cyrillic alphabet, and there is a discussion on the feasibility of returning to the Latin script:
    • "Latin script dominates today in the communication space," said President N. Nazarbayev, speaking to the Assembly of Peoples of Kazakhstan. “We need to return to the issue of switching to the Latin alphabet of the Kazakh language,” he told delegates representing various ethnic groups Kazakhstan.
  • Modern Kazakhs are characterized by bilingualism:
    • 75% of Kazakhs in Kazakhstan speak Russian fluently
    • 81% of Kazakhs in Kyrgyzstan are fluent in Russian
    • 98% of Kazakhs in Russia are fluent in Russian
  • Among the Kazakhs of China and Mongolia, the majority, along with Kazakh, also speaks Chinese and Mongolian, respectively.
  • In modern Kazakhstan, the development of Kazakh-Russian and Russian-Kazakh bilingualism is one of the priorities national policy Nursultan Nazarbaev.

Kitchen

  • The main dishes are meat. One of the popular Kazakh dishes is called " ET (Meat)”, this dish is often called and known in Russian-language literature and the press as beshbarmak, from boiled fresh lamb with pieces of rolled boiled dough ( kamyr). Also popular:
    • kuyrdak- fried pieces of liver, kidneys, lungs, heart, etc.
    • kespe or salma- noodles
    • sorpa- meat broth
    • ak-sorpa- milk soup with meat, or just meat soup with kurt
  • The main dishes often also include a variety of boiled sausages:
    • kazy- horsemeat sausage, divided according to the degree of fat content
    • map
    • shuzhyk
  • Previously, the main dishes also included the stuffed stomach, once popular with shepherds, baked in ashes (similar to haggis), but now it belongs to the exotic even among the Kazakhs.
  • Popular dishes are:
    • Sirne- roasted young lamb cooked in a cauldron with onions and potatoes
    • palau- pilaf in Kazakh big amount meat and carrots
  • Of the fish dishes, the most famous cocktail- strung on willow branches, char-grilled fish seasoned with vegetables
  • Mutton, beef, horsemeat, less often camel meat are widely used for cooking. The use of fish and seafood is traditional for the inhabitants of the Caspian and Aral coasts. In connection with nomadic way life, the bird was not bred, and was present only as a game for hunters.
  • Except meat dishes, there is a wide variety of dairy dishes and drinks:
    • koumiss- sour mare's milk
    • shubat- sour camel milk
    • day - cow's milk
    • ayran- kefir
    • kaimak- sour cream
    • kilegei- cream
    • sary-may - butter
    • suzbe- cottage cheese
    • katyk- the average between yogurt and cottage cheese
    • Kurt- dried salted cottage cheese
    • irimshyk- dried sheep's milk cheese
    • hut or ashmal- liquid yogurt, etc.
  • Tea is the main drink. Any dastarkhan ends with tea drinking. Moreover, tea in Kazakh is strong tea with cream, just like tea in English. The consumption of tea by the inhabitants of Kazakhstan is one of the highest in the world - 1.2 kg per person per year.
    • For comparison, in India it is only 650 grams per capita.
  • Famous sweets include shortpack- This is a mixture of honey and horse fat from "kazy". It was mostly on the dastarkhan of the Kazakh bais.
  • The main varieties of traditional bread:
    • baursaks- fried in boiling oil in a cauldron round or square pieces of dough
    • schelpek And taba-nan- thin cakes fried in boiling oil
    • tandoor- cakes in clay pans baked under dung
    • taba-nan(taba - pan) - bread baked on coals, the dough is baked between two pans
    • shek shek- chak-chak
    • tandoor-nan- bread baked in a tandoor oven
      • The most common are baursaks, as they are easily cooked in field conditions - in a cauldron, and now they are traditionally prepared for any holiday, being an additional decoration. holiday table, while the tandoor requires tandoor ovens and was baked mainly in sedentary places (cities on the Great Silk Road, some winter camps with pastures (kystau - winter huts).
    • Also: talkan, zharma, zhent, balauyz, balkaimak

Kinds of sports

  • Baiga- jump to a distance of 10…100 shakyrym(one “shakyrym” is approximately equal to half a kilometer. Usually it was equal to the distance from which it was possible to shout to another person and call him: “ shakir" - "call for")
  • Alaman-baige- long-distance races (40 shakyryms)
  • Coonan-baige- races of young horses - two years old
  • Zhorga-zharys- horse races
  • Kyz kuu(chasing a girl) - horseback riding between a girl and a guy
  • Kokpar- goat-wrestling - the struggle of horsemen for the carcass of a goat
  • tenge alu- pick up a coin at a gallop and other horse riding
  • Sayys- wrestling on horseback
  • Kazakhsha kures- national Kazakh wrestling
  • Togyz kumalak- nine balls - board game
  • Asyk- game with lamb knee bones on the court (similar to the game of grandmas)
  • Burkut-salu- falconry until the first game
  • Zhamby atu- shooting at a high-hanging "jamba" target on a fast galloping horse
  • Tartyspak- team riding game for pulling off horses

Traditions

  • Modern Kazakhstan is experiencing a period of national revival and the revival of national statehood
  • Previously, there was a conscious elimination and destruction of traditions throughout the twentieth century. During the seventy years of the Soviet period, traditions were fought in Kazakhstan as “remnants of the past”

Sources

  • "National composition and language skills, citizenship"

24048 29-12-2017, 00:08

Where did the "Kazakhs" come from: how and when did the name of our people appear?

ENG ENG KZ


Recently, in mid-December, some Kazakhstani publications published a “sensational” article under the same heading “Historians figured out what the ethnonym “Kazakh” means. And then there is a repeating one-to-one text: “For 80 years, historians have been trying to figure out what the ethnonym “Kazakh” means. Archaeologists Victor Seibert, Alexander Kislenko, Vladimir Zaitov (unfortunately, now deceased), Oleg Martynyuk and Anatoly Pleshakov in their research came close to unraveling it. It is known from various sources that the ancestors of the Kazakhs were called Scythians. They called themselves simply - "sak". In all Turkic languages ​​it means "vigilant", "cautious", "guarding". But what does the prefix "ka" mean? It turns out that in the ancient Turkic languages ​​this short word meant "great". For example, "ka-khan" is no longer just "khan", but "great khan". That is, “ka-sak” can be translated as “great sak”.

We could be called Kipchaks…
Professional historians were rather skeptical about the next "sensation".
According to a specialist in medieval history Kazakhstan, Academician-Arabist Bulat Kumekov to deal with the etymology of terms, one must at least have a serious philological education.
“In the last quarter of a century, it has become typical to express your opinion about historical events and phenomena without relying on reliable sources,” he says. - Meanwhile, the study of the etymology of any term involves not only knowledge of the relevant literature and the study of phonetic consonances. You also need to be aware of the specific historical context, geographical environment, economic and cultural type, mores and customs of the people. And even in this case, source scholars very rarely manage to come to an agreed opinion. However, non-specialists (or, if you like, dilettantes) are not embarrassed by ignorance of all this. For them, for example, the Turkic Khazars who lived far from each other and the Afghan Khazars are one and the same people. They make such a conclusion on the basis of only phonetic consonance.
As for the self-name "Kazakhs" ... The formation of the Kazakh people was long and difficult. It was, in fact, the process of ethnic interaction between the local population and the population that came to the territory of Kazakhstan, which lasted for three millennia. At one time, we almost began to be called Kipchaks, then - Uzbeks, but history decreed otherwise.
Let me remind you that on the ruins of the Turkic Khaganate a whole line state structures. In the west (Caucasus and the Western Caspian) - the Khazar Khaganate, on the Volga - the state of the Bulgars, and on the territory of present-day Kazakhstan three states appeared: the Oghuz - on the Syr Darya, the Karluks - in Zhetysu and the Kimeks - in the Irtysh basin. In the east, on the Yenisei, the state of the Kyrgyz arose, and on the territory of Mongolia - the Uighur Khaganate. All these formations continued the ancient Turkic traditions - political, social and cultural.
The Kipchaks, who at that time settled in the territory of Central Kazakhstan and the Southern Urals, were politically dependent on the Kimek Khaganate, formed in the 9th century on the territory of Eastern and Central Kazakhstan. This continued until the beginning of the 11th century, when the Kipchak rulers seized power and formed their own state - the Kipchak Khanate. That is, they turned out to be the heirs of the Kimek state.
Having strengthened due to the potential of the latter, the Kipchaks began to expand their territory. Soon they forced the Oguzes out of the Syrdarya basin. The vast territory captured by them - from the Irtysh to the Caspian Sea - in foreign historiography began to be called Desht-i-Kypchak (the steppe of the Kypchaks). For the first time this ethno-geographical term was mentioned by Nasir-i-Khusrau, a Persian poet of the 11th century. Thus began the Kipchak era.

The winner spoke the language of the vanquished
By the beginning of the 13th century, the stage of formation of such a people as the Kypchaks was already completed, but this process was interrupted by the Mongol invasion. And when they talk about the negative consequences of that invasion, then, first of all, it is not about the destruction of cities (not a single war can do without it). And not even about physical extermination a large number people (there are no good or bad wars, there is resistance and there is destruction - this is a natural process). It's about that the Mongols interrupted the formation of the Kypchak people at its final stage and put an end to the powerful state - the Kypchak Khanate.
With the arrival of the Mongols, as the Russian chronicles testify, the so-called Golden Horde was formed - a copy of the Altyn-Orda, better known as the Ulus of Jochi or the Ulus of Batu, and in many sources as the state of Desht-i-Kypchak or even the Kypchak Khanate or the Kuman kingdom. Why? Yes, because already in the second half of the 13th century, in the confrontation between two cultures and traditions - Mongolian and Kypchak - the latter took over. And, as a result, the descendants of Genghis Khan - Genghisides - began to belong political power, and to the Kypchaks - spiritual.
Moving into early XII I century to the west, Genghis Khan understood perfectly well that if there was a force that could stop him, then only the Kypchaks. Wherever he invaded with his army before, he easily managed to hold on to power: the Mongols, in their military potential, far exceeded any settled agricultural state.

While the Kypchaks were the same as themselves, the steppe way of life, as well as the corresponding traditions and culture, operated on their territory.
Therefore, they could defeat the Kypchaks only through diplomacy, cunning and setting them against each other, and, of course, the destruction of the el-borili dynastic family. Prior to this, Genghis Khan did exactly the same with the Tatar tribes - so that no one could challenge the power of his and his descendants on the territory of Mongolia, he dealt with the dynastic family, which could lay claim to public administration.
Due to the above reasons, towards the end of the 13th century, the process of Kypchakization and Turkization began not only of the Mongolian dynastic branch - Chingizids, but also of all the Mongols who were on the territory of Desht-i-Kypchak. The invaders spoke the Kypchak language and adhered to the traditions of the people they conquered. The Arab traveler al-Omari testified: "all the Tatars (Mongols) became like Kipchaks."
By the way, the power structure of the Genghisides influenced the plots of genealogical legends - shezhire. Trying to get closer to the political elite, some Turkic structures became the authors of far-fetched lines. For example, such as if the Turk and the Mongol are the sons of the same father.
The state of Ak-Orda, which appeared at the end of the 13th century, became the first state formation on the territory of Kazakhstan in the post-Mongolian period. It was based on the Kipchak structure, only the power belonged to the Genghisides who had assimilated among the local population. Their rule, capturing the period of formation of the Kazakh Khanate, continued until the 19th century, until the Kazakhs became part of Russia.

... And the Kypchaks became Uzbeks
By the middle of the XIV century, the term "Kypchak" again spread to the entire territory of Desht-i Kipchak. Powerful Kipchak traditions and culture absorbed the spirituality of all other steppe ethnic groups. And therefore, other tribes that settled here gradually began to call themselves Kipchaks, although they were not such. But the Genghisides, in whose hands the political power was, could not allow the formation of a people under such a name. In addition, the Kypchaks soon scattered around the world - from Western Europe and Rus' to India and the Arab countries. And in the second half of the 14th century, on the territory of Desht-i-Kypchak, the ethno-political term "Uzbek" began to prevail over the term "Kypchak". From now on living here ethnic community, with the exception of the Mughals - the inhabitants of Moghulistan (Zhetysu), began to call themselves Uzbeks.
The formation of a people under this name was prevented by certain historical events. First of all - the struggle for power. In Desht-i-Kypchak, several branches of Chingizids ruled - the sons of Prince Jochi: the descendants of the eldest son (Orda-Ezhen) and the fifth (Shiban).
The reign of the Horde-Ezhen branch was interrupted at the beginning of the 15th century - the throne in Desht-i-Kypchak was seized by Abulkhair, a representative of the Shibanid dynasty. Zhanibek and Kerey, the descendants of Orda-Ezhen, trying to regain, as they believed, the power that was legally theirs, entered into a confrontation with him. But Abulkhair drove them out in 1459 to the territory of Moghulistan. From that moment on, the name Uzbek-Kazakhs was assigned to all the tribes that separated with him. And there were also Uzbek Nogai, Uzbek Karluks, Uzbek Mangyts, etc.
A caveat should be made here. The concept of "Kazakh" (қазақ) originally had social significance. So they called everyone who separated from the main clan. The Russian orientalist Tursun Sultanov discovered a very curious example in Persian sources: even a feral cat was called “Kazakh”. So, Zhanibek and Kerey, being nomadic Uzbeks, separated from the main mass and became Uzbek-Kazakhs. Having moved to Moghulistan (Zhetysu), they began to gather forces in order to again wage a struggle for power in Desht-i-Kypchak. Abulkhair, in order to prevent their performance, in 1468 he himself moved to meet them, but along the way he fell ill and soon died of a common cold. As a result, Zhanibek and Kerey won the fight against the descendants of Abulkhair and continued to rule great steppe along the line of the Horde-Ezhena dynasty.
1470 is the year of the official appearance on the historical arena of the Kazakh Khanate. A number of researchers believe that this happened much earlier - in their opinion, the report should begin from the time when Zhanibek and Kerey moved to Moghulistan. However, the state must have certain attributes: territory, administrative-military system and, finally, diplomatic relations with other states. Zhanibek and Kerey had land, but it was allocated to them by the Mughal rulers. Having moved to Desht-i-Kypchak, they lost it. Therefore, it would be more correct to consider that the beginning of the emergence of the Kazakh state was laid in the process of secession. It ended in 1470, when Zhanibek and Kerey seized power in Desht-i-Kypchak.
For the nomads who remained in Desht-i-Kypchak, the name “Kazakh” was assigned. Thus, the term "Kazakhstan" (country of Kazakhs) appeared in the 15th century, and at the beginning of the next century it began to be mentioned in written sources. However, this does not mean that the Kazakh people appeared at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. No, this process was lengthy. In the XIV - XV centuries, such a people was already formed, it only underwent a change of self-name. As mentioned above, the word "Kazakh" before that had a social, then a socio-political meaning, although usually the names of many peoples have the original ethnonym. For example, the term “Armenians” appeared much earlier than the moment when the tribe, and then the union of tribes under this name, became a nationality, then a people, and, finally, a nation.
Kazakhs, before finding their own ethnic name and statehood, had to go through a very long haul.
Some scholars, referring to Byzantine sources, argue that the people called "Kasakhi", "Kosokhi" were known as early as the 9th-10th centuries. But this is nothing more than a philological consonance. In fact, speech this case we are talking about kosogs, representatives of the Caucasian people, who have a completely different language, other anthropological features that are different from the nomadic way of life, traditions and way of life.
And here is how the fate of those who left Desht-i-Kipchak developed. In 1500, the grandson of Abulkhair Khan, Muhammad Shaibani, forced out by Zhanibek and Kerey, with a large group of nomadic tribes (there were Naimans, Kipchaks, Karluks, and Kanglis), was forced to leave for Central Asia. The local population conquered by the nomads began to be called Uzbeks, but the Uzbek nomadic tribes - the Kipchaks and Karluks - until the 20-30s of the twentieth century did not consider themselves to be the local people - the Sarts. Preserving the traditions associated with the steppe way of life (nomadism, cattle breeding), they gravitated more to the Kazakhs.

Historically, they consisted of three large associations-zhuzes: the Senior Zhuz, the Middle Zhuz and the Junior Zhuz.

The language is Kazakh, which is part of the Kypchak subgroup of the Turkic group of languages.

The Kazakhs are a people of Turkic origin with a complex ethnic history. The ancient roots of the material culture and anthropological type of the Kazakhs can be traced archaeologically among the tribes of the Bronze Age that lived on the territory of Kazakhstan. The ancient ancestors of the Kazakhs were Saks, Massagets, Huns, who lived on the territory of modern Kazakhstan and Central Asia. In the III-II centuries. BC e. On the territory of Southern Kazakhstan, a tribal association of the Usuns arose, and in the South-West lived tribes that were part of the tribal union Kangyuy (Kangly). In the first centuries A.D. e. The Alans lived to the west of the Aral Sea. In the VI-VII centuries. the tribes inhabiting the southeastern part of Kazakhstan were under the rule of the Western Turkic Khaganate. At the same time, tribes that came from the East (Turgeshs, Karluks, etc.) settled on the territory of Kazakhstan. Subsequently, short-term political associations of the early feudal type appeared in various regions of Kazakhstan: Turgesh (VIII century) and Karluk (VIII-X centuries) kaganates, associations of Oghuz (IX-XI centuries), Kimaks and Kypchaks (VIII-XI centuries). The latter occupied the vast steppe spaces of modern Kazakhstan, called Desht-i-Kipchak. IN X-XI centuries in the west of Kazakhstan there were khanates of the Polovtsy, consisting of the Kypchak tribes. At the beginning of the XII century, the territory of Kazakhstan was invaded by the Khitans. They subsequently mixed with the local Turkic-speaking population. In the 13th century it was formed Golden Horde: the territory from the Black Sea to Sea of ​​Azov, territories of the Caspian and Aral basins. After the collapse of the Golden Horde, the Kazakh Khanate arose in its eastern part around the middle of the 15th century. But internecine wars, separatism, intrigues of external and internal enemies led to the fragmentation and weakening of the Kazakh Khanate. By the 15th century, the centralized Kazakh state was finally formed, into which almost all Kazakh clans joined, united by one language and culture. During the time of Yesim-Khan, in 1625, some Naimans, who roamed in the possessions of the Khiva Khanate, joined, and in the 18th century, Konyrats from the nomads of Bukhara joined.
A Kazakh woman in a wedding dress on a horse.

The Kazakh people historically developed from three groups zhuzes:

Senior zhuz (Seven Rivers) - included the tribes Dulat, Alban, Suan, Kangly, Zhalaiyr, Sirgeli, Shanshykyly, Shaprashty, Uisin, Shakty, Ysty;
Middle zhuz - mainly Argyn, Naiman, Kipchak, Kerey, Konyrat, Uak, Tarakty tribes;
The younger zhuz - consisted of tribal associations Alimuly (kinds Shomekey, Karasakal, Karakesek, Tortkara, Shekty, Kete), Bayuly (kinds Adai, Alash, Zhappas, Altyn, [[Bersh / Berish]], Sherkesh, Maskar, Tana, Baybakty, kzylkurt, esentemir, ysyk and taz) and zhetiru (genus zhagalbayly, kerderi, tama, tabyn, teleu, ramadan, kereyt).

In the Junior Zhuz early XIX century, the tsarist government of Russia created and maintained the Internal, or Bukey Horde.

According to 1890 data published in the Alphabetical List of Peoples Living in the Russian Empire, the Kirghiz-Kaisaks (that is, Kazakhs) lived on the territory of the Orenburg and Astrakhan provinces, Semipalatinsk, Semirechensk, Turgai and Ural regions with a total number of 3 million people.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the Kazakhs had not yet formed into a single nation. As V. I. Bushkov and L. S. Tolstova write, the ethnic consolidation of the Kazakh people has not yet been completed. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were more than 40 large tribal groups among the Kazakhs. encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron, published in late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, noted that individuals from the Kirghiz-Kaisaks (then the Russian name for the Kazakhs) sometimes designate their nationality with the common name "Khasak", but more often define it by the name of the clan to which they consider themselves to belong.

The formal division into zhuzes actually disappeared by the beginning of the 20th century.
Postage stamp depicting traditional Kazakh costumes and yurts
Famine of 1932-1933

Famine in Kazakhstan in 1932-1933, Little October

Mass famine occurred in the early 30s as a result of the repressive Stalinist agricultural policy pursued in Kazakhstan by the first secretary of the Kazkraykom of the CPSU Filipp Goloshchekin and which consisted in the forcible selection of livestock from the indigenous population. Left without a livelihood, about one and a half million inhabitants of the republic died, hundreds of thousands fled to China. Partially, this catastrophe is also recognized by Soviet sources. According to official data, according to the All-Union Census of the USSR in 1926, there were 3.968 million Kazakhs, and according to the 1939 census - only 3.1 million people. There is an opinion that the data of this census cannot be trusted, since, in order to hide the monstrous consequences of the famine, the data were repeatedly altered and falsified. According to the All-Russian census of 1897, the number of citizens of the Russian Empire who indicated Kazakh as their native language was 4.08 million people, which was only about 0.1 million less than all other peoples of Central Asia combined (excluding 1 million residents of the Russian protectorates of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva, not covered by the census), see Census of the Russian Empire (1897). If not for the famine, the population of modern Kazakhstan could be much larger than it is now.
Repatriation of ethnic Kazakhs to Kazakhstan

Nurly kosh

Currently, Kazakhstan is pursuing a policy of repatriation of ethnic Kazakhs who were forced or voluntarily left the territory of the country or found themselves outside its modern borders after the national-state demarcation in Central Asia, and their descendants living in other countries (the term oralman is used). In total, over the past 2 decades, up to 1 million ethnic Kazakhs have moved to Kazakhstan, according to official estimates.

Currently, the program "Nurly Kosh" for 2009-2011 is being implemented (Kazakh Nurly Kosh, the literal translation is "bright roaming", "bright crossing"). The program was approved by the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated December 2, 2008 No. 1126. This Government program Republic of Kazakhstan for rational resettlement and assistance in the arrangement: ethnic immigrants; former citizens of Kazakhstan who arrived to carry out labor activities on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan; citizens of Kazakhstan living in disadvantaged areas of the country.
The ethnonym "Kazakh"

The ethnonym "Kazakh" appeared in the 15th century, when in 1460, dissatisfied with the harsh policy of the Khan of the Uzbek ulus (the main Tatar ulus of the Golden Horde, not to be confused with modern Uzbeks), Abu-l-Khaira, the sultans Zhanibek and Kerey with their villages migrated from the coast Syr Darya to the east in Semirechie, on the lands of the ruler of Moghulistan Yesen-buga, where they formed the Kazakh Khanate (1465). These tribes began to call themselves free people - "Kazakh" ("Kazakhtar"), in Russian - "Kazakhs". In Kazakh speech in this word, both letters "k" are pronounced as a solid Қ, but since 1936, the spelling "kazakh" has been established in modern Russian orthography. After the fragmentation of the eastern part of the Ulus of Chagatai of the state of Moghulistan, the Kazakh ulus will be strengthened by the Mogul clans of Moghulistan.

In Tsarist Russia, the current Kazakhs were called Kirghiz or Kirghiz-Kaisaks, so as not to be confused with Russian Cossacks. The misuse of the ethnonyms "Kazakh" and "Kyrgyz" before the revolution was associated with the mistakes of incompetent authors and administration. Back in 1827, A. I. Levshin argued that “the Kirghiz is the name of a completely different people ... the name Cossack ... belongs to the Kirghiz-Kaisak hordes from the beginning of their existence, they don’t call themselves otherwise.” Initially, the ethnonym "Kazakh" was fixed in the form "Cossack" in 1925 in Soviet Russia after the renaming of the Kirghiz ASSR into the Kazakh ASSR, and in the form of "Kazakh" after the transformation of the Kazakh ASSR into the Kazakh SSR.

Existing versions of the origin of the meaning of the word "Kazakh":

The word "Cossack" means "a free, independent person, a daredevil, an adventurer."

population

The total number of Kazakhs - St. 14 million people.

Kazakhstan - 10.5 million people
China - 1.4 - 1.5 million people
Uzbekistan - 0.8 - 1.1 million people
Russia - 648 thousand people
Mongolia - 102 thousand people
Turkmenistan - up to 40 thousand people.
Kyrgyzstan - 39 thousand people
Iran - 3-4 thousand people.
Tajikistan - 900 people

Kazakhs in China

At present, twice as many Kazakhs live in China than in the Russian Federation - about 1.4 million people. The bulk of the Kazakhs live in the XUAR (about 1.25 million people), where a system of national autonomous entities has been created for them: the majority of the Kazakhs of the PRC live in the Ili-Kazakh Autonomous Okrug (ICAO); also live in the Barkel-Kazakh Autonomous County as part of the Khami District and Mory-Kazakh Autonomous County (as part of the Changji-Hui autonomous region). In addition to these autonomous entities in the Chinese province of Gansu, there is the Aksai-Kazakh Autonomous County. Kazakhs in China are among the small ethnic groups with state status.

In the XUAR of the PRC there are schools teaching in the Kazakh language, more than 50 newspapers and magazines in the Kazakh language are published, there are 3 TV channels that broadcast 7 days a week.

The state restriction "One family - one child" does not apply to Kazakhs in China.

Kazakhs in Russia

The number of Kazakhs and their share in the population of Russia has been constantly increasing. Kazakhs live compactly in the border regions. In the Astrakhan region, a newspaper is published in the Kazakh language (“Ak Arna”), in a number of regions there are several dozen schools where the Kazakh language is taught as a separate subject, there is one school in the Altai Republic, where the Kazakh language is taught according to the program of the Kazakh department of public education and according to Kazakh textbooks, but at the same time, there is no secondary education in the Kazakh language in Russia.

Kazakhs in Uzbekistan

Religion
Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in the city of Turkestan

The traditional religious affiliation is Sunni Muslims. The traditional madhhab (Muslim legal school) of Imam Abu Hanif, aqida (belief) based on the teachings of Imam Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (one of the 3 classical Sunni aqida).

The penetration of Islam into the territory of modern Kazakhstan took place over several centuries, starting from the southern regions. Initially, Islam established itself among the settled population of the Semirechye and the Syr Darya at the end of the 10th century. For example, Islam was already in the Karakhanid Empire at the end of the 10th century. At present, the bulk of the Kazakh population consider themselves Muslims and observe at least part of the rituals to one degree or another. For example, the rite of circumcision (sunnet / sundet) is performed by the overwhelming majority of the believing part of the Kazakhs, almost all Kazakhs are buried according to Muslim rites. Although it should be noted that only a certain part (minority) regularly prays and observes other religious requirements. Currently, there are 2,700 mosques in Kazakhstan, while in the Soviet period there were only 63. The number of believers has now increased, including Muslims.
Mosque named after Mashkhur Zhusup

The spread of Islam among the nomads was not as active as among the settled population of the Turkic peoples, since the traditional religion of the nomadic Turks was Tengrianism. But Islam continued to spread in the following centuries. So Islam was accepted by Khan of the Golden Horde Berke (1255-1266) and Khan Uzbek (Khan Ozbek) 1312-1340). At that time, the influence of the Sufi clergy was strong among the Turks. A huge contribution to the propaganda of Islam among the Kazakhs was made by the founder of the Sufi order Yasaviya Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, who died in 1166 in the city of Turkestan.

Tengrianism

Tengrianism arose in a natural historical way on the basis of the people's worldview, which embodied both early religious and mythological ideas related to man's attitude to the surrounding nature and its elemental forces. A peculiar and characteristic feature of this religion is the kinship of a person with the world around him, nature. Tengrianism was generated by the deification of nature, the eternal sky above the head and the veneration of the spirits of ancestors. The Turks worshiped objects and phenomena of the surrounding world not out of fear of incomprehensible and formidable elemental forces, but out of a sense of gratitude to nature for the fact that, despite the sudden outbursts of its unbridled anger, it is often affectionate and generous. They knew how to look at nature as an animated being. The Tengrian faith gave the nomadic Turks the knowledge and ability to feel the spirit of nature, to be more aware of being a part of it, to live in harmony with it, to obey the rhythm of nature, to enjoy its endless changeability, to rejoice in its many-sided beauty. Everything was interconnected, and the nomadic Turks carefully treated the steppes, meadows, mountains, rivers, lakes, that is, nature as a whole, as bearing a divine imprint.
Language and writing

Kazakh language, Kazakh writing

The Kazakh language belongs to the Turkic group of languages, is included in the Kypchak subgroup of Turkic languages ​​(Tatar, Bashkir, Karachay-Balkarian, Kumyk, Karaite, Crimean Tatar, Karakalpak, Karagach, Nogai). Together with the Nogai, Karakalpak and Karagach languages, it belongs to the Kypchak-Nogai branch. The closest relatives of the Kazakhs are Karakalpaks, Nogays, Tatars. Representatives of these peoples can easily communicate with each other without an interpreter.

The ancient Turkic peoples, who later became the ancestors of modern Kazakhs, played a significant role in the history of Eurasia. It should be noted that in the period from the 5th to the 15th century, the Turkic language was the language of interethnic communication in most of Eurasia. Even under the Mongol khans Batu and Munk, all official documents in the Golden Horde, international correspondence, in addition to Mongolian, were also conducted in the Turkic language. The formation and development of a language close to the modern Kazakh language took place in the XIII-XIV centuries. It should be noted that the modern Kazakh language as a whole is very close to the old Kazakh. From the 13th to the beginning of the 20th century, there was a single literary Turkic language - "Turks", which laid the foundation for all local Turkic languages ​​in Central Asia.

Scientists for the first time discovered a monument of ancient Turkic runic writing on the territory of modern Khakassia. Later - on the territory of Tuva, Mongolia, Altai, Kazakhstan, Talas (Kyrgyzstan), etc. The material for writing was the surface of a stone, wood, bone, coins, household items, etc. Archaeological exhibits with samples of ancient Turkic runic writing are stored, including in the Kazakh State Museum.

The runic alphabet consisted of 24 letters and the word separating sign, to 8th century the alphabet of the classical period in the Orkhon variety consisted of 38 letters and a word with a separating sign. In total, taking into account regional and chronological variants, there are more than 50 graphemes. The language of the inscriptions made in the ancient Turkic runic script was the Orkhon-Yenisei language (named after the Orkhon in Mongolia and the Yenisei in Russia), which belonged to the Karluk group of Turkic languages ​​and preceded the Uzbek language.

With the spread and strengthening of Islam at the beginning of the 10th century. the Arabic alphabet is becoming more and more widespread. Of course, it was significantly changed and adapted to the norms of Turkic speech. The main centers for the spread of Arabic writing among the Turkic peoples were the cities of Bulgar (in modern Tatarstan) and Khorezm (in modern Uzbekistan), located outside the territory of the Kazakh settlement, where Islam was entrenched as early as the 10th-11th centuries. The Islamization of the majority of Kazakhs and the perception of the Arabic script by the literate part of the population occurred in the 18th century.

In 1912, Akhmet Baitursynov reformed the Kazakh script on the basis of the Arabic script, making it possible for millions of Kazakhs living abroad to use it. He excluded all purely Arabic letters not used in the Kazakh language and added letters specific to the Kazakh language. The new alphabet, called "Zhana emle" ("New spelling"), is still used by Kazakhs living in China, Afghanistan, Iran.

During the Soviet period in Kazakhstan, for political purposes, the Kazakh alphabet was translated into Latin script (Latinization, 1929), and then another translation was carried out already into Cyrillic (Cyrilization, 1940). Currently, the Kazakh language in Kazakhstan uses the Cyrillic alphabet, and discussions are underway on the feasibility of returning to the Latin script.

"Latin script dominates today in the communication space," said President N. Nazarbayev, speaking to the Assembly of Peoples of Kazakhstan. "We need to return to the issue of switching to the Latin alphabet of the Kazakh language," he told delegates representing various ethnic groups in Kazakhstan.

Modern Kazakhs are characterized by bilingualism. Thus, 75% of Kazakhs in Kazakhstan are fluent in Russian, in Kyrgyzstan 81% of Kazakhs are fluent in Russian, and in Russia 98% of Kazakhs are fluent in Russian. Among the Kazakhs of China and Mongolia, the majority, along with Kazakh, also speaks Chinese and Mongolian, respectively.

In modern Kazakhstan, the development of Kazakh-Russian and Russian-Kazakh bilingualism is one of the priorities of national policy.
Life and culture

Kazy - delicacy horse meat

The main dishes are meat. One of the popular Kazakh dishes is called "Et" (meat), this dish is often called and known in Russian-language literature and the press as beshbarmak, boiled fresh lamb with pieces of rolled boiled dough (kamyr). Also popular are kuyrdak (fried pieces of liver, kidneys, lungs, heart, etc.), kespe or salma (noodles), sorpa (meat broth), ak-sorpa (milk soup with meat, or just meat soup with kurt). The main dishes often also include a variety of boiled sausages - kazy (horse meat sausage, divided according to the degree of fat content), karta, shuzhyk. Previously, the stuffed stomach, once popular among shepherds, baked in ashes (analogous to haggis), was also included in the main dishes, but now it belongs to the exotic even among the Kazakhs.

Popular dishes are: “sirne” (fried young lamb cooked in a cauldron with onions and potatoes) and “palau” (Kazakh pilaf with lots of meat and carrots)

Of the fish dishes, the most famous is “koktal” - fish strung on willow branches, fried on coals, seasoned with vegetables.
Kuyrdak - traditional Kazakh meat dish

Mutton, beef, horsemeat, less often camel meat are widely used for cooking. The use of fish and seafood is traditional for the inhabitants of the Caspian and Aral coasts. Due to the nomadic way of life, the bird was not bred, and was present only as a game for hunters.

In addition to meat dishes, there is a wide variety of dairy dishes and drinks: koumiss (sour mare's milk), shubat (sour camel's milk), sut (cow's milk), airan (kefir), kaymak (sour cream), kilegey (cream), sary-may (butter), suzbe (cottage cheese), katyk (middle between yogurt and cottage cheese), kurt (dried salted cottage cheese), irimshyk (dried sheep's milk cottage cheese), shalap or ashmal (liquid yogurt), kozhe (milk drink with cereals) and others. Of the drinks, tea is the main one. Any dastarkhan ends with tea drinking. Moreover, tea in Kazakh is strong tea with cream, just like tea in English. The consumption of tea by the inhabitants of Kazakhstan is one of the highest in the world - 1.2 kilograms per person per year. For comparison, in India it is only 650 grams per capita.

Famous sweets include "shertpek" - a mixture of honey and horse fat from "kazy". It was mostly on the dastarkhan of the Kazakh bais.

Three types of traditional bread: baursaks - round or square pieces of dough fried in boiling oil in a cauldron; cakes fried in boiling oil - shelpek; "taba-nan" - cakes in clay pans, baked under dung; tandoor - cakes baked in the tandoor .. The most common are baursaks and shelpeks, as they are easily cooked in field conditions - in a cauldron, and now they are traditionally prepared for any holiday, being an additional decoration of the festive table, while tandoor requires tandoor ovens and baked mainly in sedentary places (cities on the Great Silk Road, some winter camps with pastures (kystau - winter huts).

Also: "talkan", "zharma", "zhent", "balauyz", "balkaymak"
national views sports

Commemorative coin of Kazakhstan "Kyz Kuu" from the series " National rites and games", 2008

Baiga - a jump at a distance of 10 - 100 shakyrym (one "shakyrym" - approximately equal to half a kilometer. Usually it was equal to the distance from which you could shout to another person and call him: "shakyru" - "call").
Alaman-baige - long-distance races (40 shakyryms).
Kunan-baige - races of young horses - two years old.
Zhorga-zharys - races of pacers.
Kyz kuu (chasing a girl) - horseback riding between a girl and a guy.
Kokpar - goat-wrestling (the struggle of horsemen for the carcass of a goat).
Tenge alu - raise a coin at a gallop and other horse riding.
Sayys - wrestling, sitting on horseback.
Kazakhsha kures - national Kazakh wrestling.
Togyz-kumalak - nine balls (board game).
Asyk - a game of lamb knee bones on the court (similar to the game of grandmas).
Burkut-salu - falconry until the first game.
Zhamby atu - shooting at a high-hanging target "jamby" on horseback on a fast galloping horse.
Tartyspak is a team riding game for dragging horses.

Kazakh traditions

Modern Kazakhstan is going through a period of national revival and the revival of national statehood.

Previously, there was a conscious elimination and destruction of traditions throughout the twentieth century. During the seventy years of the Soviet period, traditions were fought in Kazakhstan as "remnants of the past."