Historical Connections between the Kazakhs and the Uzbek Khanates in the 18th Century, According to the Works of Central Asian Authors of the Modern Period

Research Article

Abstract

This article researches Arabic-script manuscript works produced by historiographers of Kokand, Khiva, Bukhara, and Tashkent. The research aims to identify valuable written sources on the historical connections between the Kazakhs and the peoples of the Central Asian region in the 18th century. The modern period of Central Asian historical literature is represented by chronicles of both official and private character. The authors of these narrative works came from diverse social classes and expressed the interests of either the central or local ruling elites. The use of diversified historical writings in the research makes it possible to develop a fuller and more objective understanding of the region’s political situation during the researched period. In official works, particular attention is devoted to the political and economic crises that engulfed the region in the first half of the 18th century as a result of turmoil and rebellions among appanage rulers, as well as Kalmyk incursions into the Dasht-i Qipchaq and Mawarannahr. The principal sources used in compiling Central Asian chronicles were archival documents from khanal chanceries, as well as accounts transmitted by participants, eyewitnesses, and contemporaries of the events described by the authors. Subsequent historiographers tried to supplement works with previously unknown facts and to offer their own assessments of the ruling elite’s activities. The factual material identified in these historical writings demonstrates that they contain original data on the history of our region. The valuable information preserved in written historical works makes it possible to gain a deeper understanding of the complex relations that developed among the khanates of the Central Asian region throughout the 18th century. Reports in the chronicles concerning the Kazakhs may be divided into the following thematic groups: 1) commercial ties in Central Asia and the influence of the cities near Syr Darya on the region’s overall economic situation; 2) the involvement of the Chingizids of the Dasht-i Qipchaq in the internecine feuds of the Chingizids of Khwarazm and Bukhara; 3) the migration of Kazakhs into the territories of the Uzbek khanates occurred as a result of repeated Kalmyk incursions into the Kazakh Khanate in the first half of the 18th century: some kins of the Junior Zhuz resettled in Khwarazm; some kins of the Middle Zhuz moved toward Samarqand and Bukhara; and certain kins of the Senior Zhuz migrated into the regions of Karategin and Fergan, reaching as far as the Pamirs; 4) during the period under review, the vilayets of Sayram and Turkestan were at times under the control of Bukhara. The analysis of these materials indicates that the historical connections between the Kazakhs and the Uzbek khanates have an important place in the political and economic life of the states of the Central Asian region.