Discussion about the ethnonyms «Kazakh» and «Kirghiz» on the pages of the pre-revolutionary Astrakhan newspaper «Idel

Research Article

Abstract

This article provides a translation and introduces into scholarly circulation a series of materials from the pre-revolutionary Arabic-script Muslim newspaper «Idel», published between 1907 and 1914. The study examines publications from late 1911 and early 1912. These materials consist of a debate between Hasan Ali Efendi, a Kazakh teacher from the Akmola region, and Kayum Kulatki, a Tatar journalist likely of Mishar origin, who lived among the Kazakhs of the Inner Bukey Horde, part of the Astrakhan Governorate. The subject of the debate is the permissibility or impermissibility of using the ethnonyms "Kazakh" and "Kirghiz" in reference to the Bukey Kazakhs of the Kishi Zhuz. The opponents present various arguments to refute each other's positions and support their own viewpoints. In the concluding section, the author draws conclusions and extracts valuable ethnographic data from the analyzed material, particularly regarding the origins of certain clans of the Kishi and Orta Zhuz of the Kazakh people, as well as the evolution of the ethnonyms "Kazakh" and "Kirghiz" in usage by Russian and Türk-Muslim, especially Kazakh, politicians, Orientalists, and public figures.