Place of Chagatai Ulus and Mogulistan in the history of Kazakh ethnos: analysis of traditional historical memory of Kazakhs)

Research Article

Abstract

The subject of this study is the analysis of possible ethnogenetic connection of the population of Chagatai ulus and Mogulistan with the population of Semirechye of the Kazakh Khanate period. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the position that there is no direct continuity between the clan system of Mogulistan and the Elder Kazakh zhuz. The data of the historical memory of Kazakhs, preserved in the form of genealogical legends-shezhire and reflecting their own ideas about their origin and identity, were used for the analysis. Based on the genealogies, written record of which took place since the end of the 18th century, it can be seen that the Kazakhs of all three zhuzes connected their past exclusively with the ulus Dzhuchi and included representatives of the Dzhuchi dynasty - Dzhuchi/Zhayilkhan, Uzbek/Ozbek, Shiban/Sapian - in their genealogies. The genealogies of Kazakhs of the Elder Juz linked their origin with the legendary Maiky-biy, who had a real prototype - an associate of Juchi and Batu uyshun Maiky/Baiku. A number of clans of the Middle and Younger Juz may have originated from clan groups that were part of Mogulistan, but they do not reflect this fact in their genealogies. Genealogical legends of a number of different clans of the Elder, Middle and Younger zhuzes have many coincidences of both characters and plots. This suggests the unity of origin of some clans that later joined different Kazakh associations and the relatively late division into zhuzes and distribution of clans between zhuzes. Taking into account that in the 17th-18th century Kazakhs were displaced from the territory of Semirechye by Oirats and there was a constant redistribution of territory between different Kazakh clans, accompanied by their structural reformatting, there can be no direct ethnogenetic continuity between the population of Mogulistan and the Senior Kazakh zhuz. The historical connection with the ulus Dzhuchi can be traced not only in the historical memory of Kazakhs, but also of Kyrgyz clans, whose epic tradition is closely connected with the Kazakh one and preserves elements characteristic of the Dzhuchid tradition - legends about Yedig, the Nogai origin of the main heroes, the legend of Dzhuchi's death. All this suggests that a significant part of the Elder Zhuz of Kazakhs and part of Kyrgyz clans formed within the framework of the Dzhuchi ulus, while the Moghulistan origin groups of the population of Semirechye, having joined the Kazakhs, were completely deprived of the historical memory of their Moghulistan origin.