Qazaq Historical Review

Dear readers!

We are pleased to present you the latest issue of the academic journal The Qazaq Historical Review, published by the Institute for Humanities Studies ABDI. The present issue’s articles concern the themes of the medieval history of Qazaqstan and adjacent regions of Eurasia. The editorial board of The Qazaq Historical Review has invited modern foreign and domestic historians who specialize in this period of history to contribute as authors. Historians from Finland, Japan, Ukraine, as well as researchers from Astana and Almaty, have responded to our invitation to publish the results of their research. We hope that this newly published material will contribute to the advancement of historical research and strengthen international academic cooperation.

In the first section of The Turko-Mongol World, Dr. Napil Bazylkhan (Turkic Academy) explores little-studied aspects of the history of the Qazaq Khanate, specifically examining the origins of the ethnopolitonym Qazaq and the symbols of the khan's authority. The author believes that the term qasaq/qasγaq tergen (large cart/qasaq cart), mentioned in The Secret History of the Mongols, originally referred to a cart with a yurt. It later came to refer to the nomads who used these carts in general, and after the formation of the Qazaq Khanate, it became an ethnopolitonym. Ukrainian historian Vladislav Gulevich (The Office of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine) examines the history of the transition of subordination of the vassal princes of Rus' from the Khaqan of the Great Mongol Empire in Qaraqorum to the Khan of the Ulus of Jochi in Sarai. This occurred following the weakening of central authority in Qaraqorum and the rise of Khan Mengu-Timur in the Ulus of Jochi after the Talas Qurultai of 1269. In the yarlyks to the princes of Rus', Mengu-Timur refers to himself as tsar, indicating the continuity of his authority from the tsars of Qaraqorum, not the khans of Sarai. Dr. Qanat Uskenbay's article (Central National Museum) analyzes medieval sources and historiography about Orda, the first son of Jochi. It examines the history of his double name (Orda Ejen/Ichen), as well as the meaning of the medieval Mongolian term Ezen (Ejen, Ichen). It is suggested that Orda's second name, Ejen, was his posthumous title.

The Middle Ages in Documents section publishes research and translations of sources. Dr. Napil Bazylkhan (Turkic Academy) introduces a little-known document in Old Mongolian, "On the Law of the Qazaqs," into scholarly circulation. This document, recorded by Tseven Zhamsranov from the testimony of twelve elders of the Qazaq Abaq-Kerei clan in the 1930s, includes more than two dozen points, fourteen of which were recorded in writing. The article presents a scholarly transcription of this ancient Mongolian historical document and a translation into Qazaq. Vladislav Gulevich (The Office of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine) examines Venetian documents on events in the Ulus of Jochi in the early 1340s. These documents contain information about the interregnum in the Ulus of Jochi following the death of Uzbek Khan in the autumn of 1341 and the accession of his son Janibek Khan to the throne at the end of that year. Associate Professor Hiroyuki Nagamine (National Institute of Technology, Oyama College), a researcher of the history of the Ulus of Jochi and the Qazaq Khanate from Japan publishes new materials from Persian sources on the term Toqmaq used in them to refer to the Ulus of Jochi. Finnish historian Dr. Roman Hautala (University of Oulu) publishes the original Latin text and annotated Russian translation of a fragment from the annals of Jan Długosz describing the Mongol invasion of Poland and Hungary in 1241.

On behalf of the editorial board of the journal, I would like to express my gratitude to our authors, reviewers, editors and translators for your contribution to the preparation of this issue.

Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal The Qazaq Historical Review, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor