«For Military Time Gunpowder Is Made by Them, the Kirghiz, Everyone Who Has a Gun with Him». Specifics of the Qazaq Gunpowder Production in the 17th – 19th Centuries

Authors

  • Vladimir T. Tepkeev Kalmyk Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.69567/3007-0236.2023.2.288.296

Keywords:

warfare; gunpowder; lead; Qazaqs; nomadic weapons

Abstract

The history of Qazaq warfare in the 17th – 19th centuries remain one of the understudied problems in Qazaq historiography. This article presents new archival data that shed light on the production of Qazaq arms in the 17th – 19th centuries. The source base was the materials of the military expedition of the Military Board of the Russian State Military Historical Archive. Based on published and unpublished sources quite interesting information about the production of gunpowder by the Qazaqs in this period was collected, which provides an opportunity for further research on this topic. The Qazaqs purchased sulfur exclusively in Central Asian cities, although it was not of very high quality, which could only affect the quality of the gunpowder itself. Sulfur was found near the “old cemeteries” or “Qalmaq mounds”. The key material in this work is the report of Baigul Bedibaev, a captured Qazaq, who gave very interesting information not only about the production of gunpowder, but also about the deposits and production of lead — one of the important components in the production of firearms. In the production and use of firearms, the Qazaqs were in many ways dependent on the urban centers of Central Asia, including the production of gunpowder since they could not produce all its components independently. As a result, in military confrontations with neighboring peoples in the 18th century, the Qazaqs were significantly inferior in the use of firearms because they were severely limited in the production of gunpowder.

References

Apollova, N.G. 1948. Prisoedinenie Kazahstana k Rossii v 30-h godah XVIII veka [The accession of Qazaqstan to Russia in the 30s of the 18th century]. Alma-Ata: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the Qazaq Soviet Socialist Republic (in Russian).

Bobrov, L.A. 2015. Voennaja organizacija kazahskih kochevnikov ot Abulhaira do Kenesary (XVIII – pervaja polovina XIX vv.) [Military organization of Qazaq nomads from Abulkhair to Kenesary (18th – first half of 19th centuries)]. In: Srednevekovye tjurko-tatarskie gosudarstva [Medieval Turkic-Tatar States], 7, 54–61 (in Russian).

Gejns, A.K. 1897. Kirgiz-Kajsaki (v Zaural'skoj stepi) [Qyrgyz-Qaysaqi (in Trans-Ural Steppe)]. In: Sobranie literaturnyh trudov Aleksandra Konstantinovicha Gejnsa [Collection of literary works of Alexander Konstantinovich Gaines]. T. I. St. Petersburg: Printing house M.M. Stasyulevich, 27–177 (in Russian).

Kireev, F.N. and others (ed.). 1961. Kazahsko-russkie otnoshenija v XVI–XVIII vekah. Sbornik dokumentov i materialov [Qazaq-Russian relations in the 16th–18th centuries. Collection of documents and materials]. Alma-Ata: Publishing house «Nauka» (in Russian).

Kushkumbaev, A.K. 2001. Voennoe delo kazahov v XVII–XVIII vekah [Military affairs of the Qazaqs in the 17th–18th centuries]. Almaty: Dajk-Press (in Russian).

Levshin, A.I. 1832. Opisanie kirgiz-kazach'ih, ili, kirgiz-kajsackih ord i stepej [Description of the Qyrgyz-Cossack, or Qyrgyz-Qaisaq Hordes and Steppes]. Parts 3. St. Petersburg: In the printing house of Karl Kraya (in Russian).

Rychkov, N.P. 1772. Dnevnye zapiski puteshestvija kapitana Nikolaja Rychkova v Kirgis-kajsackoj stepi, 1771 godu [Daily travel notes of Captain Nikolay Rychkov in the Qyrgyz-Qaysaq steppe, 1771]. St. Petersburg: at the Imperial Academy of Sciences (in Russian).

Samojlovich, A.N. (ed.). 1932. Materialy po istorii Uzbekskoj, Tadzhikskoj i Turkmenskoj SSR. Chast’ 1: Torgovlja s Moskovskim gosudarstvom i mezhdunarodnoe polozhenie Srednej Azii v XVI–XVII vekah [Materials on the history of the Uzbek, Tajik and Turkmen SSR. Part 1: Trade with the Moscow state and the international position of Central Asia in the 16th–17th centuries]. Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences (in Russian).

Valihanov, Ch.Ch. 1984. Sostavnye chasti kirgiz-kajsackogo poroha [Components of Qyrgyz-Qaysaq gunpowder]. In: Sobraniye sochineniy v pyati tomakh [Collected works in five volumes]. Alma-Ata: Main editorial office of the Qazaq Soviet Encyclopedia, 1, 183–184 (in Russian).

Downloads

Published

2023-06-30

Issue

Section

Статьи

How to Cite

«For Military Time Gunpowder Is Made by Them, the Kirghiz, Everyone Who Has a Gun with Him». Specifics of the Qazaq Gunpowder Production in the 17th – 19th Centuries. (2023). Qazaq Historical Review, 1(2), 288-296. https://doi.org/10.69567/3007-0236.2023.2.288.296

Similar Articles

1-10 of 21

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 3 4 5 > >>