«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

Abstract

The history of Qazaq warfare in the 17^th – 19^th 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 17^th – 19^th 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 Based on published and unpublished sources quite interesting information about the production of gunpowder by the Qazaqs in this period was collected, which provides an opportunity for further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 18^th century, the Qazaqs were significantly inferior in the use of firearms because they were severely limited in the production of gunpowder.