Difficult Years of Qazaq Rulers: Zholbarys Khan between the Uzbeks, the Dzungars, and the Russians
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69567/3007-0236.2025.2.234.247Keywords:
khan, sultan, batyr, Qazaqs, Russian Empire, Tashkent oasis, Senior ZhuzAbstract
The article examines the personality of Zholbarys Khan, the ruler of the Senior Zhuz. Within the context of major historical events that took place in the first half of the 18th century in the southern Qazaq Steppe and the Tashkent oasis, the study explores the military and socio-political activities of Zholbarys Khan. It provides brief information on members of the nomadic aristocracy who governed the Qazaqs of the Senior Zhuz in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Based on historical sources and previous research, the article determines the role of Zholbarys in the political and socio-economic life of the Tashkent oasis, located in the northeast of Central Asia at the junction of the nomadic and sedentary-agricultural worlds. The nature of interactions between the Qazaq ruling elite and the local sedentary population is described in the article. It is noted that the steppe rulers limited themselves to foreign-policy governance of the agricultural oasis, restricting their involvement to tax collection and control over the movement of Central Asian trade caravans across the Qazaq Steppe. The economic and socio-cultural order of the agricultural population of the Tashkent region was regulated by a special council composed of townspeople. The study addresses the military leadership of Zholbarys Khan in the Qazaq-Dzungar wars of the first third of the 18th century, with particular attention given to his relations with the Russian state. By comparing eighteenth-century Russian translations with the modern translation from the original Chagatai Turkic, the article examines the texts of messages from influential figures of the Senior Zhuz (Töle Bi Alibekuly, Qodar Bi, batyrs Satay, Qangeldy, and Bolek) as well as several letters from Zholbarys Khan to the Russian government. The analysis reveals the true intentions of the Senior Zhuz nomadic elite regarding the Qazaqs’ acceptance of Russian suzerainty in the first half of the 18th century.
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