Vol. 1 No. 1 (2023)

The past decade in Kazakhstan was marked by a noticeable interest of researchers and the general public in the history of the Kazakh statehood of the late Middle Ages. Considerable attention was paid to the information of ancient maps about the medieval Kazakh state. Along with scientific research on medieval cartography, not always objective publications appeared, and that is why the thematic block of the first issue is devoted to this topical topic. In this regard, the editorial board and the staff of the ABDI Institute for Humanitarian Studies unanimously decided to devote No. 1 2023 of the journal "Qazaq Historical Review" to the problems of historical cartography of Kazakhstan, Central Asia and the whole of Eurasia. The Editorial Board invited leading modern historians, geographers, ethnographers as authors to publish the results of their scientific research. We hope that the new published material will set the right scientific direction for the development of historical, geographical and cartographic science in Kazakhstan.

We tried to give the cards in good digital quality and accompanied them with a QR code. Using the camera of a mobile device, you can scan it and get access to a high-quality image.

The publication by Galina N. Ksenzhik and Erlan T. Karin is devoted to the analysis of the consolidated catalog of Russian cartographic materials of the XVII – early XX centuries on the history of Kazakhstan.

A significant part of the issue is devoted to the medieval cartographic thought of Europe about Central Asia and, in particular, the wonderful maps of Anthony (Antonio) Jenkinson's. Svetlana M. Gorshenina, professor at the National Center for Scientific Research of France, analyzes a new cartographic scheme of Central Asia of the XVI century, proposed by Jenkinson. In particular, the author of the article interprets the Chinese Lake known from his maps as the Aral Sea.

Dr. Nurlan Kenzheakhmet in his article suggests that this lake corresponds to the modern Teletskoye Lake. In his article, the information of European maps about the Kazakh steppe and Central Asia is studied in detail.

The first part of the article by Kazakh ethnographer, chief researcher of the Institute of Humanitarian Studies ABDI Rashid S. Kukashev is also dedicated to the newly discovered "Wroclaw" map of Jenkinson.

Researcher of the Astana MNC, Candidate of Geographical Sciences Sergey V. Rasskazov describes the results of his research and provide copies of unique Russian historical maps of the XVIII – early XIX century.