25. The formation and demise of Kazakh khanate XV-XVI.

Two sons of Barak Khan, Janibek and Kirai, were quick to take advantage of Abu'l Khayr's reverses. As representatives of a rival claimant, they had been in opposition to Abu'l Khayr since he assumed power. In the mid-1460s Janibek and Kirai led the tribes of their supporters (remnants of the old White Horde) west from Mughulistan into the territory of Abu'l Khayr. With the support of the rulers of Mughulistan, they lay claim to pastureland in western Semirech'e from the lower Chu River valley across the Talas valley to the Betpak-Dala Desert. Abu'l Khayr refused to recognize Janibek's claim over this territory and led an expedition to oppose him; Abu'l Khayr and his son, Shaikh Haidar, died fighting Janibek's troops in 1468. Abu'l Khayr was succeeded by his grandson, Muhammad Shaybani (reigned 1468-1510), who occupied Samarkand and Bukhara and established the Shaybanid dynasty. Fighting between the Uzbeks and Kazakhs continued for most of the remainder of the fifteenth century. In the process, the nomadic economy of Syr Darya and Semirech'e was severely disrupted, animals were killed, and towns and trading posts were plundered.

It is hard to date the formation of a Kazakh khanate precisely, since none of the contemporary accounts of the late fifteenth century paid much attention to the steppe. The official Soviet history of Kazakhstan considers Janibek the first Kazakh khan, holding that, upon Janibek's death in 1480, Kirai's son Buyun-duk (reigned 1480-1511) was elected his successor. Other sources maintain that Kirai was the first elected khan, ruling until his death in 1488, when he was succeeded by Buyunduk.¹² Regardless of which account is correct, clearly the Uzbek-Kazakh rivalry continued throughout the last quarter of the fifteenth century as Muhammad Shaybani and Buyunduk competed for control of the Syr Darya cities. The largest and most important city, Yasi (later called Turkestan), became the headquarters of the Kazakh khan. The rivalry ended temporarily when the two rulers signed a peace treaty in 1500. Peace allowed Shaybani to turn his attentions south, ^:o the conquest of Bukhara and Samarkand.

26. The first Kazakh Khans and Kazakh Khanate in the XY-XVI centuries.

The shift of Uzbek authority to Mawarannahr enabled the Kazakhs to concentrate on the establishment of a stable khanate of their own. Buyunduk's successor, Qasim Khan, is generally credited with the creation of a centralized and unified Kazakh khanate. He expanded the territory under Kazakh control to include some of the eastern pasturelands of the Dashti-Qipchak, more of the Syr Darya valley, and all of the Chu River valley. In 1513 he got as far south as Tashkent but was unable to make an all-out attack on the city; winter was approaching and the Kazakh tribes that had summered in the lower Chu valley had to migrate north to find winter grazing. Qasim strengthened the Kazakh hold over the cities of the lower Syr Darya, which was essential for the regulation of trade between the livestock breeders and the sedentary populations to the south. Control of these cities made the Kazakh territory a viable economic system, self-regulating and self-sufficient. Still, the Kazakh economy and Ka­zakh khanate remained in the shadow of the more powerful Shaybani khanate in Mawarannahr.

During this period the Kazakh confederation expanded as Qasim wel­comed other Turkish tribes, including Kipchaks from the Nogai group and Naimans and Argyns from the eastern branch of the Chagatais. It was possible for the first time to consider the Kazakhs a people: they were approximately one million strong, spoke the same Turkish language, utilized the same type of livestock breeding, and shared a culture and a form of social organization. Under Qasim, political unity was established as well, for his authority was recognized by the sultans who lived in the Kazakh territory. The Kazakh people at this time was essentially a political union, distinguished solely by territorial and political criteria from the Uzbeks, who came from the same ethnic stock and whose language, economy, and culture were virtually identical to those of the Kazakhs. The Uzbeks, who migrated in the territory of Mawarannahr, recognized the authority of Shaybani and paid him tribute, whereas the Kazakh population, concentrated along the Syr Darya and to the north and east, not only did not recognize Shaybani's authority but instead established a distinct and sometimes rival political structure. From the reign of Qasim Khan on, Uzbeks and Kazakhs lived side by side, but they never again considered them­selves one people.