23. Ethno genesis of a Kazakh people. The origin of the ethno name ‘Kazakh’.

The term Kazakh came into use by the residents of the area possibly as early as the end of the fifteenth century and certainly by the mid-sixteenth century.⁴ Many theories have been advanced to explain the origin of the term. Some speculate that it comes from the Turkish verb qaz (to wander), because the Kazakhs were wandering steppemen; or that it is the combined form of two Kazakh tribal names, Kaspy and Saki; or that it traces from the Mongol word khasaq (a wheeled cart used by the Kazakhs to transport their yurts [felt tents] and belongings).⁵ Another explanation advanced in the nineteenth century is that the term comes from the Turkish words ak (white) and kaz (goose), from a popular Kazakh legend of a white steppe goose that turned into a princess, who in turn gave birth to the first Kazakh.⁶

The tale of the white goose is only one of many legends of the formation of the first Kazakh tribe. The most celebrated is that of Alash (or Alach). In most of these tales, Alash is depicted as the founder of the Kazakh people, whose three sons each established one of the three Kazakh hordes. In other tales he is described merely as a great khan whose last direct "descendant," Tokhtamish, was killed at the battle of Saray Su (1395) when Timur (Tamerlane) defeated the Golden Horde. There is no historical evidence for the existence of a Kazakh nation at this time, but the legend of Alash has always played an important unifying role for the Kazakhs; the first Kazakh political party and autonomous Kazakh government (1917) were named the Alash Orda, the Horde of Alash. Despite such legends, it seems quite certain that all claims of consanguinity, of a single people inhabiting this region from antiquity to the present, are spurious.

24. The Kazakh Zhuzes: the origin, territory, tribal structure.

With growing strength came growing numbers. Nogai, Uzbek and Mongol (Altai) tribes in need of pasture came to join the Janibek-Kirai federation. As this tribes gained pastureland, their livestock holdings increased, requiring additional pasturage. This, coupled with the constant need to shift pasturelands that the free grazing of animals demands, led the Kazakh continually acquire new territory, so that by the last quarter of the seventeenth century they controlled most of present-day Kazakhstan. As the allied tribes became more numerous and their holdings increased, problems of social organization and tribal unity were compounded. Apparently in the first half of the sixteenth century, following the death of Qasim Khan and the consequent breakup of his holdings, the Kazakh formed their distinctive three hordes, reintroducing a sense of organization and order.

The nature and composition of the hordes is not completely clear for historians, but the most authoritative of them place the foemation of the Great (Ulu Zhuz), Middle (Orta Zhuz) and Small (Kichi Zhuz) Hordes in the middle of the sixteenth century, during the rule of Haq Nazar (1538-1580).

The Kazakh had dual authority structure; an aristocracy of khans and sultans was superimposed upon a clan-based authority system. The Kazakh had several great families, and each of these (either a clan or, more typically, a branch of clan) was divided among several auls that migrated together and generally grazed their animals on adjoining pasturelands. An aul, which in winter might have numbered as many as thirty or forty yurts, consisted of a few related, extended families. Each aul had an elder, usually referred to as an aksakal (white beard), who was charged with the protection of his pasturelands and people. The elders met to choose a bii to represent the family in negotiations with other families and to mediate internal disputes, regulate the migration, and allocate pastureland. Also the title of bii often went from father to son, the office was not hereditary and could be shifted if the elders so chose.

The biis met to choose the sultans, who typically functioned as sub-khans ruling over particular territory and governing relations between clans, as well as to choose the khan, who governed the entire horde. Sometimes semiauthonomous territories existed within a horde, ruled by lesser khans who had sworn loyalty to the khan of the horde. The khan generally served for life and, keeping with the local tradition, was succeeded first by his brother and then by his son; nonetheless, since to become khan an individual had to prove his own competence, ruling families were often eclipsed by new claimants.

The Kazakhs referred to these three groups as the Ulu Zhuz, Orta Zhuz, and Kichi Zhuz, literally the Great Hundred, Middle Hun­dred, and Small Hundred. This distinction between horde and hundred is important, since the former implies consanguinity and common ancestry, whereas the latter does not. The Kazakh hordes were, in fact, federations or unions of tribes that typically did not share a common ancestry. They were instead simply an extension of the temporary military unions formed by both Turkish and Mongol tribes. Such unions were often called Zhuz; there are references to the existence of various (short-lived) Zhuz in Kazakh territory prior to the sixteenth century.¹⁴ It is thus probable that the Kazakh hordes formed largely for military purposes—to make the Kazakh lands more secure in the absence of any stronger central authority.