Ethnogenesis of Kazakh nation: stages, main aspects, problems.

According to generally accepted definition, Ethnogenesis (from the Greek É thnos - tribe, people and... genesis) - the process of the ethnic community formation on the basis of different ethnic components.Ethnic basis of Kazakh nation, as a number of other Turkics nations of Central Asia, also formed in the XIV-XV centuries, were formed by numerous tribes and people - from the Saks, the Usuns, the Kangü y, the Huns, the Turkics: the Turgeshes, the Karluks, the Oghuzes, the Kimaks, the Qipchaqs to the Naimans, the Argyns, the Kireis, the Kongrats, the Zhalairs, the Duglats and many others, who inhabited at different times in Kazakhstan. Some of them at various periods had their state. Many of the ancient Turkic tribal and tribal names keep among the Kazakhs and at a later time. Main stages of the formation of Kazakh nation can be approximately shown by the following: The first stage - bronze Age (II millennium BC), the second stage – Saka-Skythuan period (VII-III cc. BC), the third stage - Hun-Sarmatian period (II c. BC.- V c. AD), the fourth stage - Turkic – Qipchaq period (YI- beginning of the ХIII cc .), the fifth period - Mongol period (ХIII - ХIV cc.), the sixth stage – Disintegration of the Golden Horde and the completion of the formation of Kazakh nation (second half of the ХIV – first half of the ХV cc.). There are different point of views on the problems of determining the origin and time of Kazakh nation formation:

1)A. Levshin referring to “Shah-name” by Ferdowsi pointed out “Kazakhs-horsemen armed with spears”, that “those people are not inferior in antiquity to the Naimans, the Kirgyzs and other nation”. “It is proved that Ferdowsi lived in about 1020, i.e. two centuries earlier before coming Mongol-Tatar in the west, in “History of Rustam” mentions about Kazakh nation and Kazakh khans”.

2)Ch.Ch.Valikhanov came to two very important conclusions: the first – the Kazakhs are the nation of Turkic origin, the second – Kazakh nation were formed as a result of Turkic and Mongol component mixture. “Kyrgyz-Kaisaki belong to Turkic people according to the language and are respected by many” – Ch.Ch.Valikhanov wrote. The formation of Kazakh nation Ch.Ch. Valikhanov refers to the period of the Golden Horde disintegration, that is by the end of the XIV – first half of the XVcc. According to his words “Kazakh nation (as we call ourselves) was formed from the union of different Turkic and Mongol tribes during internal war in Horde”.

2. The Kazakh zhuzes: the formation, the territory and ethnical and tribal structure. The term “Kazakh”

The Kazakh zhuzes – a big ethnoterritorial union (or unions) of tribes, which formed on the basis of a certain economic-cultural type, ethnical and political processes in the age of the formation, the formation of Kazakh nation and its ethnic territory. Such associations in the history of the Kazakhs were Senior, Middle and Junior zhuzes.

The Kazakhs of the Senior zhuz traditionally occupied the territory of the Zhetysu in particular, the pools of the Ili River and its many tributaries, the foothills of the Junggar, the Zaili and the Kyrgyz Alatau, Karatau, between the Shu and the Talas, and also the areas of the upper and middle streams of the Syr-Darya. They were divided into the groups: the Zhalayr, the Oshakty, the Kangly, Duglat, the Albans, the Sary-uysuni, the Shaprashty, the Srgeli, the Ysty. Among the Kazakhs of the Senior zhuz also lived small groups of the tore and kozha.

The Kazakhs of the Middle zhuz traditionally occupied the territory of the Central, Northern, Eastern and Southern part of Kazakhstan - along the middle stream of the Syr-Darya. The Places of the migrations took up all space to the direction from west to east, from the Irgiz – the Turgay - the Tobol to the western Altai, the Tarbagatai and partly the Zhungar Alatau, and from north to south - from the middle stream of the Syr-Darya, the Betpak Dala Desert and the northern end of the Balkhash lake to the southern limits of the West Siberian Plain, capturing almost the area of the Turgay Plateau, Central Kazakhstan hills, pools of the middle stream of the Irtysh River, the lower and middle streams of the Ishim, the Torgay, the Tobol and reaching Kulunda and Ishim steppes. They were divided into groups: the Naimans, the Kereits, the Argyns, the Qipchaqs the Wakes, the Konrads, the Tarakty. Also tore, tolenguty, the Kyrgyz, the Turkmen, the Bakhtiar lived.

The Kazakhs of the Junior zhuz traditionally occupied the territory of Western Kazakhstan, from the Irgiz – the Torgay – the Tobol and the Mugojar mountains to the eastern end of the Caspian Sea and lower of the Ural and lower streams of the Amu-Darya and the Syr-Darya to the Ural and the Tobol, also Mangyshlak, northern Ustyurt, eastern part of the Caspian lowlands and uplands of Obshiy Sirt, the Emba and western Torgay plateau, the southern tip of the Ural, Mugodzhary, the northern part of the Turan lowland and the northern coast of the Aral Sea. They were divided into three major unions: Alimuly, Bayuly and Zhetyru.

In historical literature there are various interpretations of an origin of ethnonym " Kazakh". One brought it out of Turkic verbs kaz — " to dig", kez - " to wander", kash — " to run, to escape"; others created improbable etymology of this word from kaz — " goose" and ak — " white". Generally the word " Kazak" (" Cossack") is Turkic.

3. One of the important stages of statehood evolution on the territory of Kazakhstan is the period of existence of Kazakh ethnos’s medieval state – the Kazakh khanate.

The concrete course of formation of the Kazakh khanate is connected with an internal political condition of two states on the territory of Kazakhstan — Abulkhair and Moghulistan's khanates whose historical destinies in the second half of the XV century came to the end with decline and disorder

The hostile relations between tribes of ulus Shayban and the ulus of the Horde were even more aggravated after occupation of Suzak, Sygnak, Arkuka, Uzgend, Ak Kurgan in 1446 by Abulkhair. The nationals of Zhanybek and Kerei concentrated in lower reaches of the Syr-Darya, east part of the foothills of Karatau. Nationals and Shaybanids suffered from this political dissociation and the Kazakh governors as traditional economic and cultural ties, ethnical and political mutually communication were broken. The provision of the Kazakh clans and the tribes subordinated by Kerei and Zhanybek, after Abulkhair's defeat from the Kalmaks (Oyrats) in the late fifties became even more constrained.

In the 20es of the XV century the Oyrats began to attack Zhetysu in search of pastures, prey, entry into trade centers. In the 50th they appeared in the territory of Turkestan. In 1457 Abulkhair khan suffered from them cruel defeat, ran from a battlefield. Having made the peace with Abulkhair on heavy conditions for him, the Oyrats went through the Shu to their lands, and Abulkhair began by cruel measures to bring an order to the uluses including in the south of Kazakhstan, punishing Jujid’s who did not recognize his power. Abulkhair's actions in embraced with disorder and indignation after piracy disorder uluses of Eastern Deshti Qipchaq, as well as inability of the Moghulistan khan to protect population of Zhetysu from piracy hordes, led to even bigger discontent of people.

The Kazakh khanate at first occupied the territory of Western Zhetysu, Shu's valley and Talas. It united the Kazakh clans and tribes moved from both Central and Southern Kazakhstan and locals. Moghulistan's governor Esen-Buga had no

real forces to stop the Kazakhs who have moved here. He entered into alliance with the Kazakh leaders, hoping with their help to provide a cross-border security of Moghulistan from territorial claims of Abulkhair, Timurids, attacks of the Kalmaks. After the death of Esen-Buga in 1462 in Moghulistan came actually full anarchy. In these conditions the appearance and consolidation of the Kazakh khanate in Zhetysu was quite natural act. Mahomed Haidar Duglat carries time of Kazakh khanate formation to 870 hidzhry (1465 — 1466).