21) The Mongol conquest of the territory of Kazakhstan and the consequences of the invasion.

The Karakitae ruled the steppe for nearly a century. In the first decade of the XIII century the Naimans and Kerei, Turkic tribes from the Altai, invaded the steppe and overthrew the gur (khan) of the Karakitae. They in turn were quickly defeated by the armies of Chingis Khan, which conquered Semirech'e in 1218.

Preconditions of nationhood had been present in Kazakhstan land under the Karakhanids and Karakitae: a single language, common economy, and shared way of life.

At the end of the XII century and at the beginning of XIII century the struggle among the leaders of nomadic tribes of Central Asia and Kazakhstan aggravated. During the struggle Temudzhin (Shynghys khan, also spelled as Chingis Khan), a representative of one of the tribes, managed to unite Asian tribes. Shynghys khan’s empire was form with an active participation of leading groups of Central Asian community of nomads.

The Mongol conquest had a disruptive economic effect on the region, destroying the preconditions of nationhood that had been present under the Karakhanids and Karakitae (that is a single language, common economy and shared way of life). The Mongol invasion also destroyed the Syr Darya River towns and trading posts of Sauran, Otrar and Sygnak, and with them the sedentary culture that had provided a basis for the unity of this tribes. The Mongol rule influenced language and culture as well as social organisation of the Turkic tribes of Central Asia.

When Shynghys khan’s empire was distributed among his heirs, the territory of present-day Kazakhstan was divided between his sons, Jochi and Chagatai. Jochi predeceased his father, and so his inheritance (the lands west of the Irtysh River) passed to his son, Batu, who expanded his territory westward and founded the Golden Horde. Chagatai controlled the Semirech’e region as well as western Jungaria and Mawarannahr.

But the Mongol conquest did:

1. a disruptive economic effect upon the region,

2. destroying the mentioned preconditions of nationhood

3. destroyed the Syr Darya River towns and trading posts of Sauran, Otrar, and Sygnak,

4. destroyed sedentary culture that had provided a basis for the unity of these tribes.

5. The Mongol rulers influenced language and culture

22. Abulkhair Khanate (1428-1468) or The State of Nomadic Uzbeks.

The beginning of the fourteenth century also saw the breakup of the Chagatai khanate and the establishment of rival branches of the family in Mawarannahr and newly formed Mughulistan (which included the Hi region, Semirech'e, and Eastern Turkestan). The violent rivalry among these three powers (the White Horde, Mawarannahr, and Mughulistan) made the third quarter of the fourteenth century a period of economic upheaval; trade connec­tions were broken and the agricultural oasis cities (especially in Mawarannahr) went into a period of decline. The economic and political stagnation of the region continued; Timur made repeated forays into both the Kazakh steppe and northwestern Mughulistan in the 1370s and 1380s, and in 1395 he defeated Tokhtamish at Sarai Berke. This defeat marked the end of Mongol rule in Central Asia. The Golden Horde and White Horde quickly broke up. The first two decades of the fifteenth century saw the creation of two new confedera­tions of nomadic Turkish tribes in Central Asia, the Nogai Horde (a union of Kipchak tribes living between the Ural and Volga rivers) and the more impor­tant Uzbek khanate (1420), which controlled the steppe land from the head­waters of the Syr Darya river basin to the Aral Sea and north to the Irtysh River. It was in this period that the term Uzbek came into common use to designate the Turkish tribes that migrated over present-day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Stability was short-lived, however. A rivalry quickly developed between the ruler of the new Uzbek khanate, Barak Khan, and Ulugh beg (Timur's grand-son), the ruler of Mawarannahr, who retained control of the Syr Darya river basin. After Barak's death, with the connivance of Ulugh beg, the title of khan passed to Abu'l Khayr (reigned 1428-1468) of the Shayban (Sheiban) family. During Abu'l Khayr's rule the Uzbek khanate became the major power in Central Asia. Abu'l Khayr quickly unified the Turkic tribesmen, his northern holdings reaching the border of the khanate of Sibir. He then moved southward toward Mawarannahr. In 1430 Abu'l Khayr captured Khwarizm and Urgench, and by 1442, after capturing the entire Syr Darya region, he had established his capital at Sygnak, the trading center for the steppe oasis communities of Central Asia. Complete control of Mawarannahr eluded him, however. The drive of Abu'l Khayr was thwarted by the emergent Oirat (Mongol) hordes of Mughulistan in the middle of the fifteenth century, who rapidly became a superior military force. The Oirats (also known as Jungars) crossed from Mughulistan to the Dashti-Qipchak, burning the cities and destroying the economy of the area, and then returned to Mongolia. They (and their Kalmyk-Mongol successors) were to pose periodic threats to the Kazakhs until the end of the seventeenth century.

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.