Kazakh Khanate
The Kazakh Khanate, in eastern sources known as Ulus of the Kazakhs, Ulus of Jochi, Yurt of Urus, was a Kazakh state in Central Asia, successor of the Golden Horde existing from the 15th to the 19th century, centered on the eastern parts of the Desht-i Qipchaq.
The khanate was established by Janibek Khan and Kerei Khan in 1465. Both khans came from the Turco-Mongol clan of Tore which traces its lineage to Genghis Khan through dynasty of Jochids. The Tore clan continued to rule the khanate until its fall to the Russian Empire.
From the 16th to the 17th centuries, the Kazakh Khanate ruled and expanded its territories to eastern Cumania, most of Uzbekistan, Karakalpakstan and the Syr Darya river with military confrontation as far as Astrakhan and Khorasan, which are currently in Russia and Iran, respectively. The Khanate was later weakened by a series of Oirat and Dzungar invasions in the 17th and 18th centuries. These resulted in a decline and further disintegration into three jüz, which gradually lost their sovereignty and were incorporated to the expanding Russian Empire in the 19th century.
History
In 1227, the White Horde, a proto-Kazakh state, was formed within the Golden Horde in the steppe. After its separation from the Golden Horde in 1361, the White Horde became an independent state for a certain period of time, sometimes uniting with the Blue Horde to reestablish the Golden Horde. However, after the death of Khan of the Golden Horde, Barak Khan, in 1428, the Golden Horde became fragmented, and the White Horde itself was divided into the Uzbek Khanate and the Nogai Horde ; the remaining land was divided between Mustafa Khan in the south and Mohammed Khan in the north. The Uzbek Khanate, which dominated most of present-day Kazakhstan, was ruled by Abu'l-Khayr Khan, who conspired in killing Barak Khan. Under Abu’l-Khayr Khan's leadership, the Uzbek Khanate became a corrupt, unstable, and weak state that often dealt with internal problems. To make matters worse, the khanate itself was raided by Oirats who pillaged nomadic settlements and major cities where they were looted, damaged, and had civilians massacred. Peace was made in 1457 between the Uzbeks and the Oirats where Abu’l-Khayr Khan suffered a severe defeat which made him lose reputation among the Uzbeks.Formation
The formation of the Kazakh Khanate began in 1459, when several Kazakh tribes dissatisfied with Abu’l-Khayr's rule, led by the great-grandsons of Urus Khan, Janibek and Kerei, fled the Uzbek Khanate in an event known as the Great Migration. The two cousins led the nomads towards Moghulistan, eventually settling and establishing an independent state. The Khan of Moghulistan, Esen Buqa II, united with them, offering them support against their opponents. Around 200,000 nomads joined Janibek Khan and Kerei Khan's movement, which had had a huge power and influence that it sparked fear in Abu'l-Khayr. The new khanate soon became a buffer state between the Moghulistan and the Uzbek Khanate. Although both Janibek Khan and Kerei Khan were considered the founding rulers of the Kazakh Khanate, it was Janibek Khan who initially wielded the most power. Eager to liberate his land from Abu’l Khayr Khan, Janibek invaded the Uzbek Khanate in 1468, sparking the Kazakh War of Independence. Abu’l Khayr, in response, launched a campaign against the Kazakhs, but died on his way to Zhetysu. Upon the death of Kerei Khan in 1473/74, Janibek Khan became the sole ruler.The early years of the Kazakh Khanate were marked by struggles for control of the steppe against Abu'l-Khayr's grandson, Muhammad Shaybani. In 1470, the Kazakhs defeated Shaybani at the city of Iasy, forcing the Uzbeks to retreat south to Samarkand and Bukhara.
In 1480, Kerei Khan's son Burunduk became khan. During his reign, the Kazakhs were able to muster an army of 50,000 ghazis and to repeatedly defeat the forces of Muhammad Shaybani along the Syr Darya river. It was during his reign, that the Uzbeks concluded peace with the Kazakhs in 1500, and the Kazakh Khanate gains its sovereignty from Uzbek control. All the former Uzbek Khanate lands in the north of Syr Darya were transferred to the Kazakh Khanate.
Regarding these events, 16th century Khaidar Duglati in his Tarikh-i Rashidi reports:
Kasym khan
, son of Janibek, became the khan in 1511 and from that point only the descendants of Janibek Khan ruled Kazakh khanate until its fall. Under his rule, the Kazakh Khanate reached its greatest strength so much that the Nogai Horde, which occupied the territory of modern Western Kazakhstan, became its number one enemy. Kasym successfully captured the Nogai capital Saray-Juk in 1520, pushing the Nogai Horde to the Astrakhan Khanate. Under Kasym Khan, the borders of the Kazakh Khanate expanded and the population reached 1 million people. It was during the reign of Kasym Khan that the Kazakh Khanate gained fame and political weight in the modern Euro-Asian arena. Kasym Khan also became a major patron of the arts, literature, and religion, allowing Islam to hold great political and sociocultural importance among Kazakh society. Under his reign, the Tsardom of Russia also became the first major state to establish diplomatic relations with the Kazakh Khanate. Upon doing so, Kasym Khan established his reputation as a successful leader, as his empire became known in Western Europe as an up-and-coming political entity.The manuscript of "Tarikh-Safavi", written in Persian by Persian historians, wrote about Kasym Khan, bringing most of the Dasht-i-Kipchak under his absolute control. The manuscript also describes how a Kazakh army of eight thousand soldiers helped Sheibani Khan of Bukhara annex the Iranian city of Khorasan.
Kasym Khan also instituted the first Kazakh code of laws in 1520, called "Қасым ханның қасқа жолы". Kasym Khan also ratified his alliance with the Timurid leader Babur, particularly after the fall of the Shaybanids, and was thus praised by the Mughals and the populace of Samarqand.
Although a truce had been concluded, the Kazakhs soon returned to active warfare and carried out repeated raids into Transoxiana, targeting the domains of Shaybani Khan. By this time the most powerful ruler in Central Asia, Shaybani Khan responded with several punitive campaigns against the Kazakhs, but with no lasting result. In 1510, however, Kasym Khan inflicted a major defeat on a large Uzbek force, a blow that contributed in part to the eventual fall of Muhammad Shaybani Khan.
Accordingly, Kasym Khan was described by Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat as the most powerful ruler of the Qipchaq Steppe or the Jochid Ulus since the reign of Jochi Khan, possessing an army numbering over one million men.
Mirza Muhammad Haidar wrote in his Tarikh-i-Rashidi that:
Turmoil and civil war
Following the death of Kasym Khan around 1521, the Kazakh Khanate entered a period of rapid decline under the rule of his son Mamash Khan and subsequently under Tahir Khan and Buydash Khan, the sons of his brother Adiq Sulṭan. Mamash Khan was killed in combat, while Tah Khan lost the support of most of his followers and was eventually abandoned by them. In the aftermath, the Manghits reasserted their control over the Qipchaq Steppe. After Buydash Khan’s reign, internal fragmentation and political weakness reached such an extent that Muḥammad Ḥaidar Dughlāt observed that after the year 940 AH, “the Kazakhs were completely uprooted.”The Kazakh Khanate regained its control over the eastern Qipchaq Steppe during the reign of Haqq Nazar, a son of Qasim Khan
Haqnazar Khan (1537–1580)
Under Haqnazar Khan, also known as Haq-Nazar or Khaknazar Khan or Ak Nazar Khan, The Kazakh Khanate regained control over the eastern Qipchaq Steppe during the reign of Haqq Nazar, a son of Kasym Khan, successfully defeating the Manghits. The Kazakhs dealt several significant defeats to the Manghits. For example, in 1557, they captured the brothers and relatives of the Manghit leader Ismail. By 1569, Haqq Nazar, along with about twenty other Kazakh princes, launched raids against the Manghits, and as a result, the Manghit nomads living east of the Ural River were absorbed into the Kazakh state.Haqnazar Khan began to liberate the occupied Kazakh lands. He returned the northern regions of Sary-Arka to the Kazakh Khanate. Having begun a campaign against the Nogai Horde, Haqnazar reconquered Saraishyk from the Nogai Horde and the surrounding Kazakh territories as well. In the fight against the Khivans, the Kazakhs conquered the Mangyshlak peninsula and successfully repelled the Oirats. Haqnazar began a campaign against Moghulistan with the aim of finally incorporating Zhetysu into the Kazakh Khanate. The campaign ended successfully and resulted in defeat for Moghulistan.
In 1568, the Kazakhs successfully defeated the Nogai Horde at the Emba River and reached Astrakhan, but were repelled by Russian forces.
At the same time, the Kazakhs attempted to take Tashkent from the Shibanid Uzbeks. The English traveler Anthony Jenkinson, who visited Bukhara in 1558, noted that the city was frequently raided by the Kazakhs. Haqq Nazar also became involved in a dispute between two Abu al-Khairid leaders: Abdallah, who had been the effective ruler of Bukhara since 1561, and Baba Sultan, the governor of Tashkent and son of the former Abu al-Khairid khan Nauruz Ahmad. Initially, the Kazakhs supported Baba Sultan, but they later switched their allegiance to Abdallah. Haqq Nazar and several Kazakh princes plotted against Baba Sultan, but he launched a counterattack and defeated them. Haqq Nazar was killed while trying to escape.