Zhalantos (Abdukarim) batyrSeitqululy (Baiqozhauly), Yalantushbahadur(September 15, 1576 – 1656) – a statesman, a military commander, a batyr, and a biy.
Biography
There are many interesting and complex historical figures in ancient and medieval Central Asian history whose fate unites fraternal peoples. Admittedly, one of such individuals is Zhalantos bahadur. A number of Russian historians [1]. briefly expressed their opinions about him. Kazakh researchers, meanwhile, raised this problem in their collective research, understanding the significance of Zhalantos batyr’s persona [2]. Thus, well-known figures of the Alash movement such as M. Tynyshbaev [3] and H. Dosmukhamedov [4] were among the first scholars to distinguish themselves in this regard. In particular, H. Dosmukhamedov’s research is notable for its accuracy and scholarly validity. The work “Tarih-i Kipchaks” by Khojamkuli-bek Balkhi translated into Russian and published in the collection of sources “Materials on the history of Kazakh khanates in the 15th-17th centuries” is of particular importance for studying Zhalantos’s life [5]. Scholars from Uzbekistan also had a significant impact on the study of Zhalantos and his life [6]. It is worth noting that the Kazakhs living in Uzbekistan and Karakalpakstan, such as Professor N. Otkelbaev, writer J. Muratbaev, and President of the Zhalantos Bahadur Foundation K. Ydyrys have been especially active in this respect. Their studies and materials about Zhalantos are cited below and are included in a special publication printed in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstani writers, poets and journalists made a significant contribution to the collection of materials on Zhalantos [7].
Some of the works were published in the collection “Zhalantos Bakhodur – a Historical Personality” on the initiative and with direct support from the public leader and professor Beket Turgaraev and compiled by the journalist and writer Ashirbek Amangeldy [8]. This study, which combines major works by historians, writers, poets, and local chroniclers, is a significant contribution to the study of Zhalantos. However, it should be noted that many of the works mentioned above were published either before the establishment of the Soviet totalitarian system or only after its collaps; some were published only after Kazakhstan gained independence. In Soviet historiography, despite heroic images preserved in the people’s historical memory, such personalities as Zhalantos Bahadur were either given a negative assessment for their activities or had their historical significance deliberately omitted, as they were regarded as representatives of the “ruling class.”
As for Kazakh historiography, Zhalantos Bahadur’s genealogy has been of particular importance since, in his political and state activities, he was a common figure for the brotherly peoples — Uzbeks, Karakalpaks and Kazakhs. Such studies would help determine his origin and affiliation with the aforementioned peoples. However, the Stalinist class system did not allow that. For example, the first book “History of Kazakhstan” written by Russian historians who were evacuated from Moscow to the Kazakh republic during the war (in 1943) did not make a single mention of Zhalantos. The following lines from this work only make a passing mention of this historical figure: “In 1643, a fifty thousand-strong Kalmyk army invaded Kazakhstan … the Bukharan khan’s troops allied with the Kazakhs approached [them] and the Kalmyks were forced to retreat [9].” However, after this publication was subjected to political persecution as a “bourgeois nationalist manifestation”, scientific publications on the history of Kazakhstan started to avoid descriptions of the Kazakh and Bukharan khanates’ struggle against foreign invaders altogether.
Unfortunately, Zhalantos was not mentioned in the second volume of the History of Kazakhstan published in 1957. Yet, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Russian scholars Ivanov P.P. and Pugachenkova G.A. started writing about Zhalantos and the magnificent buildings he built in Samarkand, which inspired Kazakh researchers. The fourth volume of the Kazakh Soviet Encyclopedia published in 1974 stated for the first time that Zhalantos was not an Uzbek or a Tatar, as Russian scholars represented him, but a “Kazakh hero”, Aiteke bi’s older grandfather, and a descendant from the Tortqara kinship group in the Younger Zhuz that inhabited the lower reaches of the Syr Darya river [10]. It was further mentioned in this encyclopedic article that Zhalantos Bahadur’s descendants still lived in the Kazaly district of the Kyzylorda region.
It is noteworthy that the names of the three well-known Kazakh biys who had not yet been fully returned to Kazakh history at that time and the fact that such information about Zhalantos was published in the era of “internationalist” ideology revolutionized people’s historical consciousness. Earlier, only one of the leaders of the Alash movement — Khalel Dosmukhamedov — who later became a political victim of the Soviet totalitarian system had written about Zhalantos’ origin. First, he noted that Kazakhs referred to Zhalantos Bahadur as “Zhalantos Batyr.” Taking into account his invaluable contribution to the study of Zhalantos Bahadur’s life, the value of the sources cited in the article titled “The Genealogy of Zhalantus Bahadur (Yalantush-Bahadur), the Builder of the Tilla-Qora and Sher-Dor Madrassahs in the City of Samarkand” published in 1928 in Tashkent is remarkable. H. Dosmukhamedov points out that the Kazakhs of the Alimula tribal association that Zhalantos belongs to lived in the Temir, Irgiz, and Kazalinsky districts, as well as the Karakalpak region of Kazakhstan; and that Zhalantos Bahadur’s genealogy is presented without any changes in a number of shezhire (genealogical trees) that he managed to obtain. It is therefore necessary to provide one of these shezhire recorded by H. Dosmukhamedov from aksakal Maldiman Shoshtayev in 1920 [4, p. 73].
According to the author, this shezhire contains only information about Zhalantos’ direct ancestors and descendants. His descendants who lived in later centuries are not mentioned in it. Nevertheless, H. Dosmukhamedov found it necessary to provide additional explanations for some of thid genealogical data. He notes that Zhalantos’ brother Aqsha biy was one of the famous biys of his time and indicates that Aiteke biy was his grandson and one of the prominent three biys who laid the foundation of Tauke Khan’s laws. The author further points out that a hero named Qara-abyz is mentioned in the shezhire as Zhalantos’ great-grandson. He also indicates that Zhalantos’ descendants currently live in the Sarytogai volost of the Kazalinsky district in the Syr Darya region [4, p. 74].
Who is Zhalantos’ father — Seitqul or Baiqozha? According to historical sources, Zhalantos was born in 1576 in the family of Seitqul, a biy of the Alchin kinship group that consisted of forty thousand families migrating along the lower reaches of the Syr Darya river. His real name was Abdikarim (Abdulkarim). This is also recorded in the title of his tombstone in the Dagbet mausoleum for khojas near Samarkand. However, the inscription reading “Boyhodzhi biy ugli Abdulkerim” on this tombstone means that his father was not Seitqul but someone else. Moreover, while the shezhire that identifies Zhalantos as a son of Seitqul mentions a large number of descendants, the aforementioned burial contains graves of two of his daughters and one son, with the latter leaving no descendants. In this regard, the following commentary notes: “The name of Yalangtush Bahadur’s father is still debated since, according to Kazakh oral legends, his father’s name sounds like Seitqul but, according to written legal documents, his father’s name was Boyhodzha. Most likely, these are two different individuals. Zhalantos Batyr left numerous offspring, and Yalangtush biy had only one son who died without leaving male offspring [11].” This hypothesis was first presented by Russian scholars [12].
Before delving into this question, let us focus on the problem Zhalantos’ descendants. We will specifically discuss the progeny from Zhalantos’ two wives. Zhalantos’ father had three wives. In our opinion, his descendants from one wife when he was a biy among the Alim were shown in the Kazakh genealogy, and the descendants buried in a complex near Samarkand were from another wife when he was still the city ruler. In other words, the Kazakh shezhire omits his descendants from the wife who lived on the “Uzbek” territory. If we turn our attention to the Dagbet mausoleum, where only khojas could be buried, it becomes clear that it was difficult for Zhalantos to get a spot in this complex both for himself and for his relatives since they were not from the khoja lineage. One of the sources suggests that he bought land in this complex from the Sufi leader Khoja Hashimi [13, p. 179]. Indeed, it is known that Zhalantos Bahadur approached him with his father and was accepted as a murid (pupil). According to sources, this meeting took place in 1606 [11].
In our view, it was from this point forward that Seitqul adopted a name closer to a khoja and began to be referred to as Baiqozha biy. So, according to a number of sources and the Dagbet burial complex, Seitqul’s name was recorded as Baiqozha. For this reason, Zhalantos changed his name to a more eastern one and became known as Abdulkarim around the same time. It is worth mentioning that Baiqozha’s daughters-in-law sometimes called him Baiqazhi – a name given to Seitqul as someone who had performed the hajj and had a large number of cattle [13, p. 178]. However, it seems implausible that Seitqul, known only by his second name Baiqazhi, was buried in a burial complex belonging to the khoja lineage, next to the saints. It is important to note that Seitqul’s official name was recorded as Baiqozha in a legal document (wasiqa) written on April 30, 1650, which transferred the land to Zhalantos’ ownership. It contains the following lines: “[Of] Yalangtush Bai, the son of Boi Khoja Biy, for the purchase of 2/6th of a garden and 2/6th of a plot of land from Niyez Bek and Khoja Bek, the sons of Oshur Kushbegi, making up the whitewashed estate in the Posarchak mahallah in the Samarkand tumon Shovdor, for 1000 tanga” [11].
It is known that Zhalantos, his father, and his children were buried at the feet of the aforementioned Khoja Hashimi in the khoja burial complex. Khoja Hashimi was a descendant of the famous Sufi leader Seit Bahahidin Naqshband Mahdumi Agzam, who was revered by the Ashtarhanid dynasty that ruled in Bukhara. It is worth noting that Sufi Mahdudi Agzam’s name was known not only in the Mawarannahr region, but also throughout the Islamic world. Therefore, in 1621, the Indian sultan, a descendant of the famous Babur Zhanibek, sent ambassadors with valuable gifts for descendants of this famous Sufi to the Bukharan khan Imamkuli, who was also Zhalantos’s childhood friend. In later years, Zhalantos, who followed the Sufi Naqshbandi ideas, became the emir of Samarkand three times, thanks to the support of Sufis led by Khoja Hashim. For his part, Zhalantos rendered continuous support to the Sufis. In Dagbet, he built a madrasah that included forty rooms (hujras), two mosques and an architectural prayer room (honakokh) in honor of Hoji Hashimi’s grandfather, Mahdudi Agzam. However, without proper care, this building got neglected and soon disappeared [14, p. 77-79].
Taking into account the two abovementioned hypotheses, it appears that there is only one Zhalantos in the history of the Bukharan Khanate. Such is historical reality. This is also confirmed by Kazybek bek Tauasaruly’s records published in Kazakhstan in recent years and containing data from 16th-17th century sources. Only one “Alchin-Alimuly-Tortqara Zhalantos batyr” is mentioned in them [15, p. 201]. The sources used by Uzbek scholars suggest that Bahadur was from the Alchin tribe, but they do not mention his membership in the Tortqara clan of the Alchin tribe. Admittedly, the genealogical shezhire of Zhalantos’ descendants, as well as the data from the burial ground near Samarkand, are objective, although it is arguable that these data cannot prove the existence of two Zhalantoses who ruled in Bukhara at the same historical time.
Was Baiqozha-Seitqul a khan or a biy? In subsequent years, researchers confused Zhalantos’ father Seitqul and Zhalantos himself, presenting them as “khans from the common people” [16]. This was a historical distortion. Sources demonstrate that Baiqozha, also known as Seitqul, was a biy from the Tortqara clan of the Alchin tribe who migrated along the Syr Darya. In fact, Seitqul was a biy from the Alchin tribe under Khan Dinmukhammed, whose power extended from the lower reaches of the Syr Darya to the Aral Sea in the east. Later, he was also a biy during Shigai Khan’s rule.
Dinmuhammed, historically known as a khan in Merv, subjugated the Nogais, the Karakalpaks, the Uzbeks, as well as Kazakh clans. The Nogais strenghtened Dinmuhammed’s power. In 1540, Ismail, the son of the famous Nogai murza Musa Biy, married Dinmuhammed’s daughter. From 1548 to 1549, while the Uzbeks continued to fight amongst themselves, Aknazar Khan supported Dinmukhamed on behalf of the Kazakhs. The fact that Dinmuhammed’s distant ancestor was Tukay-Timur, a descendant of Jochi, elevated his authority among the Kazakhs, Uzbeks and Karakalpaks. The future Kazakh khan Shigai was among the Kazakhs who followed Aknazar. In this case, the Alchin tribes were divided into two groups, with some clans such as Bai, Tama, Teleu, and Karakipchak, subordinate to the Nogai Horde and those who belonged to the Alim alliance, including the tribes led by Seitqul, subordinate to Dinmuhammed.
In 1570-1572, when the Nogais, Kazakh sultans, and Uzbek khans were in dispute over the Syr Darya cities and Khan Aknazar annexed these cities to the Kazakh Khanate, a difficult political time set in; a dzhut (famine) was spreading, and Seitqul relocated some of his Tortqara kinship group towards the Nurat mountains located near the Bukharan Khanate as a way out of this critical situation [14, p. 67-68]. Here, on September 15, 1576, Seitqul’s third wife gave birth to Zhalantos [17]. Zhalantos Bahadur’s childhood and youth was spent in Dinmuhammed Khan’s circle. The Kazakh Khanate’s sultan Shigai, following the aforementioned Aknazar Khan, was the ninth son of Zhadik sultan, the son of Zhanibek Khan, who, together with Kerey, founded the Kazakh Khanate.
It is further known that Shigai was the father of two well-known Kazakh khans — Tauekel and Yesim. One of Zhanibek khan’s son Burunduk Khan’s daughters married Dadim Sultan. The relatives of Shigai Khan’s sister-in-law married the Shaybanid rulers during Burunduk’s rule; the descendants of these three women ruled Samarkand and Bukhara and maintained good relations with their uncles from Kazakh clans. The Shaybanid khans, who were sons of Burunduk Khan’s daughter Mihr-Sultan, were especially influential figures and ruled Samarkand and the surrounding regions, which helped Shigai Khan establish contact with the Bukharan ruler Abdollah Khan. Zhalantos received education at the Bukhara school and madrasah during the reign of Abdollah Khan. His father, Seitqul-Baiqozha, was close to this Khan, which allowed Zhalantos to be educated in the Khan’s palace where he mastered the Persian language [18, p. 39]. Abdollah Khan, in turn, wanted to utilize the Kazakh sultans as allies against his enemy for the Uzbek throne — the Tashkent ruler Bab Sultan, who had killed the Kazakh khan Aknazar. In 1581, during a fierce battle on the banks of the Talas river, the Kazakh sultans under Shigai Khan’s leadership were defeated by the Shaybanid Bab Sultan. This event forced Shigai Khan to ask the Bukharan Khan Abdollah for help. In June 1581, Shigai, along with his sons Tauekel, Yesim, Ali, Sulim, and Ibrahim, arrived at Abdollah Khan’s headquarters. Abdollah Khan, having met them with great honors, gave Shigai khan Khojent district as iqta (allotment). Along with this, he kept the future Kazakh khan Tauekel, Shigai’s oldest son, with him and made him his nuker. This led to an increase in the number of influential Kazakh elders who were close to the Bukharan Khanate’s leadership, and Seitqul biy was among them. Thus, Kazakh clans received an opportunity to migrate freely by the Nurat Mountains all the way to the Khojent district [19, p. 77-80].
Zhalantos’ Adolescence. In 1590, Zhalantos began his study at Abdollah Khan’s military school that trained military leaders. At this school, Zhalantos met and became friends with the future khan of Bukhara and a member of the Ashtarkhanid dynasty — Imamkuli khan. The Ashtarkhanid dynasty is known in history as one that ruled the Astrakhan Khanate and descended from Jochi. Imamkuli was Dinmuhammed Khan’s son, who laid the foundation for the rule of this dynasty in Mawarannahr. Therefore, Imamkuli’s influence on solving state problems in the Bukharan Khanate was tremendous. Zhalantos, having studied at the Bukhara military school for three years and having received the post of tumenbasy, began his activities in governing the people. He returned to his homeland and became a biy for a segment the Alim tribe that inhabited the areas of Bulangar, Layish and Qattyqorgan. In 1595-1598, Zhalantos, following Imamkuli’s advice, studied in the city of Baghdad and upon his return became a military adviser in the Bukharan Khanate.
The Great Military Commander in Mawarannahr. In 1611-1642, Imamkuli khan was a powerful khan in Mawarannahr. During his reign, in 1613, an embassy was sent to the Russian Empire to establish diplomatic contacts, and, in 1615, an embassy was sent to India where Babur’s descendant Zhangir was a ruler at the time. The embassy was led by the descendants of the prominent Sufi Naqshbandi representative Khoja Hashimi Dagbedi. As is known, Zhalantos was one of this famous Sufi’s murids (pupils). During Imamkuli’s rule, Zhalantos was known as the chief military commander in Bukhara. Commanding the Bukharan army, he set out on a campaign against the Safavid Iran in 1614-1615, invaded Khorasan, and reached the regions of Mashhad and Mazandar. This campaign was designed to help Turkey, namely the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I, on behalf of the Bukharan Khanate. However, the tragic events of Imamkuli’s bloody campaigns against Kazakhs in the Syr Darya, Turkestan and Tashkent regions with the goal of incorporating them into the Bukharan khanates are widely described in historical sources. His crushing campaigns to the coast of the Syr Darya targeting Zhalantos’ compatriots soured their relationship, which ultimately led to Imamkuli’s apology to his friend [20, p. 488-490]. At the same time, one cannot help but mention that Kazakhs were divided into two khanates, and, in a bitter rivalry between Yesim Khan and Tursun Khan, Imamkuli Khan and Zhalantos Bahadur first supported Tursyn Khan who ruled in Tashkent but then switched sides and rallied behind Yesim Khan. The relations between these two khans who ruled the Kazakh tribes developed as follows. Yesim Khan’s brother Tauekel Khan, who ruled Samarkand at that time, was seriously wounded near Bukhara. After his death, Tursun Khan came to power and was appointed the ruler of Tashkent. However, he was not satisfied with being a ruler of only one province and wanted to be a khan for both Kazakhs and Uzbeks. In order to achieve this, he intended to take the once incorporated by Aknazar Khan Syr Darya cities from Yesim Khan. However, due to insufficient troops, he asked the Bukharan Khan Imamkuli for help.
Imamkuli’s intent was also to gain power over the Syr Darya cities. This campaign took place in the Year of the Boar (1613-1614). Kazybek bey Tauasaruly, who, according to Grandfather Matai historical annals, lived in the 18th century, describes this difficult situation as follows: “… In the Year of the Wild Boar, Imamkuli embarked on a campaign against the Kazakhs from Tashkent; weakened, the Kazakhs began to descend down the lower Syr Darya. After some time, the Kazakhs mobilized again and resumed the war. However, Imamkuli defeated the Kazakhs and decimated them. He placed his son Iskander as their ruler. But the latter was killed by the elderly Kazakh batyr Zhanay and the Kazakhs seized power again. Six months later, Imamkuli gathered his forces and defeated the Kazakhs. The Kazakhs had never seen such a massacre before; on Imamkuli’s orders, even a child in the cradle was not spared” [15, p. 191-192].
In 1621, Kazakh troops led by Tursun Khan launched a war against Bukhara, but the Ashtarakhanid army led by Zhalantos repelled this attack. This war later continued, and, in 1628, Zhalantos defeated the Kazakh troops led by Abuli Sultan, at Imamkuli khan’s behest, at the foot of Tashkent. The sultan himself was forced to flee to Kashgar. Meanwhile, in 1636, Imamkuli khan’s army led by Zhalantos went on a campaign to Sairam in order to annex Tashkent and Turkestan to Bukhara. Kazakh tribes in this region experienced great difficulties. The campaign continued all the way to the Kipchak steppe [21]. At the same time, Kazakh tribes subordinate to Yesim Khan and Tursun Khan lived in the neighboring areas where Imamkuli ruled. However, the rulers’ political ambitions often did not correspond to the interests of local Kazakh tribes. As for Zhalantos Bahadur, he was Commander-in-Chief and Ambassador of Samarkand in such conflicts and, first and foremost, protected the interests of the Bukharan khanate. These were historical facts. Both English-language historiography and works in other languages discuss these events (for example, see Audrey Burton’s The Bukharans. A Dynastic, Diplomatic and Commercial History 1550-1702. Curzon, 1997, and other works).
The most important thing to note is who Zhalantos Bahadur was. The aforementioned Russian historian distorted his origin, dubbing him a “Tatar.” This idea is mentioned only in the works by Kazybek bey Tauasaruly. Unfortunately, to this day, fundamental research published during the period of [Kazakhstan’s] independence continues to distort Zhalantos’ origin. In the collective work “The Great Atlas of Kazakhstan’s History and Culture” published in 2010, T. Sultanov writes that more than 20 thousand soldiers led by Zhalantos were an “Uzbek army” [22]. It is worth noting that, first of all, his tribesmen from the Alim tribe, as well as other tribesmen from the Younger Zhuz, fought alongside Zhalantos. When writing a new history of the Kazakh people, it must be borne in mind that he is one of the most outstanding individuals among us. It should also be noted that the Alchin tribe is mentioned as neighboring other Uzbek tribes in the Zarafshan valley only starting in the 16th century [23]. Prior, the Alchins lived in Abulkhair khan’s Uzbek ulus and, after its collapse, were incorporated into new states, such as the Nogai Horde, the Kazakh Khanate, and the Bukharan Khanate. However, members of the Tortqara kinship group in the Alchin clan, or Zhalantos’ tribesmen, who once migrated to the Bukharan Khanate and became a powerful political force there occupying the left side of the khan’s throne, never forgot that they were Kazakhs. In 1643, Zhalantos Bahadur leading the Bukharan army helped Kazakhs in the war against Dzhungars. At that time, Nadir-Muhammed Khan, Imamkuli Khan’s son, ruled the Bukharan Khanate. He had a mutual assistance agreement with the Kazakh leader Salkam Zhangir. According to sources, the battle at Orbulak consisted of two stages. The first clash, as indicated by Kazybek Bek Tauasaruly, took place in a narrow gorge of Mount Labas. There were about 300 soldiers with firearms led by Zhiembet batyr and shooter Zhaksygulov who were in ambush, whereas the rest of the troops under Zhangir and Karasay batyrs’ command approached the enemies from the rear, bypassing the mountain. During this battle, Zhalantos’ twenty-three thousand strong army arrived for help [15, p. 201].
In addition, in 1646, the Bukharan Khan Abdulaziz and his commander Zhalantos similarly came to the rescue and supported the Kazakhs who fought against the Dzungars. The Kazakhs, in turn, supported the Bukharans during the Mughal war. The reason for the 1646 campaign was the confrontation between the Bukharan Khan Abdulaziz and the ruler of the Mughal state Shah Jahan in the city of Balkh. The Uzbeks, Kazakhs and Karakalpaks gathered in Tashkent and provided three hundred thousand soldiers to defend Balkh. Led by Salkam Zhangir, almost one hundred thousand Kazakhs took part in this battle. Notably, Zhalantos’ campaign to Khorasan was directed against the Shiites [24, p. 395-396].
The inscription on the inner wall of the Sherdormadrasah portal
Samarkand’s Architect. Zhalantos Bahadur was not only a talented commander and a major statesman in the Bukharan Khanate but also a prominent figure in arts and culture. For example, the Tilla Qori madrasah and the Sherdor Madrasah he built on the Registan Square in Samarkand amaze the world with their magnificent architecture and monumental beauty. A poem is written on the walls of the latter madrasah’s portal to praise Zhalanthos, who erected this building. The leading Kazakhstani researcher Seraly Lapin [25, p. 328-329] and Khalel Dosmukhamedov [4, p. 72] offered a Russian translation of this inscription from the Persian language. Citing them, the historian M. Kozybaev translated it into a free poetic style of the modern Kazakh language [26, p. 43-44]. In our view, the most accurate translation is the version by the Uzbek scientist K. Kattaev [27]. This translation is also supported by a Tashkent Kazakh, Professor Nurali Utkelbaev [14, p. 79-80]. This scholar cited a Kazakh version of the Uzbek text which K. Kattaev translated from Persian into Uzbek. It contains the following lines:
Fair-minded Zhalantos, the destroyer of the enemy camp, arrived.
The great praise of his excellency was filled with a tremble;
He built such a mosque in the world,
That admiration of him reached heaven.
Even if we perform a feat, it’s not possible to reach the tower of the madrasah,
The creator created a bend in the rods,
When the heaven, seeing this new moon, looks at the moon,
It will bite fingers from its brilliance.
To honor Zhalantos Bahadur erecting this building, the foundation year in the abzhad report is referred to as “Yalangtush Bakhodir” [14, p. 79-80]. This record is valuable not only for Kazakh people’s history but also for the history of the brotherly Uzbek people as it is an indicator of the complex ethno-historical situation of these peoples’ common past.
Conclusion. To sum up, we can draw the following conclusions: in the historiography about Zhalantos Bahadur, historical objectivity has not been reflected yet. The main errors are as follows:
– According to sources, Zhalantos’ father’s name was “Boihodzha” (Baiqozha) rendered in the Kazakh genealogy as “Seitqul”, which prompted illogical assumptions about the existence of two Zhalantoses. Another problem is that some Kazakh researchers write “Baiqozha” or “Baiqazhi” without any real sources. Adherents of this idea cite the fact that Bahadur’s name on his grave is written as “Abdulkerim.” In fact, however, the recording of such eastern and Muslim names is connected with the Bahadur’s and his father’s arrival to the Sufi leader named Khoja Hashimi, the son of a famous Naqshbandi Sufi Mahdum Agzam, who accepted them as murids and transferred them under him guardianship. All available historical data indicates that there was only one Zhalantos Bahadur in the history of the Bukharan khanate;
– In historical studies, the problem of Zhalantos’ origin was interpreted differently: he was identified as a Tatar, an Uzbek, or a Kazakh. In one case, the presence of an Uzbek tribe named “Alchin” was cited as evidence. In this regard, Uzbek historians portray him as a son of the Uzbek people, while Kazakh historians highlight his origin on the basis of the shezhire (genealogical tree) and call him a great representative of the Kazakh people. We argue that the biographical-source work by Kazybek bey Tauasaruly “Түп-тұқианнан өзіме шейін” [From Personality to Myself] written in the era of the Kazakh Khanate has the final word in this debate. It indicates that, during the Battle of Orbulak, twenty-three thousand troops led by “Alchin-Alimuly-Tortqara Zhalantos batyr” arrived from Samarkand to help Salkam Zhangir, the son of Yesim Khan. As is known, members of the Tortqara clan from the Alimuly belonged to the Kazakh people.
– According to these lines, Zhalantos (Abdulkerim) should be regarded not just as a historical person who belongs to the history of any particular people but rather as a great individual who is shared by the Kazakhs, Karakalpaks and Uzbeks who inhabited Mawarannahr at that time.
Merit
Military and statesman activity of Zhalantos bahadur can serve as a symbol of the friendship between Uzbek and Kazakh peoples. An outstanding statesman of Maverannahr he also architected Samarkand’s famous madrasah including mosques Shir-Dor and Tillya-kari.
Memory
In honor of the selfless friendship of Zhalantos bahadur and ruler of the Kazakh state Zhangir khan, their joint struggle against foreign aggressors was erected a monument – architectural ensemble in Sharapkhana place along the international highway Almaty-Tashkent.
References:
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