By Tursun SULTANOV, St. Petersburg University
Sabit ZHUSUPOV KISERP (the introduction)
(The brief version. You may read the full of the article in �The Energy of Kazakhstan� magazine-appendix to THE GLOBE ##10.98 & 02.99)
Today the division of the Kazakhs into clans and bigger formations (tribes and zhuzes) arouses an intent interest of not only foreign and local analysts, but also of the society.
If we assume that the phenomenon of the family-tribal stratification is still one of the most important socially regulating factors, the consequences of this thesis will be evidently significant. That means that the mechanisms of recruiting the political elite, re-distribution of the property during the privatization will somehow connected with the tribal system. Tasks on establishment of civil institutions and modernization of the public spheres seem problematic under the conditions of the traditional society.
Is it really so? Are the Kazakh people a carrier of t a number of significant dispersal signs having multi-centuries roots?
The Kazakh Khanate and the Kazakh Zhuz
One of the mysteries of Kazakh history remains the origin of the zhuz
The zhuzes were a form of socio-political organization of the Kazakh people. Kazakh history talks of a zhuz as a distinct group of tribes who accept their Kazakh origin and tradition, and inhabit a fixed part of the overall Kazakh territory. In pre-Revolutionary historical literature the word Zhuz can be seen replacing �orda�, an ancient Russian word with a Kazakh origin.
In all there are three zhuzes- the Ulu zhuz (the elder, or the big, zhuz) occupying most of the eastern Kazakh khanate; Orta zhuz (average, or middle, zhuz) in the central part of the khanate; and Kishi zhuz (small, or little zhuz) in the most western territories.
The names of the zhuzes do not refer to their numbers. The most populated among the zhuz were the Kishi or little zhuz. The names derive from the right of seniority originating in the genealogy of the member clans. Seniority between the clans and the zhuz were considered to be by direct lineage: � the last clan�, Ulu zhuz had advantage over �the most senior clan� Orta zhuz etc. According to ethnographic observation, the order of seniority (the advantages of the Ulu zhuz) was maintained by: 1) attachment to a place in the order of battle; 2) dividing war booty; 3) marching into a house and offering seats; 4) inaugurating a ceremony; 5) presenting quality things when in visits and in festal meals.
In the 17th century and at the beginning of the 18th century all three zhuzes were ruled by �bys - forefathers� (bys means judges) who transcended the entire Kazakh khans. But after the death of the last Kazakh khan, Tauke-khan (c. 1715-17), the khans ruling the zhuzes came from the male offspring of sultans descended from Ghingiz Khan who died in 1227.
Muslim sources nowhere mention the Kazakhs in spite of the fact that the sources, which described the situation in eastern Desht-i Kipchak in the 17th to the beginning of the 18th centuries, described in detail a great number of political wars and the cultural life of the time.
The original Kazakh ulus (the Kazakh khanate) was a political and military union of tribes in the Eastern Desht-i Kipchak who separated from the family tribes and leaders of one branch of Chingisdov�s dynasty. Ethnic consolidation of these tribes in the sphere of one state and under the rule of one dynasty (descendants Zhuchid Ulus-khan) happened at the same time.
The transition of nomads in kibittzes on wheels to the temporary yurts was the biggest change of life of the nomadic population of Desht-i Kipchak. This transition began to define an order among relatives and genealogical links of tribes and clans within one political society. It also established the territorial links in terms of stable zones of constant migration. This type of zone never coincided with the ulus (administrators) or the tumens (warfare) who dismantled the overall state territory and relationship within these zones that could not be regulated by the heads of the ulus czarevichs - chingizids.
The new territorial ancestral links demanded other regulators, and they became �big men� of pastoral communities - a �bey� or a �national� aristocrat. An elite of the social groups, a kara-suyek was honored for knowledge and the ability to interpret the multi-century peoples� right and customs, where they were preserved in the steppe by undisturbed groups of cattle breeders. So it was around beys that a web of clans and internal land claims began to form. Gradually this web developed into a culture and a society, which could only be governed by a system of genealogical and hierarchical relationships between clans and tribes.
New structures and their bey did not by any destroy or violate the already established political and administration structure of the of the Kazakh khanate with its ulus. The new affiliations indicated social zones. They adopted some terms emerging from the clans and tribes that may have come from military language, but which was not in its new usage a military term. This term apparently, became the zhuz (the word �sto� thus, hundred, �sotniya� also means one hundredth).
Ak-suyek and kara-suyek in the Kazakhstan history
Studying the social structure of the Kazakh society of the khanate period (15th to 19th centuries) two main principles can be clearly identified. One of them is that Kazakh clans and tribes entered according to their seniority into three associations, named by Kazakhs themselves as Ulu Zhuz, Orta Zhuz, Kishi Zhuz. The other basic principle of public structure in the Kazakh khanate was the Kazakh society subdivision into two basic social groups, opposed to each other: ak-suyek (�white bone�) and kara-suyek (�black bone�), - differing not so much in economic as in political and legal attributes. �Ak-suyek� covers khans of Chingis dynasty, who were called �sultans�, and also sayyids and hodjas. All other groups and layers of society made kara-suyek.
The sultans represented the most influential political force of the Kazakh society in that time. The word �sultan� was originally used for a collective concept of supreme authority - suzerainty, domination, and also authorities, government.
The sultans - khans of Chingis dynasty - made the supreme estate in social hierarchy - ak-suyek (white bone). Children of khans of Chingis dynasty under the right of birth acquired a title of sultan and together with it all rights, belonging to this social group, irrespective of economic circumstances, and also moral, intellectual and physical qualities of a person. One has to be born as a sultan. The relationship through a female line with the �golden claw did not delegate to a son-in-law any rights and privileges of a khan of Chingis dynasty. The exclusive right to mount the khanate throne was attributed only to khans of Chingis dynasty, for which the right to govern by virtue of the origin turned out as though the attribute natural for them.
The sultans did not carry any (except military) duties. All khans of Chingis dynasty of Kazakh uluses had a uniform tamga (sign) and one special uran (battle-cry), expressed by the word �arkar�, -which simple people could not use. The simple people in conversations could not call them by a name, but instead of a name should use the word �taksyr� (master).
Meeting with a sultan any ceorl dismounted from a horse and, standing on one kneel, welcomed him. The sultan in reply to a greeting put down a hand on his shoulder and answered �amanba� (are you[your cattle and your family] healthy?). The similar procedure was made in yurts. One of the external attributes of a sultanic title was a white felt carpet. At meetings and in all other solemn cases all representatives of the white bone sat only on white felt carpet.
Sayyid - leader, master, head (do not confuse this title with personal name �Sayeid - �happy �). �Sayyids� is used in Islamic world to denote descendants of prophet Muhammad (570-632 AD), starting from his daughter Fatima and the fourth khalif, All (ruled in 656-661). The firm term sayyida or sitti (�my madam �) is applied to women.
The khans of Chingis dynasty recognized sayyids as a �first estate � already in 14th century, when Islam became the official religion in Juchi Ulus (Golden Horde) and Chagatay ulus.
Hodja (�Owner�, �master�) in Turkestan - an honorable title for people, which under one version are considered to be the descendants of the closest associates of prophet Muhammad, namely: the four righteous khalifs - Abu Bakr, Omar, Osman and All (except the descendants of the latter from the marriage with prophet Muhammad�s daughter Fatima), and under other version - the descendants of first Arabs-conquerors of the Middle Asia territory between the rivers of Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya and the territory of southern Kazakhstan (8"� century). Thus, unlike sayyids, hodjas have no uniform genealogy. According to the data of sources, it was forbidden to apply force to hodjas.
In contrast of �white bone � the other people was called as kara-suyek (�black bone�). To designate various categories of ceorls, in difference with sultans, sayyids and hodjas, several terms were used: kartu (karaji), karakhalk, karakishi, kulkutany, sharua, pukara.
According to the information of sources, an ordinary nomad-herdsman was legally a free person, possessing personal and property rights. Personally, a free nomad-herdsman (the head of a family) could bequeath at his own discretion the property, to testify, to participate in annual �people�s assembly � etc.
Unlike the white bone estate, the representatives of kara-suyek always observed the subdivision into separate clans and tribes. According to �Zheti Zhargy �, the monument of Kazakh Law of 17th century, �everyone who can carry arms � (except sultans and biys) had to pay a twentieth part of property to khans and biys annually.
Of the kara-suyek social group only biys � the leaders of clans and tribes � had special rights. The word �biy � is a later modification the old �bek� or �beg� and appears in sources not earlier than in 15'1' century, and the Turkic word �bek � corresponds with Mongol �noyon� and Arabic-Persian �emir�.
The influence of biys (beks) was determined by both large number and force and antiquity of the origin and seniority of clans headed by them. Biys of Kazakh uluses enjoyed some special rights: within the clans governed by them only biys (except khans) possessed judicial, administrative, and military authority. The most influential chieftains were entered in khans� �councils of biys�.
Except aristocracy and simple people, rich and poor, but personally free, in the society of Kazakh-nomads there was a number of personally non-free men (kul) and women (kyun) � slaves. The basic sources of the slaves were: caption, slave trading, debt inconsistency. Legally, the slaves represented the most rightless social group. The responsibility for a slave �s crime was born by their owners, who were obliged to remunerate an offended party for the losses, caused by the slave. In turn, the cases, concerning the slaves, were not subject to the court of biys.
Thus, the traditional Kazakh society had a strictly hierarchical structure. Like in Europe and Russia, aristocracy and representatives of so-called �Saint clans� were precisely separated from populace. Also the economic differentiation of classes was enough clear, for the authority itself generated certain property advantages. This, however, did not exclude the existence both poor of the sultans, and rich ceorls. The riches, material wealth, no doubt, gave huge benefits and determined prestige in the society. Nevertheless, a large affluence was not connected with special rights, but only the class division steadily emphasised a position of each man in his clan and community, in Zhuz and in the nation, his life-style and, eventually, his life sphere.
Some remainders of the described herein about the people of �white bone � and �black bone � exist in the modern life. Class prejudices, as well as Zhuz and clan prejudices, prevail in minds of many of our people. But the modern life-style takes its positions. And modern, having European-like education Kazakh youth poorly perceives all that seems essential/or the people, who are still keeping some stereotypes of traditional way of thinking.
And this is a pledge of a reorganization of a renewed Kazakh society.
From September 14 to October 14.
The Kosteyev State National Museum. The exhibition of private picture-galleries: �Gallery parade � �99�
The Kosteyev State National Museum. Exhibition of S. Kalmykov, I. Itkind, and V. Eifert�s works, and Rudolf Nuriev�s painting.
From 10.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. Closed on Mondays.
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