Names That Became Historical Heritage
As is known, the more we do for the good of our country, the more closely the circumstances of our lives intertwine with its fate. What can be said about those whose names have become part of history, such as the name Kurmandzhan Datka...
If we analyze it, the most important political decisions of the Alay queen expressed the essence of many deep aspirations of the Kyrgyz people. It is impossible to fully understand their logic without tracing the stages of the formation of the ethnicity from ancient times to the present day.
This is not easy to do, as even the word "Kyrgyz" is considered one of the oldest ethnonyms in Central Asia.
The first written mentions of this people are found in Chinese chronicles from 201 BC.
Since writing is a relatively recent invention in historical terms, oral traditions about the Kyrgyz and their ancestors are thought to be much older.
ANCIENT INHABITANT OF ASIA
However, today it is impossible to name an ethnicity whose genealogy is entirely clear and regarding which scholars have not debated various hypotheses. But the Kyrgyz are much luckier in this regard than some other ethnic groups. A masterpiece of folk creativity has been preserved - the epic "Manas." For an experienced and inquisitive researcher, this is a kind of encyclopedia of Kyrgyz life. Yet even it cannot provide a comprehensive answer about the place from which the great people emerged. In particular, the young Manas asks his father Jakyp about the origin of his lineage. The elder, in difficulty, replied:
O my child, your lineage forever
Is from the Turkic Kyrgyz.
Our ancestor ruled,
Displacing the lineage of the Chinese.
We lost our people
When, in different places,
Each of us walked as a ruler.
The epic does not specify the homeland of the Kyrgyz, but many events in their lives occur in Altai, Tian Shan, Alai, and Eastern Turkestan. As we see, Jakyp remembers only the deeds of his father and merely mentions a time more ancient. But even in this rather vague mention, there is evidence of the past greatness of the ethnicity: "The Kyrgyz were rulers of many peoples." Thus, they had not just their own state, but an empire, whose subjects were representatives of many ethnicities.
The first historical mention of this state is found in the chronicles of another ancient inhabitant of Asia - China. As noted in the "Historical Records" of the "Chinese Herodotus" Sima Qian, in the 3rd century BC, the powerful state of the Huns, led by Maodun (Modé), conquered several territories in the north, including the realm or country of Gegu. It is precisely around this time that mentions of the "Kingdom of Gegu" occur. Moreover, regarding external relations, in the 8th century, the Kyrgyz Khaganate continued to maintain ties with Tibet and China.
In 722, a Kyrgyz ambassador, Isibo Sheichzhi Bishi Tegin (son of the khan), visited the Tang dynasty's capital, and in 723, another Kyrgyz ambassador, Tegin Zuili Pinghezhun, was there. It is also known that in 724, 747, and 748, Kyrgyz ambassadors visited this capital as well. An inscription on a monument found in the region of Begre on the Yenisei, written in runic script, contains information about a high-ranking and respected person named Tyorapa (Torpe), who was sent to the Chinese emperor at the age of 15, where he received his education.
A monument found in the region of Kherbis-Baary in Tuva tells that Prince Kuluk-Yige was sent to the Tokuz Tatars at the age of 27. Regarding an ambassador named Eren Ulug who was sent to the Tibetan state, a Yenisei written monument describes it as follows: "I went as an ambassador to the Tibetan khanate because of my bravery...".
As historians later discovered, the term "Gegu" was used to convey the difficult-to-pronounce word "Kyrgyz" for the Chinese. The Russian scholar N.A. Aristov, as early as 1893, completed his famous work on the Ussuns and the Kyrgyz, where he directly states: "The earliest mention of the Kyrgyz and their land dates back to 209 - 201 BC, when among the northern territories conquered by the Xiongnu shanyu Modé, Gegu is mentioned alongside Dinlin."
As for the question of where this Kyrgyz state was located and where the Kyrgyz lived in ancient times - in Mongolia, in the upper reaches of the Yenisei, or in Eastern Tian Shan, scholars have not yet reached a consensus. However, most lean towards the assumption that the first mentioned Kyrgyz lived in the territory of Eastern Turkestan and then migrated through Mongolia to the upper reaches of the Yenisei. It was there that a relatively short but very bright period in the history of the people occurred - the time of their great power. At that time, the Kyrgyz in the Yenisei had favorable historical and geographical conditions for restoring their statehood. They conquered the small peoples of the taiga and began to call them "kyshtym," meaning "dependent, subjugated."
The empire of the Yenisei Kyrgyz, which existed from the 6th to the 8th century, had a sufficiently developed system of governance.
At the head of the state was a monarch. He was called a zho, later - khan. He had his well-fortified capital, a banner, and a personal guard. The state also had a well-established administrative-territorial management system and possessed significant armed forces for that time - 80,000 troops. But it was not the army and administrative apparatus that preserved the affairs of the statesmen of this country from oblivion. The names of some rulers became immortal thanks to another masterpiece of folk genius - the runic alphabet. Thanks to it, the Kyrgyz remember and honor some of their ancient ancestors even in the 21st century.
BARS OF THE YENISEI EMPIRE
However, the strange inscriptions found in the Siberian expanses, the Orkhon-Yenisei runes, would have remained mute witnesses of antiquity if not for the painstaking work of historians and linguists.
One of them is the Russian researcher S.G. Klyashtorny. His success in reading ancient runic texts allowed him to identify one of the remarkable rulers of the state of the Yenisei Kyrgyz at the end of the 7th - beginning of the 8th centuries. This is about the Kyrgyz khan Bars-bek. This is the first name of a Kyrgyz that history has brought to our days. He was an outstanding political and state figure and military leader of his time. He came from an ancient ruling Kyrgyz dynasty.
The lineage of Bars-bek was believed to be under the special protection of the goddess Umai-ene. Therefore, the lineage rulers bore the title umai-beg. This title was held by the governors of all six districts of the Kyrgyz Khaganate. Perhaps the zho, in addition to secular power, also had the authority of a priest. In the late 7th century, Bars-bek, feeling the strength of his people, made an important political act: he took the title of khan with the throne name Yynanchu Alp Bilge. He also achieved the creation of a military coalition against the Orkhon Turks with the Tabghach (the Chinese), "with the khan of the ten-arrow people" (with the Türgesh), as well as with the Turkic tribes of Chik and Az. But the treachery of the newly minted "friends" played its role: the leaders of one of the supposedly friendly peoples, the lineage rulers Tonukek and Kültigin, with their retinue began military actions against their allies.
In the winter of 710-711, former allies, having crossed the Kögmen (Sayan) mountains, unexpectedly attacked the Kyrgyz. In this battle, Bars-bek heroically perished fighting the enemies in the wooded area of Sunga. However, the Orkhon Turks began to respect him as a worthy enemy, and the Yenisei Kyrgyz recorded in a number of their monuments in runic script words of worship, lamentation for the irreparable loss.
The lamentation-text, written in runic script on a monument found in the region of Altyn-Köl in the Yenisei valley, contains lines such as: "Tört inelgi bizni erkilig adyrti yita. Er erdem uchun inimi echim uyaryn uchun bengumin tike berti," meaning: "There were four of us, dear brothers. We were separated by Erklig (the God of Death). How sad! An eternal monument was erected for our bravery and courage, for the nobility of my younger and older brothers."
Runic inscriptions confirm the fact of the internal unity of the Kyrgyz people, referred to in Orkhon writings as "kyrgyz bodun," meaning "Kyrgyz people." It can be stated with full confidence that it was Bars-bek who conceived the idea of Kyrgyz hegemony in Central Asia, which was later realized during the so-called Kyrgyz Great Power period (9th century). Judging by the preserved runic and Chinese written sources, it was during the reign of this ruler that the idea of statehood was instilled in the ethnic consciousness of the Kyrgyz. Centuries later, this seed bore fruitful shoots. In particular, at the end of the 19th century, the fruit of the aspirations of the distant Yenisei ancestors became the clearly recognized necessity for their Turkestan descendants to create a sovereign state. At that time, it ran like a red thread through many political decisions of the nation's leaders, including the Alay queen. However, for the passionate desire to be shaped into a well-founded idea, a millennium was required.
THE WISE MAN FROM BARSKAUN AND THE BALASAGUN "NIGHTINGALE"
The Yenisei Khaganate was not the only result of state-building by the Kyrgyz during the early Middle Ages. Another state, in which the Kyrgyz ethnicity participated in its foundation, was the Karakhanid Khaganate that existed in Tian Shan in the 10th - 11th centuries. The state was founded by the ruler Satuk Karakhan. In 955, he accepted Sunni Islam. The successor of this ruler, Musa, made the Muslim faith the state religion. At that time, the leading role in the state was played by the ethnic group "chitali" - one of the clan unions of the Kyrgyz. The capital of the khaganate was a city in the Chuy valley - Balasagun. In this center, the ruins of which were studied by Kyrgyz archaeologists in the 20th century, the first poem in Central Asia in the Turkic dialect was created - "Kutadgu Bilig" ("Blessed Knowledge," 1069). The creator of the work, Yusuf Balasaghuni, was a contemporary of another remarkable writer and sage - Mahmud Kashgari.
The latter, a native of the city of Barskaun located on the shores of Issyk-Kul at that time, created the pearl of Turkic literature "Divan Lugat At-Turk" ("Dictionary of Ancient Turkic Dialects" (1072 - 1074).
Yusuf Balasaghuni expressed his understanding of the idea of a just ruler and a prosperous state, where everyone can live happily, in his rhymed, sonorous verses. The work was very popular, and some of its lines eventually turned into folk proverbs and sayings. The poet from Balasagun was the first to introduce the Turkic language into the realm of verbal creativity in Central Asia, alongside the then-dominant Arabic and Persian literary languages. Moreover, Yusuf Balasaghuni understood the significance of his work perfectly. His works contain lines such as:
I aspired to knowledge with persistent desire,
I strung word to word with a patterned syllable,
The word of the Turks grazed like a mountain deer,
And I tamed it, made it submissive.
"Divan Lugat At-Turk" by al-Kashgari is a monument of Turkic culture that captured the ethical values and norms of behavior, the specific worldview of Turkic peoples in the 11th century, absorbing all the preceding heritage of their ancestors. In the book, alongside the ancient Zoroastrian-shamanistic worldview, elements of a new ideology - Islam and its branch, Sufism, are also recorded.
Mahmud al-Kashgari, being a younger contemporary of Yusuf Khass Hajib al-Balasaghuni, experienced his influence, especially in views on the role and essence of language. Mahmud al-Kashgari wrote: "Along with these (words), I collected in the book the mentioned objects and known (used) words, and thus the book rose to high dignity and achieved excellent superiority." The author presented genres of Turkic folklore - ritual and lyrical songs, excerpts from heroic epics, historical legends and tales (about Alexander the Great's campaign to the land of the Turkic Chigili), more than 400 proverbs, sayings, and oral sayings.
The poem of Yusuf Balasaghuni and "Divan..." of his contemporary have survived the centuries, leaving in the hearts of descendants a memory of long-gone ages. By the way, the literary talent was also characteristic of the distant descendant of Yusuf Balasaghuni and Mahmud Kashgari, Kurmandzhan Datka. Continuing the rich poetic tradition of her ancestors, she glorified this heritage in the 19th century with her collections of poetry under the pseudonym of the poetess Ziyat.
MUHAMMED FROM THE KYRGYZ LINEAGE
By the 13th century, only Altai and Dzhungaria remained from the lands of the khaganate as a foothold for control over the rich oases of Eastern Turkestan. Then the Kyrgyz state divided into several possessions. In 1293, the troops of the Mongolian khan Kublai invaded the Minusinsk basin and defeated the Kyrgyz militia.
The ruling elite of the Kyrgyz was destroyed, and the state of the Yenisei Kyrgyz was completely liquidated.
As a result of the invasion of the Mongolian hordes, Tian Shan entered the ulus of Chagatai, the son of Genghis Khan. From this time onward, and later, the states in Tian Shan were ruled by the Chinggisids. However, as early as 1269, the kurultai of Mongolian princes gathered in Talas declared the complete independence of the new state, headed by a descendant of Genghis Khan, Haidu. This state territorially encompassed the lion's share of Central Asia. Haidu's capital was located in Tian Shan. Despite the fact that this was a state of the Chinggisids, the Kyrgyz played an important military-political and socio-economic role in it. This last circumstance gave some historians reason to consider the state Kyrgyz.
After Haidu's death - in 1301 or, according to other sources, in 1302, the internecine struggle of contenders for the throne led to the division of the state into two parts. In Tian Shan, the state of Mogholistan arose, while in the west, in Mawarannahr, the possessions of Timur were established. Long wars with varying success ensued between the two states. Later, another Kyrgyz ruler emerged on the historical stage - the ideological predecessor of Kurmandzhan Datka, Muhammed Kyrgyz. His capital was located on the shores of Issyk-Kul, in the region of Barskaun.
It can be stated with full confidence that this brave politician dedicated his life to the struggle for the independence of his people and the creation of an independent Kyrgyz state. In doing so, he oriented himself towards an alliance with the Kazakh Khanate. Under Muhammed, the Kyrgyz again emerged as an independent, albeit fragile, state formation. The wisdom and merit of the founder of the state lie in the fact that he, as a contemporary of Muhammed, the chronicler Mirza Haidar, wrote, "gathered all the Kyrgyz" and, contrary to the wishes of the Mongols, began to pursue an independent policy. The short-lived khanate was officially called the "Kyrgyz ulus." According to the same Mirza Haidar, the Uzbek emirs in Turkestan, Tashkent, and Sayram "had no forces capable of resisting in the event of an invasion" by Muhammed Kyrgyz.
In 1517, the Mongols entered Kyrgyz land. A fierce war began. As a result, the army of Muhammed Kyrgyz suffered defeat in the region of Barskaun on Issyk-Kul, and he himself was captured. Sultan-Said, wanting to keep the Kyrgyz in a dependent position, kept Muhammed Kyrgyz in Kashgar prison for five years. Then, in order to win Muhammed Kyrgyz over to his side, in 1522 he released him from prison and, recognizing him again as "the emir of the Kyrgyz," sent him back to his homeland accompanied by his son Rashid.
Immediately upon his return to his homeland, Muhammed Kyrgyz began secretly preparing for war against the Mongols and seeking allies in the struggle against them. In 1524, he negotiated with the Kazakh Sultan Takhir about an alliance.
The content of this secret conversation became known to Sultan-Said, who again captured Muhammed Kyrgyz and took him to Kashgar. Until 1533, Muhammed Kyrgyz remained in Kashgar prison, where he died. Despite this, the groundwork was laid for the creation of an anti-Mongolian Kyrgyz-Kazakh alliance. In 1523-1524, Kyrgyz and Kazakh warriors acted together. The Kyrgyz-Kazakh agreement on friendship, despite some setbacks, continued until the second half of the 16th century.
However, soon the conquering campaigns of the Dzungar and Kokand khanates deprived the Kyrgyz people of the opportunity to create their own state for almost four centuries. But the idea continued to live on. Were there further attempts to restore Kyrgyz statehood? Undoubtedly. However, they were also unsuccessful.
ORMON-KHAN - A KHAN WITHOUT A KHANATE
As is known, the Kokand Khanate - this colossus of the Fergana Valley - arose in the 18th century when Fergana separated from the Bukhara Khanate as an independent possession. Initially, the power was seized by the khojas - representatives of clerical dervish brotherhoods. Around 1710, the Uzbek feudal lord from the Ming tribe, Shah Rukh-atalyk, seized power and established a new khan dynasty that ruled in Kokand until 1876.
In the first half of the century, the Fergana rulers were still nominally considered subordinate to the Bukhara khan, but in fact were completely independent, even opposing Bukhara. From the mid-18th century, during the reign of Irdana-biya, he was designated as a sovereign ruler on the seals of Kokand rulers. The Kokand Khanate, having gained independence, began to compete with the Bukhara Emirate, fighting for power.
Interestingly, Kyrgyz feudal lords also played a fully independent role on the political stage at that time. There is a vague mention in Russian sources that in the first half of the 18th century, the Kyrgyz had a fully sovereign possession neighboring Badakhshan.
In the 18th century, the southern Kyrgyz represented a real force actively participating in the foreign policy affairs of their neighbors. Eastern chronicles hint that the successor of Shah Rukh, Abdar-Rakhim, was already allied with the Kyrgyz and sided with them in the feudal strife around the Samarkand possession.
A national hero of the 19th century became the manap of the northern Kyrgyz Sarybagysh, Orion Khan. In the summer of 1842, he convened a famous kurultai on the western shore of Issyk-Kul in the region of Kotmaldy (now Balykchy) with the aim of uniting the Kyrgyz tribes against the Kokand Khanate. At the suggestion of some biys, Orion Niyazbekov was elected the supreme khan of the Kyrgyz. In 1847, he repelled the invasion of the Kazakh sultan Kenesary Kasymov.
Unfortunately, Orion was not recognized as khan by his fellow tribesmen - the lineage rulers of other Kyrgyz clans and tribes, and the state could not be revived. From the early 1850s, relations between Ormon-khan and the Bugins began to deteriorate, although he, wishing to strengthen his ties, married his daughter Kulan to the son of the main Bugin manap Borombay - Omurzak.
The Bugin manaps, led by Borombay, began to increasingly disobey Ormon-khan as Russian troops approached Issyk-Kul. The Sayaks, whom Ormon-khan managed to place his sons Umetaaly and Martyn (in Naryn and Atbashy) at the head of, remained quite firmly under his authority. He contemplated ways and means by which he could make the Bugins more submissive. He was very attracted to the shores of Issyk-Kul, whose strategic position he found more convenient for his khan's capital.
In one of the internecine battles, Ormon-khan died after being wounded in a clash between the Sarybagysh and Bugin tribes. The death of the hero is described in one of the diaries of the Russian traveler and scholar Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, stating that after being mortally wounded and knocked off his horse by a spear, Ormon was carried to the yurt of Borombay's son, Omurzak, and died in the arms of his wife, his beloved daughter. Thus, the remnants of clan consciousness prevented the hero from realizing the long-held dream of his people - to unite the Kyrgyz under the banner of a single state.
Fortunately, the successors of the Sarybagysh lineage ruler, descendants of many other Kyrgyz clans, later managed to overcome such narrow political thinking. This was preceded by a number of brilliant victories and regrettable failures. But that was already the era of Kurmandzhan and the Kokand Khanate.
Kurmandzhan Datka - A Queen of Alai
