The Death of Alymbek
As is known, before the Alay Queen, no woman in Turkestan had been honored with the title of Datka. But let us recall the circumstances under which Kurmandzhan became the head of her clan. After losing her husband, she was forced to take the reins of power in Aala.
So, Alymbek Datka died in the summer of 1862 during yet another palace coup. Let us recall the story of this hero's demise. In 1847, one of the representatives and heirs of the former theocratic rulers of Kashgar, Khoja-Tyure, decided to take advantage of the discontent of the masses in Xinjiang with Chinese domination and lead a rebellion. He was supported by the Alay Kyrgyz, who had always actively participated in the fate of their fellow tribesmen under the yoke of Manchu feudal lords, led by Alymbek. The movement was organized against the will of the Khan of Kokand, even in opposition to his foreign policy interests. But it was precisely for this reason that the Kyrgyz acted as an active force and went to aid the Xinjiang rebels.
The rebels acted successfully, even recapturing Kashgar from the Chinese. But soon the local Qing authorities received reinforcements, and the rebels, along with Alymbek and Khoja-Tyure, were forced to flee. They found refuge once again in the Alay pastures. Refugees and rebels—Uyghurs and Kyrgyz—streamed from Kashgar into Fergana, escaping the cold and famine. A snowstorm caught them at the Terik-Davan pass, and women and children perished.
The property of the refugees was abandoned or looted. The few survivors who reached Osh were forced to sell their children here to obtain food and avoid starving to death.
Upon his return, Alymbek organized a conspiracy against Khudoyar Khan in favor of his older brother Mallya. To do this, he descended from Aala to Osh and Uzgen. The coup was successful. Mallya-bek ascended the throne, ruling from 1858 to 1862. Khudoyar fled to Bukhara. All written testimonies that have survived to this day attribute the main role in these events to the southern Kyrgyz, primarily those from Osh and Aala. Mallya-bek, as stated in one of the information reports sent to Russia at that time, "with the help of the Kyrgyz, attacked Kokand and seized this city."
At this time, political power in the khanate practically passed into the hands of Alymbek and the Kyrgyz feudal lords, who showed their zeal in rivalry with the Kipchaks. After the capture and destruction of the fortresses of Pishpek and Tokmak by the Russians with the help of Kyrgyz rebels in 1860, Alymbek Datka marched into the Chui Valley by order of Mally Khan with the Kokand army. It consisted of 7 panzats and an Andijan detachment. The Alay's route went through Central Tian Shan, and in Kurtka and Ketmen-Tube, Alymbek increased his army to 12,000.
The military formation consisted mainly of cavalry. There were a thousand infantrymen. In the Chui Valley, Alymbek's troops met with Kokand detachments that had approached Pishpek by another route, led by the Tashkent governor, Kipchak Kanaat-shaa. The two rival feudal lords failed to agree on supreme power; neither wanted to acknowledge the other's supremacy. Therefore, when Kanaat-shaa moved against the Russians in Uzun-Agach, Alymbek hesitated and did not support him. It seems that here not only personal rivalry played a role but also Alymbek's unwillingness to fight against the Russians, who were supported by the Semirechye Kyrgyz, while the Issyk-Kul Kyrgyz had earlier, in 1855, voluntarily accepted Russian citizenship. The matter ended with Alymbek not engaging in battle and withdrawing his troops.
It is clear that after these events, Alymbek fell into the khan's disfavor, although he still remained the hakim of Andijan and the surrounding area (presumably including the city of Osh). When the following year Mally Khan decided to renew the campaign against the Russians, the Kyrgyz categorically refused to participate. The khan then sent horsemen to arrest Alymbek, but he managed to flee into the mountains beyond Gulcha, and only his property was confiscated. Soon, the Alay chieftain organized a new conspiracy against the khan. According to the chronicler Mulla Niyaz, the Kyrgyz feudal lords Alymbek and Kydyr, Turk Khuday Nazar "in agreement" with the Kyrgyz-Kipchak Alymkul organized a conspiracy and on February 24 (March is indicated in Russian sources), 1862, killed Mally Khan. One of Sheraly's grandsons, Khan Sha-Murad, was elevated to the throne. Alymbek became the first person—the chief vizier of the khanate.
But soon Alymkul managed to push the Kyrgyz aside and at different times physically eliminate Alymbek, Kydyr, and other prominent Kyrgyz feudal lords. In one of the reports from the head of the Alatav district, G. A. Kolpakovsky, to the Siberian corps commander dated July 25, 1862, it was reported about the occupation of the Kokand throne by Khudoyar Khan with the help of the Bukhara emir and that "many of those who killed Khan Mally were executed, including the famous Alymbek, who was killed by the common people."
Alymbek's wife, Kurmandzhan, was already in her 52nd year at that time. Being a woman of almost advanced age and a mother of many children, she also had no experience in governing a province prone to turmoil and rebellions. It is not hard to imagine what was happening in the heart of the inconsolable widow at that moment. But our heroine placed the interests of her clan above her emotions: she likely understood that the vacant throne of the clan leader could very well mean the loss of independence for the Alay Kyrgyz. Thus, the wife of the disgraced Datka, not yet recovered from the blow of fate, took his place. But soon the whirlwind of events brought the Alay Queen to the peak of her political career.
Kurmanzhan Datka