Iskak Hasan Uulu Pulat-Khan
Mulla-Iskak Asan oglu
After the Battle of Khanabad, the Kyrgyz of the Adygine tribe, who were nomadic in the mountains located in the east of the khanate, rose up. They were joined by a part of the Kipchaks. However, their uprising did not gain widespread momentum and was soon suppressed by the khan's punitive detachment.
Spontaneous, fragmented uprisings continued to flare up in various regions of southern Kyrgyzstan and in the southeast of the Kokand khanate. In the summer of 1873, the Kyrgyz-Kutlukseits and the Naymans raised a rebellion. Mulla-Iskak Asan oglu emerged as the leader of the rebels, claiming to be the grandson of Alim-Khan Pulat-Khan.
Mulla-Iskak was born in 1844 in the family of Hasan in the village of Ukhne in the Margilan district. He was from the Kyrgyz bostan clan of the ichkiliks tribe. His father was a servant of the Islamic religion and worked as a mudarris at the Margilan "Ak-Madrasa." After finishing the village school, Mulla-Iskak studied at the Kokand Madrasa — "Tumkatar" and later at the Margilan "Ak-Madrasa."
However, Mulla-Iskak did not want to become a servant of Islam and did not listen to his father. In 1867, Mulla-Iskak settled in the pastures of his tribe near the village of Sokh (according to some sources, Sukh), and in 1869 moved back to his native village of Ukhne.
He was more drawn to the common people. The restless and curious Mulla-Iskak was interested in the life of an ordinary nomad and a working peasant, as well as the urban lower classes.
Soon he settled in the city of Andijan. Here, as in the village of Ukhne, he worked for some time as an imam while also engaging in tobacco trade.
But his lively spirit could not endure the shackles of religion, and soon Mulla-Iskak permanently parted ways with his service in the Islamic religion. Due to his trade, he often had to travel to Tashkent. There he met an old warrior, a companion of the former Kokand liaschari Alimkul, a Kyrgyz named Kuraminets-Abdu-Mumin Atalyk, who had previously roamed in Chatkal and settled in Tashkent in 1867. Mulla-Iskak stayed with Abdu-Mumin as a worker. Abdu-Mumin's stories about brave uprisings against the Kokand khans had a certain influence on Mulla-Iskak. "Probably," writes N.P. Korytov, "Abdu-Mumin's tales about Musulman-Kul, Alimkul, and the uprisings of the Kyrgyz and Kipchaks that shook the khanate and placed their khans on the throne made a strong impression on young Mulla-Iskak and generated in him a desire for adventure."
The powerless and enslaved condition of Kyrgyz and Uzbek workers, their poverty and miserable existence, as well as the discontent and outrage of the masses, especially the determination of the working population against the violence and arbitrariness of the Kokand khan and his officials, significantly influenced Mulla-Iskak's psychology.
Perhaps Mulla-Iskak paid attention to the naive royal-monarchic sentiments of the oppressed, dark, and backward population, i.e., the unrealistic desire of the oppressed to achieve freedom with the help of a "good" and "just" khan.
Indeed, in an attempt to rid themselves of Kokand oppression by overthrowing the cruel and greedy Khudoyar and proclaiming a more "just" khan in his place, in 1872 representatives of the Kyrgyz led by Sher Datkha came to Samarkand, where the grandson of Alim-Khan — Pulat-Bek lived in one of the Madrasas, and entered into a secret agreement with him. They proposed to Pulat-Bek to go with them to the Namangan province and declare himself khan there, assuring him of the full support of the Kyrgyz. But he refused. The representatives stopped in Tashkent on their way back, where they told Abdu-Mumin about their failure to find a "just khan." Mulla-Iskak listened to these conversations. Through his master, he offered himself under the name of Pulat-Khan instead of the grandson of Alim-Khan.
Mulla-Iskak expressed his full willingness, to which the deputies gladly agreed. Incidentally, as emphasized in some sources, Mulla-Iskak bore a remarkable resemblance to the real Pulat-Khan. Mulla-Iskak's age also corresponded to that of Pulat-Khan. All this contributed to Iskak passing himself off as the son of Atalyk-Khan, the grandson of Alim-Khan — Pulat-Khan, and being able to lead the struggle of the masses against the power of the Kokand khan Khudoyar and his officials.
Soon the newly proclaimed Pulat-Khan, accompanied by more than 200 armed Kyrgyz, appeared in Chatkal, where the population was preparing for a decisive uprising against the feudal-khan regime. The residents, including the aksakals of Chatkal and the nearby villages of Ala-Buka, Ak-Tama, Nanai, Kuk-Yara, Mamai, Safit-Bulana, and several ails, recognized Pulat as their khan, expressing a desire to rise against the unjust Khudoyar and his officials, who were committing naked arbitrariness and violence against them.
In total, many details of Mulla-Iskak's biography remain unknown, some have apparently taken on an apocryphal character, especially when he is depicted as a folk hero and a representative of the masses.
The Uprising Led by Mamyr Mergenov in the Spring of 1873
