ASTANA – Growing up in a house full of books, it is hard to imagine that just two or three centuries ago, the ability to read and write was a rare privilege. In the nomadic Kazakh steppes, despite the constraints of the way of life, it was the elite — the khans (rulers) and sultans — who were the first to achieve literacy.
Photo credit: kazgazeta.kz.
From oral to written tradition
For hundreds of years, the Kazakh nomads have migrated with their herds of horses across Central Asia, so for the majority of the Kazakh Khanate people, gaining a formal written education was a challenge.
“Literacy had practical significance: khans, sultans, and biis (judges) needed it for political affairs, diplomacy, and correspondence. In my opinion, it was precisely the lack of such demand that was the main reason why most Kazakhs were illiterate,” said Adilbek Karatayev, a researcher at the Research Institute for the Study of the Ulus of Jochi, in an interview with Kazinform news agency.
“For nomads, oral knowledge was much more important than written knowledge. It included fairy tales, family stories, and important survival skills in the steppe. They needed to know how to hunt, herd livestock, predict the weather, find water sources, and determine family relationships. Words had special value, and oral tradition occupied a central place in culture,” he said.
Literacy among the aristocrats
According to historian Zhaxylyk Sabitov, little information about Kazakh khans has survived, including how they were educated in the Middle Ages. Little more is known about the rulers of the Golden Horde in the mid-13th century, for whom there is evidence that they did receive an education.
“When it comes to the question of whether the khan dynasty and its elite received an education, history shows that the khan’s family and the sultans — the children and grandchildren of the khans — were indeed educated people. Many sultans and descendants of khans engaged in poetry, and some of them became notable poets and creative figures,” said Sabitov.
In addition, there were dynasties of judges and beks in the Kazakh Khanate, whose children also received a good education.
“The khans were literate. There is evidence that Muhammad Sheibani, who was the grandson of Abulkhair Khan and the cousin of Kasym Khan, received an education. Later, he conquered the territory of modern Uzbekistan. Like other members of the nobility, he spoke several languages, including spoken Golden Horde and written Chagatai, a medieval Turkic language comparable to the Latin of that time, common to many states in the region, said Sabitov.
His point of view is supported by Karatayev. According to him, literacy among biis and batyrs (warriors) was quite widespread. The evidence suggests that in the 18th century, the biis of the Kete tribe corresponded with Russia, despite being subordinate to Abulkhair Khan. These letters can be considered some of the first recorded documents of the tribal elite of that time.
Letters from Syrym Datov, a foreman of the Kazakh tribe and leader of the anti-colonial movement, addressed to the biis of individual clans have also been preserved. In those letters, Datov lists them by name and calls to migrate away from the Russian borders and raise an uprising.
The effect of Islam on literacy
With the arrival of Islam, the Arabic script became the main form of writing in the Chagatai language.
“The first state in the region to adopt Islam and enter Islamic civilization with its own writing system based on Arabic script was the Karluks-Karakhanids, who ruled southern Kazakhstan even before Genghis Khan. They were of Turkic origin. When the Karakhanid territory became part of the Ulus of Chagatai, the son of Genghis Khan, the Karluks’ language came to be called Chagatai. The other Turks, including the Kipchaks and the descendants of the Ulus of Jochi, adopted this version of the Turkic literary language,” said Karatayev.
According to the historian, the Kazakh Khanate was the successor of the Ulus of Jochi. By that period, both the ruling elite and the general population had already embraced Islam. Traditional Muslim education was widespread among the elite.
Historian Veniamin Yudin explained this by the fact that the khans’ courts always included Muslim religious figures—sayyids and hodjas—who taught the children of the ruling dynasties to read and write.
In “Rauzat ar-Rizwan,” a work on Muslim saints and rulers of Central Asia written at the end of the 16th century, it is noted that Kazakh ruler Tauekel Khan, son of Shigai Khan, was proficient in Persian and composed poetry. The text also mentions that Tauekel Khan corresponded with Sufis, hodjas, and Shaybanid rulers.
“The correspondence between Kazakh rulers and representatives of the Asharkhanid dynasty is also known. For example, Imamkuli Khan sent an angry letter in Persian to the Kazakh Murat Sultan, accusing him of siding with Zhangir Khan. The very fact that such a letter was sent shows that the Kazakh ruler was literate and able to read it,” said Karatayev.
It is not always possible to determine with certainty whether a ruler personally wrote a letter or whether it was composed by scribes working at the khan’s court. The Kazakh rulers corresponded not only in Turkic but also in Oirat and Manchu. Letters from Abylai Khan in these languages have been preserved in China. Although they were probably composed by translators, they testify to a wider diplomatic horizon of the Kazakh elite.
Each letter was authenticated with the khan’s personal seal. Every ruler had their seal inscribed in Arabic script. Karatayev believes that the rulers reviewed the contents of these letters, as they could not place complete trust in their scribes.
The article was originally published on Kazinform.
