The formation and demise of Kazakh khanate XV-XVI.

Two sons of Barak Khan, Janibek and Kirai, were quick to take advantage of Abu'l Khayr's reverses. As representatives of a rival claimant, they had been in opposition to Abu'l Khayr since he assumed power. In the mid-1460s Janibek and Kirai led the tribes of their supporters (remnants of the old White Horde) west from Mughulistan into the territory of Abu'l Khayr. With the support of the rulers of Mughulistan, they lay claim to pastureland in western Semirech'e from the lower Chu River valley across the Talas valley to the Betpak-Dala Desert. Abu'l Khayr refused to recognize Janibek's claim over this territory and led an expedition to oppose him; Abu'l Khayr and his son, Shaikh Haidar, died fighting Janibek's troops in 1468. Abu'l Khayr was succeeded by his grandson, Muhammad Shaybani (reigned 1468-1510), who occupied Samarkand and Bukhara and established the Shaybanid dynasty. Fighting between the Uzbeks and Kazakhs continued for most of the remainder of the fifteenth century. In the process, the nomadic economy of Syr Darya and Semirech'e was severely disrupted, animals were killed, and towns and trading posts were plundered. It is hard to date the formation of a Kazakh khanate precisely, since none of the contemporary accounts of the late fifteenth century paid much attention to the steppe. The official Soviet history of Kazakhstan considers Janibek the first Kazakh khan, holding that, upon Janibek's death in 1480, Kirai's son Buyun-duk (reigned 1480-1511) was elected his successor. Other sources maintain that Kirai was the first elected khan, ruling until his death in 1488, when he was succeeded by Buyunduk.¹² Regardless of which account is correct, clearly the Uzbek-Kazakh rivalry continued throughout the last quarter of the fifteenth century as Muhammad Shaybani and Buyunduk competed for control of the Syr Darya cities. The largest and most important city, Yasi (later called Turkestan), became the headquarters of the Kazakh khan. The rivalry ended temporarily when the two rulers signed a peace treaty in 1500. Peace allowed Shaybani to turn his attentions south, ^:o the conquest of Bukhara and Samarkand.

Date: 2014-12-22; view: 1252