Actual problems in studying the Kazakh shezhere

In the article the author affected in actual problems in the field of genealogy. The attitude of the Kazakhs to shezhere is sacred. Many modern Kazakhs are trying to recover their roots and learn their ancestry. The article describes the specific results of the study shezhere of Kazakhs, investigated by the author as a genealogical memory and historical source, as a cultural tradition and original forms of historical knowledge of the Kazakh people. In this article, shezhere represented as a set of historical and genealogical materials, which was used to study the law, tribal life and ethnic composition of the population of the steppe. The concept of “shezhere” means “family tree”, “memory”, “genealogy”. In this article, the author describes a shezhere how the document, containing the most diverse historical information, which includes, primarily, folk genealogy.

Introduction 

Like many Turkic peoples who were in the sphere of influence of the Muslim religion, and with it in the sphere of influence of Islamic culture, Ka- zakhs created the richest monuments of oral folk art. Many of its monuments contain materials from the history of customary law and the social organization of Kazakhs, information about the social structure of society, ethnic history, resettlement, etc. These materials of historical folklore, in particular, the shezhere we considered, though not systematically, were used as additional sources (Vostrov, Mukanov, 1968; Mukanov, 1974). As the famous ethnographer

M.S. Mukanov noted, the uniqueness of the Kazakh shezhere is that they are the product of oral folk art and were transmitted by one generation to another, until in the end of the XVIII century they did not start recording. Along with the fixed historical infor- mation in the works of Chinese, Arabian, Persian, Western European authors, Kazakh shezheres rep- resent the great historical value, if only because in them the Kazakhs tell about themselves, they have self-consciousness – the idea of themselves as one people (Mukanov, 1998: 7). However, shezhere is not yet a sufficient subject to a special study of Ka- zakhstan ethnographers, historians and researchers of ethnogenetic problems. 

As known, shezhere is one of the most interesting and informative manuscript monuments of the XVII-XIX centuries, whose beginnings date back to an earlier period, when the tradition of oral forms of Kazakh genealogies and genealogical legends still existed. Shezhere, which is interpreted as a “family tree” in the semantic aspect, in many cases, along with genealogies, contain information about the social system of the Kazakhs during the period of feudal relations, economic development and political history. They also brought to us ancient stories and legends.

By structure and content, Kazakh shezheres can be divided into the following groups: 1) the genealogical tree in the form of a set of taxonomic levels of generations of people; 2) the genealogical scheme with textual explanatory expressions; 3) shezhere-text, in form and content resembling a chronicle, the annals, a legend In a separate group can also be attributed poetic form, often found in Kazakh oral poetry. The pedigree included the members of the clan along the male lines. Each member of the clan should have a good knowledge of his ancestry. The knowledge in this field the Kazakhs passed on to their children and grandchildren.

A birth of this custom was connected, apparently, with the principle of generic exogamy among the Kazakhs. The Kazakh clan was only one of the links in the multistage tribal system. This link, like other links of the entire tribal system, was submitted to constant, but slow changes. The clan organization among the Kazakhs could turn into a tribal one, disintegrating into several clans, or, conversely, turn into a clan unit, merging into another, more powerful clan. Within this framework, of course, the adherence to the principle of exogamy that existed among the Kazakhs required accurate knowledge of the genealogy. Consequently, the compilation and knowledge of the genealogy at first was a necessity, dictated by the customs of patriarchal-clan relations. The tribal elders knew the pedigree most accurately and in detail, however, according to the customs, ordinary Kazakhs had to remember the names of their ancestors up to 10-15 tribes. These traditions persisted for a long time.

However, already during the reign of patriarchal- clan relations, the shezhere began to outgrow its original purpose. Passing from father to children and grandchildren, the pedigrees gradually began to be accompanied by stories about the events that occurred during the life of one or another clan leader-chief. From generation to generation the shezhere began to turn into a kind of story of a clan or tribe. In this story reflections of the clan about their origin, and events related to tribal relations, and the genealogy of tribal nobility, etc. were found. We warn, for all that, a shezhere retained its traditional significance. It was a story, a genealogical chronicle of a certain tribe. As such shezhere was an attribute of patriarchal-tribal life. The presence of the shezhere in the Kazakh genus was also necessary as such clan attributes as tamga, watchword were necessary. Therefore, the Kazakhs in general took care of the survived oldest text of shezhere, trying not to make significant changes in them.

Shezhere, basically, are focused on reproduction of the real facts of the past. Setting the reliability is a characteristic feature of this genre. Even artistic fiction, elements of poetic convention, are transmitted and perceived in them as plausibility. This moment can’t be ignored when studying the historical foundations of Kazakh shezhere.

It should be noted that with the right methodological approach of the Shezhere can serve as an extremely interesting source for covering ethnic, socionormative, economic, political and other processes in the life of the Kazakh society.

The historical situation in Kazakhstan developed in such a way that it did not necessitate the codification of pedigrees, which are very diverse in origin of the Kazakh tribes. This was not contributed either by the ethnic disunity of the Kazakh tribes, nor by weak tendencies towards political centralization of Kazakhstan. At the same time, there was a need to create official editions of the most popular shezhere, which were the pedigrees of large Kazakh tribes. In such tribes, there were their drafters of shezhere, who began to write them down and thereby create written versions of the Shezhere, which later, when removing numerous copies from them, were changed less than usual. From what has been said above, it follows that, firstly, the pedigrees at a certain stage of social development were typical of many Turkic- speaking and Mongolian peoples, and secondly, the historical works of the Middle Ages, beginning with the “Secret History” and ending with the writings of Abu-l-Gazi, widely Used as a source of genealogical data, from century to century, persistently preserved in the memory of peoples (Petrushevsky, 1958: 20). The creation of the shezhere fund, which belongs today to the manuscript fund of Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences of Kazakhstan, the manuscript fund of the Institute of Literature and Art named after M.O. Auezov of NAS RK, took several decades. The study and use of the shezhere in historical studies began much earlier. Among the works that are important for highlighting the above- mentioned problems, should be mentioned the “Jami- at-tavarih” (Collection of annals) of Rashid-ad-din. The first part of the work of the Persian scientist of the ХІV century Rashid-ad-din is the most valuable source for the development of the ethnic history of the Mongol and Turkic peoples and tribes. In this work, along with earlier historical works, Rashid- ad-din widely used oral traditions, pedigrees of the

Turkic and Mongolian tribes.

Important information for the solution of problems of political, ethnopolitical, economic, social and cultural life of the population of medieval Kazakhstan, problems of historiography and source study is provided by the information of «Genghis- name”. Composition of Utemish-hodja covers the time of the reign of Genghis Khan and Genghisides XIII-XIV centuries and contains information about the khans of the Golden Horde, beginning with Batu Khan and ending with the coming to power of Tokhtamysh It should be noted that “Genghis- name “ (Utemish-Haji, 1992) is written mainly on the material of legends and oral information. The Turkic language composition of the late 16th-early 17th century in Zhami at-Tavarikh, written by the Kazakh author Kadyrgali Jalairi, is very valuable for historical scholarship especially when covering the chronicles of Kazakh khanates of the 16th century, describing historical events in Central Asia, Kazakhstan, and with certain territories in the XIV- XVI centuries. Completely his work was published only two and a half centuries later by I. N. Berezin in the second volume of “Libraries of Oriental Historians.” (Berezin, 1854). The main significance of Kadirgali Zhalairi’s work is primarily in covering many events of the period of completion of the formation of the Kazakh nationality. In accordance with the level of historical science of the time, the author focused on the genealogy of Kazakh khans and sultans of the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries and the description of their campaigns.

When studying shezhere, we can’t fail to mention the works of Khiva Khan of the 17th century Abu-l-Ghazi “Shajara-i-tarahima” (Pedigree of Turkmens) and “Shajar-i-Turk” (Pedigree of the Turks) (Kononov, 1985). Both of these works were eventually based on genealogical legends of pedigrees, accompanied by stories of events, synchronous this or that person. In a certain sense, the writings of Abu-l-Gazi are the deified transcription of the shezhere common among the Turkic peoples. Thus, already the early summary historical works and chronicles as an important source used tribal genealogies, legends, pedigrees of the tribal aristocracy, etc., which, verbally transmitted from generation to generation, lived for hundreds of years in the memory of the people.

The study and use of the shezhere in historical studies is markedly enhanced in the works of pre- revolutionary researchers. Despite the fact that in the XVIII-XIX centuries ethnographic science in Russia was still in a fairly infancy, a large research work on the study of the use of shezhere in historical works was done by such researchers as P.I. Rychkov, A. Levshin, V.V. Velyaminov-Zernov, A. Kharuzin, V.V. Radlov, G.N. Potanin, N.A. Aristov, Pantusov, A. Divaev and others (Masanov, 1966). Then, in the “History of the Orenburg” and “Topography of the Orenburg” of P.I. Rychkov (Rychkov, 1896), which saw the light in the second half of the XVIII century contains ethnographic information about the tribal structure of Kazakh zhuzes and their resettlement, the economy of Kazakhs, legendary information about the origin of Kazakhs.

The result of many years of researches of A.I. Levshin on the history of the Kazakhs was a great work “Description of Kirghiz-Cossack, or Kirghiz- Kaisak hordes and steppes” (Levshin, 1832) in three parts, which was published in 1832. In essence, this is the first scientific study of the history of the Kazakh people, where the Shezhere data are widely used.

The work of V.V.Velyaminov-Zernov “Study of Kasimov’s tsars and princes” (part 2) is a serious and very valuable work, covering many confusing issues of the history of the XV-XVII centuries just at the time when the formation of the Kazakh people was coming to an end. The main historical books were, along with the eastern manuscripts, the data of the Kazakh shezhere. Fragments or just factual materials from the unpublished Kazakh shezhere are contained in the works of N.A. Aristov. His “Experience in ascertaining the ethnic composition of the Kirghiz-Cossacks of the Great Horde and Karakirgiz on the basis of pedigrees legends and information about existing clan divisions and tribal tamghas ...”, “Notes about the ethnic composition of the Turkic tribes and nationalities and information about their numbers” (Aristov, 1896) are valuable and all the more It is significant that he widely used folklore and ethnographic material.

A special merit in the study and use of these shezhere in historical researches belongs to the outstanding scientist of the Kazakh people Ch.Ch. Valikhanov. Among the scientific works of Ch.Ch. Valikhanov, in terms of our researches, such works on the history and ethnography of Kazakhs as “Ablai”, “Kyrgyz genealogy”, “Tales and legends of the Great Kirghiz-Kaisak Horde” (Valikhanov, 1985: 148-167, 216-228, 273-277) and others have scientific value. They differ in their realism and in the large amount of data on the relationship between the ancient tribes inhabiting the territory of Kazakhstan, as well as the wide involvement of these shezhere in their studies.

At the end of XIX and especially at the beginning of the XX century. shezhere becomes the subject of attention of representatives of the Kazakh national intelligentsia. In the works of Sh. Kudaiberdyuly, M.- Zh. Kopeyuly, N. Naushabayuly (Kudaiberdyuly, 1903) and others quite often used shezhere. This was a period when the emerging Kazakh national historiography aspired along with traditional sources to use new, and especially shezhere, tribal ethnonyms, historical legends, legends, etc.

In the same period, the shezhere became the object of an in-depth researcher of such scientists and public figures as A.Bokeykhan, M.Tynyshpayuly, H.Dosmukhameduly (Bokeikhan, 1995: 89-120, 137-153), who along with other sources began to widely use shezhere’s data to cover the ethnic history of the Kazakh people. Ahmet Baitursynuly gave his assessment and definition of shezhere as a historical folklore monument (Baitursynuly, 1989: 213).

In the following years, local historians and expeditions, organized by local and central scientific institutions, engaged in the collection of Kazakh shezhere. The collected shezhere was concentrated in the manuscript collection of the Scientific Library of the Academy of Sciences.

In afteryears, although not systematically, shezhere was involved as a source in the works of M.Akhinzhanov (Akhinzhanov, 1957) and others. Perhaps, almost the only fundamental works where the data of genealogical legends were widely used in the scientific plan are the works of M.S.Mukanov, V.Vostrov, Y.A. Zuev (Zuev, 1981). In terms of using the shezhere data, examples like using of analysis of various tamgas of various clans for studying the tribal composition of the Bashkirs, conducted by R.G. Kuzeev, are quite fruitful (Kuzeev, 1974).

One of the important scientific directions, which have a general turkological importance, is the study of the history of the language and written monuments. In the framework of the topic present the particular interest the works of S.A. Amanzholov “Problems of Dialectology and the History of the Kazakh Language” (Amanzholov, 1959), “Some Information on the Ancient Tribal Dialects of the Kazakh Language” (Izvestiya AN KazSSR, Historical Series, philosophy and law, 1954, issue 1-2), and others.

The work of R.G. Syzdykova “The language of “Zhami at-tauarih” Jalairi” is devoted to the problems of the historical development of the vocabulary of the Kazakh language according to the written monuments of the end of the XVI – beginning of the XVIII century. At the same time, there is none single monographic study that would cover the state of the lexicon of the Kazakh language on the basis of studies of the Kazakh shezhere language of an earlier period.

The main content of the text part of the shezhere is a description of the life of the ancestral life in the historical past, their struggle against various enemies, etc. Compilers of the shezhere often included to the text content of khan’s labels, traditions about the noble origin of their ancestral grandfathers and great-grandfathers.

The analysis of shezhere language of the XVIII- XIX centuries shows that already at the beginning of the studied period these varieties of written monuments appear as fully developed, possessing stable and concrete traditions that encompass both the language and the form of the sources themselves. A more correct approach will be taken in solving this issue if one sees a single line of development in the history of the Turkic script, if the Turks are viewed as a common historical background, as a common historical canvas in the development of the language and culture of most Turkic peoples (Khalikova, 1990: 139).

Modern scientific research, whether historical or philological, depends not only on the application of systematically organized methods, but also on the sources on which it is built, and on the degree of mastery. So, it is source research Shezhere would give specialists a whole complex of reliable fact- materials for objective and more comprehensive coverage of the problems facing him.

The reliability of sources such as shezhere expressed a lot of doubts. But it is known, for example, that in the Chinese historical tradition the problems of genealogy occupied a large place. This was one of the means put at the service of centralized political unity, based on the Chinese ethnos. Hence the strong tendency of historicalization of even mythological moments. Speaking about the reliability of many messages of shezhere, one must bear in mind that they are not the result of individual creativity. Any shezhere is the result of a long and collective activity of people. And by its nature it can never be completely objective, it will inevitably reflect a certain prejudice of the ethnic and social position of its author, which can lead to an exaggeration of the role of some components and to understate the role of others. Therefore, its data must necessarily be checked with the data of other disciplines. 

Conclusion 

Consequently, in scientific researches not only the methodology, but also the source base should be systematically integrated. Only then will there be an opportunity to determine the real essence of the stages of the development of Kazakh culture for several centuries. And in this respect, the high level and high archeographic culture of these studies requires that we take care of the further development of all spheres and aspects of studying shezhere in both archeographic and source-study, textological terms. Under this condition, shezhere as sources on the ethnic history of the Kazakhs acquire paramount importance.

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