Religious Differences Between Kazakh And Uzbeks

The question of religion is always special and important for each nation. For the most prominent ones in Central Asia, the Muslims, this is not an exception. All Muslims have their own specific history. Among Muslims, historically the most prominent are - Kazakh and Uzbeks. They both come from the same ethnic group and both are Muslims. It is usually accepted that people from the same origins could have similar history in all aspects. However, due to influence of historical events on that nations there could emerge a number of differences. The following essay will look at the religious beliefs and practices of Kazakhs and Uzbeks. By taking into the account the time period (namely XVI-XVII century) the comparison and contrast will be made.
Moreover, it is known that the author – Isfahan Ruzbihani was writing for Shaibanid Khan. Therefore, this work consists primarily of an eyewitness account of Shaybani Khan’s campaigns against the Kazakhs. The religious differences described above were used as a ground for the conflict to arise:
“Поскольку такого рода разрешение для себя [запретного], что является причиной неверия, совершается после принятия ими ислама, то оно приводит к вероотступничеству, и казахи, вследствие такого [самовольного] разрешения запретного – безбожники и вероотступники, и война с ними обязательна”. Thus, the objectivity of the differences listed by Ruzbihani are clearly doubtful and there is no confidence in such grotesque distinction between the Islamic beliefs and practices of Kazakhs and Uzbeks.
It is interesting that the religious strictness was spread among the Uzbeks not only according to other nations, but even among themselves, to be specific it was strict towards the ruling top of the
Thus, it has been also showed that the shaykhs of Yasawiyya and Kubrawiyya as the Naqshbandi shaykhs, established close relations with the rulers and influence politics altogether. Therefore, the whole notion of religious aspect defining inner and outer political affairs was based on sufistic, to be exact, Yasawiyya and Naqshbandi, beliefs.
In addition to stated above, Devin DeWeese in his essay on the Yasavi order among Uzbeks also suggests that the most symbiotic relationship between nomadic Uzbeks and Sufi Islamic order was presented by Yasavian order:
“The notion of a special relationship between the Yasavi order and the nomadic Turks of Steppe, including above all the Uzbeks, has become one of the many features of “accepted wisdom” […], in any case an assumption of a close relationship between the Uzbeks and the Yasavi Order, with or without any details, has become a stock feature of both general and specialized treatments of Sufism in Central Asia.” [ DeWeese 298].
Also, there is a need to mention that beside Ahmad Yasavi being a “national saint” for the nomadic Uzbeks, Yasavian order was not alien to some other nations and cultures