Paper abstract:

Documentary sources for Qazaq history prior to the nineteenth century are few, and most of these are the accounts of outsiders (comprising a scattershot of imperial reports and travel accounts). If we seek to hear the voices of eighteenth-century Qazaqs themselves, then the source-base dwindles to a handful of documents preserved in the Russian and Qing archives (most often in translation), in the form of diplomatic messages sent by Qazaq leaders.

To call this genre ‘diplomatic correspondence’ is in fact somewhat misleading. The eighteenth century marked a transition phase, when Qazaqs still viewed themselves as a distinct polity, yet found themselves increasingly affected and influenced by neighboring empires (including Russia, China, Kokand, and Jungaria). In working with these documents, I have come to see this correspondence (in particular that of Nūr ʿAlī Khan of the Kishi Juz) as better understood as a form of imperial-intermediary discourse, albeit one that reflected the as-yet limited power of the encroaching empires.

Whether viewed as diplomatic correspondence, or imperial intermediation, however, the fact remains that these were letters created by Qazaq elites, with the intention of eliciting specific responses and impressions from the rulers and officials of outside powers.

The question this paper will engage with is whether, and how, these diplomatic sources can be used to study Qazaq society itself. This topic reflects one of the major goals of my research, which is to shed light on the experiences and perspectives of eighteenth-century Qazaq society by engaging with the content and language of the extant Chagatay sources for the Kishi Juz.

The paper will argue that, indeed, it is possible to read ‘between the lines’ of these documents, in order to reach a deeper understanding of Qazaq internal political and social dynamics. The paper will start by examining the intermediary nature of these documents and highlighting how this positioning facilitates the effort to read them against the grain. It will then proceed to outline some of the specific approaches I have taken to analyze these documents—focusing on how Nūr ʿAlī’s demands and deflections reflected the internal political challenges he faced; and exploring the roundabout way that he chose to articulate his people’s needs and desires, in the guise of anticipating the Qazaq opposition that he would face.