Oriental Studies (May 2018)
Legislative and Cultural Relations of Kazakhs with Kalmyks of Dzungaria, Volga Kalmyks and Khalkha Mongols during the 17th - 18th Centuries
Abstract
With evidence from the Kazakh (Zheti Zhargy) and Mongolian (Ikh Tsaaz, Tsaajin Bichiq) codes, the article analyzes legislative and cultural relations between the Mongolian and Kazakh nomadic communities. The paper reveals similarities between the Kazakh and Oirat codes which is due to identical economic conditions of nomadic lifestyle characteristic for Kazakhs, Oirats, Kalmyks, and Khalkha Mongols, even though the Kazakhs had experienced influence of Islam while the Oirats, Kalmyks and Khalkha Mongols professed Lamaist (Tibetan) Buddhism. Still, there were a number of distinct features, since Zheti Zhargy contained some regulations of Islamic law - Sharia - such as, e. g., measures for the protection of Islam and, thus, provisions establishing penalties for blasphemy and conversion to Christianity, which were not to be seen in the mentioned legislative acts of Mongols and Kalmyks of Dzungaria and the Volga Region. The relations between Kazakhs and Dzungar Oirats, Khalkha Mongols and Kalmyks were not reduced to wars only, there were cultural contacts in the forms of diplomatic practices and dynastic marriages of the national nobilities, including multiple similarities of Kazakh (Zheti Zhargy), Oirat-Kalmyk (Ikh Tsaaz) and Khalkha Mongolian (Tsaajin Bichiq) legislative acts. With a certain degree of certainty, the paper testifies of a more ‘democratic’ character of Zheti Zhargy as compared to Ikh Tsaaz and Tsaajin Bichiq in terms of rights and liberties of all social groups of the nomads. Still, it is impossible to depict the history of Kazakhs without relations with Mongolian peoples - Oirats, Kalmyks, and Khalkha Mongols, whatever questionable those might be, which is again confirmed by the exploration of the mentioned codes. As a result, the works of the 17th-early 18th cc. Central Asian legislators help us understand and evaluate the steppe world they emerged from, and their authors seem closer and clearer to modern society.
