Shoqan Walikhanov

Shokan Shyngysuly Walikhanov (November 1835 – April 10, 1865) was a Kazakh scholar, ethnographer, historian and participant in the Great Game. His reputation "as the father of modern Kazakh history and ethnography" is recorded in the Historical Dictionary of Kazakhstan. The Kazakh Academy of Sciences became the Ch.Ch. Valikhanov Kazakh Academy of Sciences in 1960. English-language texts sometimes give his name as "Chokan Valikhanov", based on a transliteration of the Russian spelling that he used himself.

Childhood

Muhammed Shoqan Shyngysuly Qanafiya Walikhanov was born in November 1835 in the newly developed Aman-Karagai district within the Kushmurun fort in what is nowadays the Kostanay Province, Kazakhstan. He was a fourth generation descendant of Abu'l-Mansur Khan, a khan of the Kazakh Middle Jüz, he was a direct descendant of Genghis khan. Shoqan's family was very respected by the government of the Russian Empire, and Walikhanov's father was awarded, during his life, six appointments as senior Sultan of Kushmurun okrug, a term as chief Kazakh advisor to the frontier board, a promotion to Colonel, and a separate term as senior Sultan in the Kokshetau okrug.

Shoqan spent his youth in his father’s traditional yurt. His father Chingis arranged his son’s early education, enrolling him in 1842 at age six in a small private school, or maktab, which provided a secular education. Here he began his education in the Kazakh language, which used the Arabic script at the time.

At an early age Shoqan moved from his father’s home to the estate of his paternal grandmother Aiganym, in Syrymbet. Shoqan was enrolled in the Siberian Cadet Corps by his grandmother.

Walikhanov entered the military academy in Omsk in 1847. After graduating from the Omsk Cadet School, where he read not only Russian but also English literature, Walikhanov traveled extensively in Central Asia in the late 1850s. It was during his stay in Omsk that Walikhanov first made the acquaintance of Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Adult life His work combined military intelligence and geographic exploration and other things. His first successful expedition was his 1855-56 mission to the region of Issyq Köl. He was afterwards called to the capital in St. Petersburg in 1857 to report, and there he was elected to the Russian Geographical Society.

The expedition ended following increased suspicions, and they left Kashgar in April 1859. Walikhanov returned to St. Petersburg and became a fixture of the intellectual and cultural life during his short stay (1860 - spring of 1861) in the capital. The young Walikhanov was a staunch proponent of Westernization and critical of the influence of Islam in his homeland. In the words of the ethnographer Nikolai Yadrintsev, for Walikhanov European civilization represented "the new Quran of life."

Walikhanov and Dostoevsky

While still in Omsk, Dostoevsky had met Shoqan Walikhanov. In Dostoevsky's opinion, Walikhanov was a brilliant, intrepid person, a scholar and ethnographer, and a talented folklorist. In their correspondence, the two intellectuals admitted their great mutual love and admiration.

When Dostoevsky served in Semipalatinsk (now known as Semey), he met Walikhanov once again. The two men were also closely acquainted with renowned geographer Peter Semenov Tian-Shansky and Baron A. E. Wrangel, who came to Semipalatinsk from Petersburg in 1854 to serve as the new district prosecutor.

Dostoevsky wrote from Semipalatinsk on 14 December 1856 one of his most enthusiastic letters ever, addressed to his friend Walikhanov:

There is a statue of Walikhanov and Dostoevsky in the city of Semey, Kazakhstan, near the local Dostoevsky museum.

Major works Walikhanov produced many articles and books devoted to the history and culture of Central Asia. A short list: "Chinese Turkestan and Dzungaria: Walikhanov and other Russian travellers", The Russians in Central Asia, London, Edward Stanford, 1865. Traces of Shamanism among the Kazakhs Regarding the camps of Kazakh nomads The Qazakhs Tengri Forms of Kazakh Traditional Poesy Issyk-Kul Travel Journal Kul-Ju Travel Journal Notes on jungars

Walikhanov also compiled epic poetry, including "Kozy-Korpesh - Bayan-Sulu", as well as collecting the first known recorded variant of what he called the Iliad of the Steppe, the Epic of Manas, from an unnamed performer later identified as Nazar Bolot uulu. Walikhanov's published presentation of Manas, reflecting his familiarity and engagement with Russian literary culture, has shaped future understanding of the epic.

Walikhanov's report of his trip to Kashgar in 1858-59 remains a valuable account on the situation in Xinjiang in the aftermath of Wali Khan's invasion of the region and on the eve of the Muslim Rebellion of the 1860s.

The Shoqan Walikhanov spring The Shoqan Walikhanov spring, named in Walikhanov’s honor, is in the Altyn-Emel National Park. It is located in the Kerbulak district of Almaty region, on the road to the singing Dunes, among the tract at the foot of the Maly Kalkan Mountains. Walikhanov's path ran from Russia to Kashgaria in 1856, through the territory of what is now the park. The expedition stopped to rest at the spring. Since that time, there has been a folk belief that the water in the spring is healing and can cure many diseases. There is a small stream from which possible to drink water in July and August months, when the spring mostly dries up.