Ағылшын тіліндегі Шоқан Уәлиханов өмірбаяны. Biography of Shokan Ualikhanov
Chokan Valikhanov: a star flashed in the sky when the star went out in the mountains
This is how one can characterize the short, but bright and fruitful life of the first Kazakh scientist, who left his mark both in the study of history and folklore, as an ethnographer and educator of the Kazakh people. In addition, he was an officer of the General Staff and at the same time an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and also had a membership of the Russian Geographical Society. Apart from the fact that he was an undercover scout as part of a merchant caravan that went to the Uyghur state, when the interests of three powers crossed there: Russia, China and Great Britain.
It's amazing how much a Kazakh, who lived a little over 29 years, could do. Only one has become the property of world literature, and this would have been enough for Chokan Chingisovich Valikhanov to be included in history forever.
By the way, the name Chokan is his pseudonym, according to one version his mother called him such a nickname in childhood, and according to another - his grandmother called him Chokanchik. In fact, his real name is Muhammad-Hanafiya.
Chokan was born in November 1935 in a fortress called Kushmurun, now it is in the Kostanay region of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The family of the future first Kazakh scientist comes from Genghis Khan, in particular, Chokan's great-grandfather, Ablai Khan, was a descendant of that very great commander. This also determined the fate of his father, who was the governor of the Russian authorities in the Kushmurun district, having the rank of colonel and sultan of Chingis Valiev.
Chokan's childhood
The formation of Chokan's worldview took place in childhood among the Kazakh steppes and common people. As for literacy, comprehension of the poetry of the East along with the study of the Arabic language came to him in the process of studying at the local Kushmurun madrasah.
At that time, his father developed his abilities for drawing and ethnography, using Kazakhs to collect and write down oral legends and traditions, which subsequently affected one of the areas of his future scientific research. Probably, already at this time, Chokan had conceived the foundations of another area of his activity, about which little attention was paid in his biography.
The point is that in the madrasah he began to think about the nature of shamanism and Islam. About the contradictions and common features existing between them, which was subsequently embodied in studies devoted to both shamanism among the Kirghiz (as Kazakhs were then called in Russia) and about steppe Islam.
By the way, running far ahead, it should be said that when studying shamanism it was Chokan Valikhanov who was the first to point out the Zoroastrian (based on the teachings of Zarathustra) nature of this phenomenon.
Adolescence and youth
At the age of 12, the life of a Kazakh boy changes dramatically when his father sends him to study at a cadet corps located in Omsk. It is here that the final spiritual formation of Chokan as a person takes place.
It must be said that since the childhood and adolescence of Pushkin, lyceums and cadet corps were real "forges" not only for highly educated officers who, in addition to military knowledge, received good training in history, literature, mastered the art of music, and danced. They studied sciences, both exact - physics and mathematics, and also received knowledge in zoology and botany, and applied sciences - geodesy, geography, topography, cartography.
Knowledge of foreign languages was also important for future officers. Which later turned out to be useful to Chokan, as an addition to the Arabic language, when he was engaged in intelligence activities.
Алдыңғы өмірбаян
(William Hoggarth (Уильям Хогарт))
Тізімге оралу