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111-792: During the 8th-century, the Battle of Talas between the Abbasid Caliphate and the Tang dynasty was fought here, which culminated in Abbasid victory that led to the Islamization of Central Asia and subsequent abandonment of Buddhism in the region. The Talas Region is a U-shaped valley open to the west. The northern border is defined by the Kyrgyz Ala-Too , which also forms the Chuy Region's southern border. At

222-617: A Chagatayid prince of Kashmir , which locates Kazakh in the eastern part of Desht-i Qipchaq . According to Vasily Bartold , the Kazakhs likely began using that name during the 15th century. Though Kazakh traditionally referred only to ethnic Kazakhs , including those living in China, Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan and other neighbouring countries, the term is increasingly being used to refer to any inhabitant of Kazakhstan, including residents of other ethnicities. Kazakhstan has been inhabited since

333-618: A small portion of Kazakhstan is also located west of the Urals in Eastern Europe. Kazakhstan's terrain extends west to east from the Caspian Sea to the Altay Mountains and north to south from the plains of Western Siberia to the oases and deserts of Central Asia. The Kazakh Steppe (plain), with an area of around 804,500 square kilometres (310,600 sq mi), occupies one-third of

444-509: A 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 8.23/10, ranking it 26th globally out of 172 countries. Common mammals include the wolf , red fox , corsac fox , moose , argali (the largest species of sheep), Eurasian lynx , Pallas's cat , and snow leopards , several of which are protected. Kazakhstan's Red Book of Protected Species lists 125 vertebrates including many birds and mammals, and 404 plants including fungi, algae and lichens. Przewalski's horse has been reintroduced to

555-568: A century of sovereignty. This effectively ended the Tang presence in central Asia. In 756 Al-Mansur sent 3,000 mercenaries to assist Emperor Xuanzong of Tang in the An Lushan rebellion. A massacre of foreign Arab and Persian Muslim merchants by Tian Shengong happened during the An Lushan rebellion in the Yangzhou massacre (760) . The Tang dynasty recovered its power decades after the An Lushan rebellion and

666-661: A livestock-based economy continued to dominate the steppe . In the 15th century, a distinct Kazakh identity began to emerge among the Turkic tribes. This was followed by the Kazakh War of Independence , where the Khanate gained its sovereignty from the Shaybanids . The process was consolidated by the mid-16th century with the appearance of the Kazakh language , culture, and economy. Nevertheless,

777-557: A member of the Kazakh people, derives from Russian : казах . The native name is Kazakh : қазақ , romanized :  qazaq . It might originate from the Turkic word verb qaz- , 'to wander', reflecting the Kazakhs' nomadic culture. The term Cossack is of the same origin. In Turko-Persian sources, the term Özbek-Qazaq first appeared during the mid-16th century, in the Tarikh-i-Rashidi by Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat ,

888-572: A period where the Tibetan army also conquered territory in the Hindu Kush and Pamir Mountains from Indian kingdoms and assisted the establishment of the eastern Indian Pala Empire in the latter half of the 8th century. It was only under the fifth Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid that a formal military alliance was established between the Tang, the Uighur Turks and the Abbasid engaged the Tibetan army on

999-548: A prized product for centuries. According to Al-Nadim, a writer in Baghdad during the 10th century, Chinese craftsmen made paper in Khorasan . It was only after the first paper mill was built in Baghdad in 794–795 that paper was manufactured throughout the Islamic world and paper started to replace papyrus . Among the earliest historians who proclaimed the importance of this battle was

1110-583: A republic within the Soviet Union. Following the August 1991 aborted coup attempt in Moscow, Kazakhstan declared independence on 16 December 1991, thus becoming the last Soviet republic to declare independence. Ten days later, the Soviet Union itself ceased to exist . Kazakhstan's communist-era leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev , became the country's first President. Nazarbayev ruled in an authoritarian manner. An emphasis

1221-674: A series of clashes and in brutal massacres committed by both sides. Both sides resisted the communist government until late 1919. Following the collapse of central government in Petrograd in November 1917, the Kazakhs (then in Russia officially referred to as "Kirghiz") experienced a brief period of autonomy (the Alash Autonomy ) before eventually succumbing to the Bolsheviks ' rule. On 26 August 1920,

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1332-451: A total strength of more than 500,000 on the eve of the An Lushan rebellion. According to Bartold, during the first three centuries of Islam, al-Tabari was the chief source—which has survived to the present in a compilation by Ibn al Athir —which was brought down to 915. Neither Tabari nor the early historical works of the Arabs make any mention of this; however, Athir's statement is confirmed by

1443-402: Is Almaty . Kazakhstan is the world's ninth-largest country by land area and the largest landlocked country. It has a population of 20 million and one of the lowest population densities in the world, at fewer than 6 people per square kilometre (16 people/sq mi). Ethnic Kazakhs constitute a majority, while ethnic Russians form a significant minority. Officially secular, Kazakhstan

1554-1017: Is Azerbaijan ). With an area of 2,700,000 square kilometres (1,000,000 sq mi) – equivalent in size to Western Europe – Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest country and largest landlocked country in the world. While it was part of the Russian Empire , Kazakhstan lost some of its territory to China's Xinjiang province, and some to Uzbekistan's Karakalpakstan autonomous republic during Soviet years. It shares borders of 6,846 kilometres (4,254 mi) with Russia, 2,203 kilometres (1,369 mi) with Uzbekistan , 1,533 kilometres (953 mi) with China, 1,051 kilometres (653 mi) with Kyrgyzstan , and 379 kilometres (235 mi) with Turkmenistan . Major cities include Astana , Almaty , Qarağandy , Şymkent , Atyrau , and Öskemen . It lies between latitudes 40° and 56° N , and longitudes 46° and 88° E . While located primarily in Asia,

1665-527: Is 80 kilometres (50 mi) long, cutting through a red sandstone plateau and stretching along the Charyn River gorge in northern Tian Shan ("Heavenly Mountains", 200 km (124 mi) east of Almaty) at 43°21′1.16″N 79°4′49.28″E  /  43.3503222°N 79.0803556°E  / 43.3503222; 79.0803556 . The steep canyon slopes, columns and arches rise to heights of between 150 and 300 metres (490 and 980 feet). The inaccessibility of

1776-569: Is a Muslim-majority country with a sizeable Christian community . Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era . In antiquity, various nomadic Iranian peoples such as the Saka , Massagetae , and Scythians dominated the territory, with the Achaemenid Persian Empire expanding towards the southern region. Turkic nomads entered the region from as early as the sixth century. In

1887-565: Is also home to the Mynzhylky mountain plateau . Kazakhstan has an abundant supply of accessible mineral and fossil fuel resources. Development of petroleum, natural gas, and mineral extractions has attracted most of the over $ 40 billion in foreign investment in Kazakhstan since 1993 and accounts for some 57 percent of the nation's industrial output (or approximately 13 percent of gross domestic product). According to some estimates, Kazakhstan has

1998-594: The Guangzhou massacre against foreign Arab and Persian Muslim, Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian merchants in 878–879 at the seaport and trading entrepôt of Guangzhou , and captured both Tang dynasty capitals, Luoyang and Chang'an. A medieval Chinese source claimed that Huang Chao killed 8 million people. Even though Huang Chao was eventually defeated, the Tang Emperors lost all their power to regional jiedushi and Huang Chao's former lieutenant Zhu Wen who had defected to

2109-539: The Kara-Buura Pass to Jalal-Abad Province. Before independence most trade links were with Taraz. The Talas Region is divided administratively into one city of regional significance ( Talas ), and four districts: There are no cities of district significance or urban-type settlements in the region. The economically active population of Talas Region in 2009 was 98,815, of which 93,499 employed and 5,316 (5.4%) unemployed. The population of Talas Region, according to

2220-761: The Karkota dynasty of Kashmir that acknowledged the Tang as suzerain or their vassal lord, supported the Chinese against the Tibetans. According to art historians Denise Patry Leidy and Donna K. Strahan, Kashmir "helped defeat the Arabas at the Battle of Talas in 751". The numeric quantities of the combatants involved in the battle of Talas are not known with certainty. The Abbasid army consisted of 200,000 soldiers according to Chinese estimates, which included contingents from their Tibetan ally. On

2331-800: The Kirghiz Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) was established. The Kirghiz ASSR included the territory of present-day Kazakhstan, but its administrative centre was the mainly Russian-populated town of Orenburg . In June 1925, the Kirghiz ASSR was renamed the Kazak ASSR and its administrative centre was transferred to the town of Kyzylorda , and in April 1927 to Alma-Ata . Soviet repression of

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2442-666: The Oirats , a federation of western Mongol tribes, including the Dzungar . The beginning of the 18th century marked the zenith of the Kazakh Khanate. During this period the Little Horde participated in the 1723–1730 war against the Dzungar Khanate , following their "Great Disaster" invasion of Kazakh territory. Under the leadership of Abul Khair Khan , the Kazakhs won major victories over

2553-546: The Paleolithic era. The Botai culture (3700–3100 BC) is credited with the first domestication of horses. The Botai population derived most of their ancestry from a deeply European-related population known as Ancient North Eurasians , while also displaying some Ancient East Asian admixture. Pastoralism developed during the Neolithic . The population was Caucasoid during the Bronze and Iron Age period. The Kazakh territory

2664-552: The Pamir Mountains could be crossed on roads going through Kulob and Balkh in the Bactria region. From there present day India could be reached on a road through Bamyan that lead over the Hindu Kush . Muslim influence along these central Asian trade routes had started in the 8th century, one key event being the battle of Talas. Prior to Talas, Buddhists controlled much of the roads. Central Asian Buddhism went into decline after

2775-606: The Pamir Mountains was able to spread without opposition from Tang China, which redeployed all available military forces back into China's interior in order to suppress the rebellion. By 821, though the Arab Muslims had lost direct control over their Central Asian territories, and the Turkic Ghaznavids rose to power in the region in 977. The gains brought about by the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana were entirely lost in 1124, when

2886-606: The Republic of Kazakhstan , is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia , with a small portion of its territory in Eastern Europe . It borders Russia to the north and west , China to the east , Kyrgyzstan to the southeast , Uzbekistan to the south , and Turkmenistan to the southwest , with a coastline along the Caspian Sea . Its capital is Astana , while the largest city and leading cultural and commercial hub

2997-655: The Saka and Massagetae . Other groups included the nomadic Scythians and the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the southern territory of the modern country. The Andronovo and Srubnaya cultures , precursors to the peoples of the Scythian cultures , were found to harbor mixed ancestry from the Yamnaya Steppe herders and peoples of the Central European Middle Neolithic. In 329 BC, Alexander

3108-723: The Silk Road connecting Asia and Europe, true political consolidation began only with the Mongol rule of the early 13th century. Under the Mongol Empire , the first strictly structured administrative districts (Ulus) were established. After the division of the Mongol Empire in 1259, the land that would become modern-day Kazakhstan was ruled by the Golden Horde , also known as the Ulus of Jochi. During

3219-696: The Tarim Basin from the Tibetan Empire in 692 as part of the Tang expansion in Inner Asia and the oasis towns became a major source of income for the Tang. In 705, Qutayba ibn Muslim started to lead the Umayyad army on campaigns to conquer towns across along the Silk Road, exploiting Türgesh infighting. The caliphate conquered the oasis towns Bukhara and Samarkand , expanding the border of their empire eastwards. At

3330-564: The Virgin Lands Campaign designed to turn the traditional pasturelands of Kazakhstan into a major grain-producing region for the Soviet Union. The Virgin Lands policy brought mixed results. However, along with later modernisations under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev (in power 1964–1982), it accelerated the development of the agricultural sector, which remains the source of livelihood for a large percentage of Kazakhstan's population. Because of

3441-530: The Western Turkic Khaganate were independent. The Western Khaganate reached its peak in the early 7th century. The Cumans entered the steppes of modern-day Kazakhstan around the early 11th century, where they later joined with the Kipchak and established the vast Cuman-Kipchak confederation. While ancient cities Taraz (Aulie-Ata) and Hazrat-e Turkestan had long served as important way-stations along

Talas Region - Misplaced Pages Continue

3552-581: The 10th century Aksu and Fergana had markets for arms traders. Talas is in modern-day Kyrgyzstan and had been part of the Silk Road. From Dunhuang in China, along the edge of the Takla Makan desert, passing through oasis towns such as Kucha , roads went through a region Arabs called Transoxiana . The Silk Roads in Transoxiana went through Talas, Tashkent , Samarkand , and Khwarazm . Turning south, roads went through Kunduz in present-day Afghanistan ,

3663-479: The 13th century, the area was subjugated by the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan . Following the disintegration of the Golden Horde in the 15th century, the Kazakh Khanate was established over an area roughly corresponding with modern Kazakhstan. By the 18th century, the Kazakh Khanate had fragmented into three jüz (tribal divisions), which were gradually absorbed and conquered by the Russian Empire ; by

3774-659: The 1930s and 1940s, such as approximately 400,000 Volga Germans deported from the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in September–October 1941, and then later the Greeks and Crimean Tatars . Deportees and prisoners were interned in some of the biggest Soviet labour camps (the Gulag), including ALZhIR camp outside Astana, which was reserved for the wives of men considered "enemies of

3885-449: The 2022 report. On 19 March 2019, Nazarbayev announced his resignation from the presidency. Kazakhstan's senate speaker Kassym-Jomart Tokayev won the 2019 presidential election that was held on 9 June. His first official act was to rename the capital after his predecessor. In January 2022, the country plunged into political unrest following a spike in fuel prices. In consequence, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took over as head of

3996-435: The Battle of Talas, the Arabs coerced the Chinese army to evacuate the Gilgit region. The An Lushan rebellion ended the Tang presence in central Asia and forced them to withdraw from the northwestern frontier; because the Arabs did not advance any further after the battle, Talas was of no strategic importance. After the battle, a small number of Karluks converted to Islam. However, the majority would not convert until

4107-407: The Chinese History of the Tang Dynasty . Denis Sinor said that it was interference in the internal affairs of the Western Turkic Khaganate which ended Chinese supremacy in central Asia, since the destruction of the Western Khaganate rid the Muslims of their greatest opponent, and it was not the Battle of Talas which ended the Chinese presence. The Chinese historian Bai Shouyi wrote that, at

4218-399: The Chinese general had to move his reserves into a fray. A similar sequence of events happened on the second and third days, but on the fourth day, the Karluk mercenaries betrayed the Chinese and attacked their flanks from the left and right while the Arab infantry made a frontal assault. The Tang army was subjected to a devastating defeat, owing to the defection of the Karluk mercenaries and

4329-457: The Chinese system of Imperial government, since China was still held in respect and esteem in the region among even the Muslim population, and the Kara-Khitans used Chinese as an official language. The Kara-Khitan rulers were called "the Chinese" by the Muslims. According to the 11th-century Persian historian Al-Thaʽālibī , Chinese prisoners captured at the Battle of Talas in 751 introduced paper manufacturing to Samarkand . They engaged in

4440-487: The Dzungar at the Bulanty River in 1726 and at the Battle of Añyraqai in 1729. Ablai Khan participated in the most significant battles against the Dzungar from the 1720s to the 1750s, for which he was declared a " batyr " ("hero") by the people. The Kazakhs suffered from the frequent raids against them by the Volga Kalmyks . The Kokand Khanate used the weakness of Kazakh jüzs after Dzungar and Kalmyk raids and conquered present Southeastern Kazakhstan, including Almaty ,

4551-466: The Golden Horde period, a Turco-Mongol tradition emerged among the ruling elite wherein Turkicised descendants of Genghis Khan followed Islam and continued to reign over the lands. In 1465, the Kazakh Khanate emerged as a result of the dissolution of the Golden Horde . Established by Janibek Khan and Kerei Khan , it continued to be ruled by the Turco-Mongol clan of Tore ( Jochid dynasty). Throughout this period, traditional nomadic life and

Talas Region - Misplaced Pages Continue

4662-430: The Great and his Macedonian army fought in the Battle of Jaxartes against the Scythians along the Jaxartes River, now known as the Syr Darya along the southern border of modern Kazakhstan. The main migration of Turkic peoples occurred between the 5th and 11th centuries when they spread across most of Central Asia. The Turkic peoples slowly replaced and assimilated the previous Iranian -speaking locals, turning

4773-412: The Karatau basin with 650 million tonnes of P 2 O 5 and the Chilisai deposit of the Aqtobe phosphorite basin located in northwestern Kazakhstan, with resources of 500–800   million tonnes of 9 percent ore. On 17 October 2013, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) accepted Kazakhstan as "EITI Compliant", meaning that the country has a basic and functional process to ensure

4884-482: The Population and Housing Census of 2009, amounted to 219.6 thousand (enumerated de facto population) or 226.8 thousand (de jure population). The region's estimated population for the beginning of 2021 was 270,994. According to the 2009 Census, the ethnic composition of the Talas Region (de jure population) was: Battle of Talas The Battle of Talas ( Chinese : 怛羅斯戰役 ; pinyin : Dáluósī Zhànyì ; Arabic : معركة نهر طلاس Maʿrakat nahr Ṭalās )

4995-458: The Russian historian Vasily Bartold , according to whom: "The earlier Arab historians, occupied with the narrative of events then taking place in western Asia, do not mention this battle; but it is undoubtedly of great importance in the history of Western Turkestan as it determined the question which of the two civilizations, the Chinese or the Muslim, should predominate in the land [of Turkestan]." The Tang loss of 8,000 troops can be compared to

5106-410: The Russian language in all schools and governmental organisations. Russia's efforts to impose its system aroused the resentment of the Kazakhs, and, by the 1860s, some Kazakhs resisted its rule. Russia had disrupted the traditional nomadic lifestyle and livestock-based economy, and people were suffering from starvation, with some Kazakh tribes being decimated. The Kazakh national movement, which began in

5217-438: The Soviet Union. Elections to the Majilis in September 2004, yielded a lower house dominated by the pro-government Otan Party , headed by President Nazarbayev. Two other parties considered sympathetic to the president, including the agrarian-industrial bloc AIST and the Asar Party , founded by President Nazarbayev's daughter, won most of the remaining seats. The opposition parties which were officially registered and competed in

5328-406: The Tang bestowed a title to its ruler. Bai also maintains that the Chinese influence to the west of the Pamir Mountains certainly did not cease as the result of the battle. Central Asian states under Muslim control, such as Samarkand , continued to request aid from the Tang against the Arabs and in 754, all nine kingdoms of Western Turkestan again sent petitions to the Tang to attack the Arabs and

5439-412: The Tang continued to turn down such requests as it did for decades. Ferghana , which participated in the battle earlier, in fact joined among the central Asian auxiliaries with the Chinese army under a summons and entered Gansu during the An Lushan Rebellion in 756. Bai also noted that neither did the relations between the Chinese and Arabs worsen, as the Abbasids continued to send embassies to China after

5550-495: The Tang court turned the Tang emperors into his puppets and completed the destruction of Chang'an by dismantling Chang'an and transporting the materials east to Luoyang when he forced the court to move the capital. Zhu Wen deposed the last Tang Emperor in 907 and founded Later Liang (Five Dynasties) , plunging China into the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period as regional jiedushi warlords declared their own dynasties and kingdoms. The Tibetan Empire began attacking China, during

5661-412: The Tang professional heavy infantry were better armoured and could sustain more injuries than their Arab counterparts, and managed to push the Arab infantry backwards despite being outnumbered. The Muslim general attempted to alleviate the pressure on his infantry by sending his heavy cavalry to attack the lighter column cavalry on the Chinese flanks. However, this attack failed to outflank Gao's units, but

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5772-413: The Tibetan Empire and the Tang dynasty. In 747, the Tang general Gao Xianzhi , who had successfully fought the Tibetan empire in the Pamir Mountains , established control over the Gilgit region. In early 748, the Persian Abbasid general Abu Muslim occupied Merv , the capital of Greater Khorasan , and went on to lead what has become known as the Abbasid Revolution . In 750, Abu al-'Abbas al-Saffah

5883-492: The Tibetan Empire, besieged Aksu City in the Tarim Basin, but were defeated by the Tang military in the Battle of Aksu . In 715, the Tang emperor declined the demand of the Türgesh tribe leader Suluk to be recognized as Khagan, instead offering him the rank of duke within the Tang military. In response, Suluk invaded the Tarim Basin along with the Tibetans, but they were driven out by the cavalry of Ashina Xian . Suluk and his soldiers regularly challenged Umayyad–Tang control of

5994-405: The battle of Talas, the domestic An Lushan rebellion and subsequent warlordism gave the Arabs the opportunity to further expand into central Asia as Tibetans took over the region between the Arabs and China and Tang influence in the region retreated. The An Lushan rebellion broke out in 755 and lasted until 763, forcing the Tang army to retreat from the northwestern frontier after enjoying around

6105-467: The battle of Talas. Following the An Lushan rebellion, the diplomatic exchange between Buddhist Indian kingdoms and the Tang dynasty all but ceased. Prior to the An Lushan rebellion, between 640 and 750 diplomatic envoys from Indian kingdoms, often accompanied by Buddhist monks , had regularly visited the Tang court. Chinese Buddhism developed into an independent religion with distinct spiritual elements, such as Pure Land Buddhism and Zen . China became

6216-420: The battle that has survived, Abbasid general Abu Muslim took 5,000 Chinese prisoners and confiscated possessions from the Tang military camp. According to Al-Maqdisi, Abu Muslim prepared his forces and equipment to invade more Tang controlled territory. However, he was first presented with a letter from the caliph As-Saffah , in which he was informed that his services were needed as governor of Khurasan . After

6327-403: The battle were similar to each other, with the Chinese attacking first from the front, with their archers and crossbowmen dealing substantial damage to the Arab archers with greater accuracy and ranged superiority in crossbows. The Arab archers had to retreat behind their spearmen and the Arab spearmen charged ahead, with the infantry lines colliding between the Tang and Abbasid spearmen. However,

6438-415: The battle without interruption. Such visits had overall resulted in 13 diplomatic gifts between 752 and 798. Xue Zongzheng came to the conclusion that other than the transfer of paper, there is no evidence to support a geopolitical or demographic change resulting from this battle. In fact, it seems that Tang influence over central Asia even strengthened after 751 and that by 755, Tang power in central Asia

6549-442: The border between present-day Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan . The Chinese name 怛羅斯 ; Dáluósī was first seen in the account of Xuanzang . Du Huan located the city near the western drain of the Chui River . The oasis towns on the Silk Road in central Asia had once been controlled by the Türgesh , but the Turkic tribal confederation plunged into chaos in the latter half of the 7th century. Empress Wu had retaken control of

6660-446: The canyon provided a safe haven for a rare ash tree , Fraxinus sogdiana , which survived the Ice Age there and has now also grown in some other areas. Bigach crater , at 48°30′N 82°00′E  /  48.500°N 82.000°E  / 48.500; 82.000 , is a Pliocene or Miocene asteroid impact crater , 8 km (5 mi) in diameter and estimated to be 5±3 million years old. Kazakhstan's Almaty region

6771-434: The center of East Asian Buddhism , creating a canon and spreading on to Japan and Korea. The Battle of Talas did not mark the end of Buddhism or Chinese influence in the region. The Buddhist Kara-Khitan Khanate defeated the Seljuk and Kara-Khanid Turks at the Battle of Qatwan in 1141, conquering a large part of central Asia from the Karluk Kara-Khanid Khanate during the 12th century. The Kara-Khitans also reintroduced

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6882-417: The country and is the world's largest dry steppe region. The steppe is characterised by large areas of grasslands and sandy regions. Major seas, lakes and rivers include Lake Balkhash , Lake Zaysan , the Charyn River and gorge , the Ili , Irtysh , Ishim , Ural and Syr Darya rivers, and the Aral Sea until it largely dried up in one of the world's worst environmental disasters. The Charyn Canyon

6993-474: The country since independence. Kazakhstan is a member state of the United Nations , World Trade Organization , Commonwealth of Independent States , Shanghai Cooperation Organisation , Eurasian Economic Union , Collective Security Treaty Organization , Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe , Organization of Islamic Cooperation , Organization of Turkic States , and International Organization of Turkic Culture . The English word Kazakh , meaning

7104-413: The country, situated in Atyrau , Pavlodar , and Şymkent . These are not capable of processing the total crude output, so much of it is exported to Russia. According to the US Energy Information Administration , Kazakhstan was producing approximately 1,540,000 barrels (245,000 m ) of oil per day in 2009. Kazakhstan also possesses large deposits of phosphorite . Two of the largest deposits include

7215-459: The craft of papermaking while living on land occupied by the Abbasids following Talas. However, this account is unlikely to be factual. Paper was already in use throughout Central Asia by the 8th century; paper fragments dating to the 4th and 5th centuries have been found in the areas of Turpan and Gaochang , and letters written in the Sogdian language between the 4th and 6th centuries have been found in Dunhuang and Loulan . One such letter

7326-467: The decades of privation, war and resettlement, by 1959 the Kazakhs had become a minority, making up 30 percent of the population. Ethnic Russians accounted for 43 percent. In 1947, the USSR, as part of its atomic bomb project , founded an atomic bomb test site near the north-eastern town of Semipalatinsk , where the first Soviet nuclear bomb test was conducted in 1949. Hundreds of nuclear tests were conducted until 1989 with adverse consequences for

7437-415: The deposits on the Caspian shore are only a small part of a much larger deposit. It is said that 3.5 billion tonnes (3.4 billion long tons) of oil and 2.5 billion cubic metres (88 billion cubic feet) of gas could be found in that area. Overall the estimate of Kazakhstan's oil deposits is 6.1 billion tonnes (6.0 billion long tons). However, there are only three refineries within

7548-411: The eastern end, the Talas Ala-Too Range splits off and marks the southern border. The river Talas flows through the center of the valley. The main highway (A361) enters from the east over the Ötmök Pass (Can become impassible during winter due to weather) and goes down the valley to Taraz in Kazakhstan. Near the valley's mouth at Kyzyl-Adyr , one road goes north toward Taraz and the other south over

7659-404: The elections won a single seat. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was monitoring the election, which it said fell short of international standards. In March 2011, Nazarbayev outlined the progress made toward democracy by Kazakhstan. As of 2010 , Kazakhstan was reported on the Democracy Index by The Economist as an authoritarian regime , which was still the case as of

7770-485: The formal capital in the first quarter of the 19th century. The Emirate of Bukhara ruled Şymkent before the Russians gained dominance. In the first half of the 18th century, the Russian Empire constructed the Irtysh line  [ ru ] , a series of forty-six forts and ninety-six redoubts, including Omsk (1716), Semipalatinsk (1718), Pavlodar (1720), Orenburg (1743) and Petropavlovsk (1752), to prevent Kazakh and Oirat raids into Russian territory. In

7881-447: The initial Tang army strength—defected to the Abbasids, and played a vital role in routing the Chinese. After the battle, the caliph quickly dispatched an envoy to Chang'an , who arrived on 7 December 752 to ask for the restoration of diplomatic relations. In response, the Tang emperor forgave the Abbasids' provocation, but continued to expand into Central Asia . With the An Lushan rebellion in 755, Arab influence and control west of

7992-535: The late 18th century the Kazakhs took advantage of Pugachev's Rebellion , which was centred on the Volga area, to raid Russian and Volga German settlements. In the 19th century, the Russian Empire began to expand its influence into Central Asia. The " Great Game " period is generally regarded as running from approximately 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 . The tsars effectively ruled over most of

8103-567: The late 19th century, sought to preserve the native language and identity by resisting the attempts of the Russian Empire to assimilate and stifle Kazakh culture. From the 1890s onward, ever-larger numbers of settlers from the Russian Empire began colonizing the territory of present-day Kazakhstan, in particular, the province of Semirechye . The number of settlers rose still further once the Trans-Aral Railway from Orenburg to Tashkent

8214-478: The mid-10th century, when Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan established the Kara-Khanid Khanate . This occurred well after Tang dynasty was gone from central Asia. Caliph Al-Saffah died in 754. Chinese sources record that his successor, the Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur , sent his diplomatic delegations regularly to China. Al-Mansur's delegations were known in China as Khayi Tashi ( Black Clothes ). Shortly after

8325-685: The mid-19th century, all of Kazakhstan was nominally under Russian rule. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution and subsequent Russian Civil War , the territory was reorganized several times. In 1936, its modern borders were established with the formation of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union . Kazakhstan was the last constituent republic of the Soviet Union to declare independence in 1991 during its dissolution . Kazakhstan dominates Central Asia both economically and politically , accounting for 60 percent of

8436-519: The nation's environment and population. The Anti-nuclear movement in Kazakhstan became a major political force in the late 1980s. In April 1961, Baikonur became the springboard of Vostok 1 , a spacecraft with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin being the first human to enter space. In December 1986, mass demonstrations by young ethnic Kazakhs, later called the Jeltoqsan riot, took place in Almaty to protest

8547-437: The non-Muslim Qara Khitai conquered the region. The Abbasids placed great value on controlling this area as it was a strategic point on the Silk Road . Chinese prisoners captured at Talas in 751 are said to have introduced papermaking to the peoples of West Asia , although this account is disputed by several findings. The exact location of the battle has not been confirmed but is believed to be near Taraz and Talas , on

8658-543: The oasis towns. Before Suluk's death, his soldiers were defeated by the Tang in 736 and by the Caliphate in 737. At the same time, Türgesh tribes established metal industries in Tang-controlled Fergana Valley , an area that was also home to important centres of iron production. The Karluks , a federation of three Türgesh tribes with settlements around Tian Shan , were producers and exporters of iron weapons to

8769-569: The opposite side, Arab records put the combined Chinese forces at 100,000. But Chinese sources record a combined army of 10,000 Tang infantry and 20,000 Karluk mercenaries. The Tongdian (801), the earliest narrative for battle itself by either side, suggests 30,000 deaths, and the Old Book of Tang (945) counted 20,000 deaths in this battle. The earliest Arabic account for the battle, itself from Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh (1231) suggests 50,000 deaths and 20,000 prisoners. Gao Xianzhi's official position

8880-466: The people". Many moved due to the policy of population transfer in the Soviet Union and others were forced into involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union . The Soviet-German War (1941–1945) led to an increase in industrialisation and mineral extraction in support of the war effort. At the time of Joseph Stalin 's death in 1953, however, Kazakhstan still had an overwhelmingly agricultural economy. In 1953, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev initiated

8991-575: The population into the Great, Middle and Little (or Small) hordes ( jüz ). Political disunion, tribal rivalries, and the diminishing importance of overland trade routes between east and west weakened the Kazakh Khanate. The Khiva Khanate used this opportunity and annexed the Mangyshlak Peninsula . Uzbek rule there lasted two centuries until the Russian arrival. During the 17th century, the Kazakhs fought

9102-576: The population of Central Asia from largely Iranian , into primarily of East Asian descent. The first Turkic Khaganate was founded by Bumin in 552 on the Mongolian Plateau and quickly spread west toward the Caspian Sea. The Göktürks drove before them various peoples: Xionites , Uar , Oghurs and others. These seem to have merged into the Avars and Bulgars . Within 35 years, the eastern half and

9213-470: The powerful Security Council, removing his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev from the post. In September 2022, the name of the country's capital was changed back to Astana from Nur-Sultan. As it extends across both sides of the Ural River , considered the dividing line separating Europe and Asia, Kazakhstan is one of only two landlocked countries in the world that has territory in two continents (the other

9324-429: The region was the focus of ever-increasing disputes between the native Kazakh emirs and the neighbouring Persian-speaking peoples to the south. At its height, the Khanate would rule parts of Central Asia and control Cumania . The Kazakh Khanate's territories would expand deep into Central Asia. By the early 17th century, the Kazakh Khanate was struggling with the impact of tribal rivalries, which had effectively divided

9435-432: The region's GDP , primarily through its oil and gas industry ; it also has vast mineral resources. Kazakhstan also has the highest Human Development Index ranking in the region. It is a unitary constitutional republic; however, its government is authoritarian . Nevertheless, there have been incremental efforts at democratization and political reform since the resignation of Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2019, who had led

9546-1096: The regular disclosure of natural resource revenues. Kazakhstan has an "extreme" continental and cold steppe climate , and sits solidly inside the Eurasian steppe , featuring the Kazakh steppe , with hot summers and very cold winters. Indeed, Astana is the second coldest capital city in the world after Ulaanbaatar . Precipitation varies between arid and semi-arid conditions, the winter being particularly dry. There are ten nature reserves and ten national parks in Kazakhstan that provide safe haven for many rare and endangered plants and animals. In total there are twenty five areas of conservancy . Common plants are Astragalus , Gagea , Allium , Carex and Oxytropis ; endangered plant species include native wild apple ( Malus sieversii ), wild grape ( Vitis vinifera ) and several wild tulip species (e.g., Tulipa greigii ) and rare onion species Allium karataviense , also Iris willmottiana and Tulipa kaufmanniana . Kazakhstan had

9657-748: The replacement of the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR Dinmukhamed Konayev with Gennady Kolbin from the Russian SFSR . Governmental troops suppressed the unrest, several people were killed, and many demonstrators were jailed. In the waning days of Soviet rule, discontent continued to grow and found expression under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev 's policy of glasnost ("openness"). On 25 October 1990, Kazakhstan declared its sovereignty on its territory as

9768-457: The retreat of Ferghana allies who originally supported the Chinese. The Karluk mercenaries, two-thirds of the Tang army, defected to the Abbasids during the battle; Karluk troops attacked the Tang army from close quarters while the main Abbasid forces attacked from the front. The Tang troops were unable to hold their positions, and the commander of the Tang forces, Gao Xianzhi , recognized that defeat

9879-659: The same time that Talas took place, the Tang also sent an army from Shibao city in Qinghai to Suyab and consolidated Chinese control over the Turgesh . According to Bai, Chinese expansion in central Asia did not halt after the battle of Talas. The Chinese commander Feng Changqing , who took over the position from Gao Xianzhi through Wang Zhengjian, virtually swept across the Kashmir region and captured Gilgit shortly two years later. Even Tashkent re-established its vassal status in 753, when

9990-513: The same time, the Türgesh khagan Suluk began uniting the infighting Türgesh tribes. The Muslim, Tibetan and Tang armies would have two encounters. In 715, Alutar was established as king of Fergana with the help of Umayyad and Tibetan soldiers. The deposed Ikhshid fled to the Tang controlled Kuqa and requested the aid of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang ; 10,000 Tang soldiers reinstated Ikhshid as Fergana's king. In 717, Arab Umayyad soldiers, assisted by

10101-631: The second largest uranium , chromium , lead, and zinc reserves; the third largest manganese reserves; the fifth largest copper reserves; and ranks in the top ten for coal, iron, and gold. It is also an exporter of diamonds. Perhaps most significant for economic development, Kazakhstan also has the 11th largest proven reserves of both petroleum and natural gas. One such location is the Tokarevskoye gas condensate field . In total, there are 160 deposits with over 2.7 billion tonnes (2.7 billion long tons) of petroleum. Oil explorations have shown that

10212-454: The spearmen behind them and heavy cavalry with his guard. Gao Xianzhi had assembled his army in a similar manner, with his professionally-trained heavy infantry of crossbowmen and spearmen in the front and in the second line respectively, and the lighter columns of Ferghana mercenaries behind, with the Karluk Turks on the extreme far right and left flanks. The sequence of the first three days of

10323-527: The steppes after nearly 200 years. Officially, Kazakhstan is a democratic, secular, constitutional unitary republic ; Nursultan Nazarbayev led the country from 1991 to 2019. He was succeeded by Kassym-Jomart Tokayev . The president may veto legislation that has been passed by the parliament and is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces . The prime minister chairs the cabinet of ministers and serves as Kazakhstan's head of government. There are three deputy prime ministers and sixteen ministers in

10434-504: The support of their imperial overlords in a battle of dominance. Gao Xianzhi conquered the Abbasid-controlled Tashkent after a siege. The Abbasid general Ziyad ibn Salih  [ ar ] escaped from Tashkent to Samarkand, where he gathered troops and marched eastwards to confront the Tang army. In Fergana, the Tang general Gao Xianzhi raised an army by recruiting Karluk Turks. During the reign of Lalitaditya Muktapida ,

10545-662: The territory belonging to what is now the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Russian Empire introduced a system of administration and built military garrisons and barracks in its effort to establish a presence in Central Asia in the so-called "Great Game" for dominance in the area against the British Empire , which was extending its influence from the south in India and Southeast Asia. Russia built its first outpost, Orsk , in 1735. Russia introduced

10656-637: The traditional elite, along with forced collectivisation in the late 1920s and 1930s, brought famine and high fatalities, leading to unrest (see also: Famine in Kazakhstan of 1932–33 ). During the 1930s, some members of the Kazakh intelligentsia were executed – as part of the policies of political reprisals pursued by the Soviet government in Moscow. On 5 December 1936, the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (whose territory by then corresponded to that of modern Kazakhstan)

10767-444: The transfer of paper exist. Du Huan , who was captured by the Abbasid army at the battle of Talas and upon his return to China published his travel writings, documented that Chinese crafts such as silk weaving were practiced by Chinese prisoners of war while living on territory controlled by the Abbasids. It may have been a convention to reference Chinese craftsmen, who had long been esteemed in Islamic lands, and Chinese paper remained

10878-625: The western Tibetan frontier with the Arabs. At the same time, the Uighurs fought the Tibetans along the Silk Road. The Karluks expanded their settlements around Tian Shan , and also settled westwards in Abbasid-controlled Fergana and Tukharistan . Iron weapons continued to be exported to Tibet and China on the Silk Roads between Kuqa and Aksu near the Tarim basin . Arab sources record that in

10989-479: Was a communication with Samarkand. According to Jonathan Bloom, paper was used in Samarkand, and probably produced there, several decades before the battle. Several paper documents have also been discovered near Panjakent at Mount Mugh, a mountain stronghold, that likely predate the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana . They were either local or came from Buddhist monks active in the region. By the 8th century, Chinese paper

11100-472: Was a key constituent of the Eurasian trading Steppe Route , the ancestor of the terrestrial Silk Roads . Archaeologists believe that humans first domesticated the horse in the region's vast steppes. During recent prehistoric times, Central Asia was inhabited by groups such as the possibly Indo-European Afanasievo culture , later early Indo-Iranian cultures such as Andronovo , and later Indo-Iranians such as

11211-528: Was an armed confrontation between the Abbasid Caliphate and the Tibetan Empire against the Tang dynasty in 751. In July of that year, the Tang and Abbasid armies clashed at the Talas River over control of the regions surrounding the Syr Darya . According to Chinese sources, the engagement began with several days of military stalemate, before a mercenary column of 20,000 Karluk Turks —representing two-thirds of

11322-715: Was at its zenith. Several of the factors after the battle had been taken note of prior to 751. Firstly, the Karluks never in any sense remained opposed to the Chinese after the battle. In 753, the Karluk Yabghu submitted under the column of Cheng Qianli and captured A-Busi, a Chinese mercenary who had defected to the Tongluo chief earlier in 743, receiving his title in court on 22 October. 42°31′30″N 72°14′0″E  /  42.52500°N 72.23333°E  / 42.52500; 72.23333 Kazakhstan Kazakhstan , officially

11433-451: Was completed in 1906. A specially created Migration Department (Переселенческое Управление) in St. Petersburg oversaw and encouraged the migration to expand Russian influence in the area. During the 19th century, about 400,000 Russians immigrated to Kazakhstan, and about one million Slavs, Germans, Jews, and others immigrated to the region during the first third of the 20th century. Vasile Balabanov

11544-554: Was detached from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic , a full union republic of the USSR, one of eleven such republics at the time, along with the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic . The republic was one of the destinations for exiled and convicted persons, as well as for mass resettlements, or deportations affected by the central USSR authorities during

11655-404: Was imminent and managed to escape with some of his Tang regulars with the help of Li Siye . Out of an estimated 10,000 Tang troops, only 2,000 managed to return from Talas to their territory in central Asia. Despite losing the battle, Li did inflict heavy losses on the pursuing Arab army after being reproached by Duan Xiushi . According to a text by Al-Maqdisi , one of the few Arabic sources on

11766-400: Was mostly made of bast fibers while Islamic papers were mostly made of rag fibers. Bloom suggests that papermakers were already active in Central Asia for quite some time and had learned to use rag fibers rather than bast fibers as their primary papermaking material. No historic Chinese source records this transfer of technology through prisoners of war and no contemporary Arabic accounts of

11877-455: Was placed on converting the country's economy to a market economy while political reforms lagged behind economic advances. By 2006, Kazakhstan was generating 60 percent of the GDP of Central Asia, primarily through its oil industry. In 1997, the government moved the capital to Astana , renamed Nur-Sultan on 23 March 2019, from Almaty , Kazakhstan's largest city, where it had been established under

11988-461: Was proclaimed the first Abbasid caliph in the great mosque of Kufa . The Umayyad Caliphate fell in 750 at the Battle of the Zab . Abu Muslim had raised an army that included Muslims and non-Muslims, which he dispatched westwards to take control over Umayyad territory. The Tang general and the Abbasid general would eventually meet in 750 when the kings of the Silk Road towns Tashkent and Ferghana sought

12099-571: Was still able to launch offensive conquests and campaigns like its destruction of the Uyghur Khaganate in Mongolia during 840–847. It was the Huang Chao rebellion (874–884) that permanently destroyed the power of the Tang dynasty since Huang not only devastated the north but marched into southern China which An Lushan failed to do due to the Battle of Suiyang. Huang's army in southern China committed

12210-606: Was that of the Anxi Jiedu envoy, The total number of Tang troops in the jurisdiction was 24,000 and was stationed in the four countries of Qiuzi, Yanqi, Khotan, and Shule. In July 751, the Muslim forces, including the Karluk mercenaries faced with the Tang forces on the banks of the Talas River. The Muslim General had assembled his troops in a standard formation, with his archers in the front,

12321-488: Was the administrator responsible for the resettlement during much of this time. The competition for land and water that ensued between the Kazakhs and the newcomers caused great resentment against colonial rule during the final years of the Russian Empire . The most serious uprising, the Central Asian revolt , occurred in 1916. The Kazakhs attacked Russian and Cossack settlers and military garrisons. The revolt resulted in

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