Shokan Walikhanuli
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Please expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in the Kazakh Wikipedia. After translating, {{Translated|kk|Уәлиханұлы, Шоқан Шыңғысұлы}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance.Translation instructions · Involve your language class |
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Please expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in the Russian Wikipedia. (February 2009) After translating, {{Translated|ru|Валиханов, Чокан Чингисович}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance.Translation instructions · Translate via Google · Involve your language class |
Shokan Shinghisuly Walikhanuli (Kazakh: Шоқан Шыңғысұлы Уәлиханұлы; Russian: Чокан Чингисович Валиханов) (November of 1835 — April 10, 1865) was the first Kazakh scholar, ethnographer and historian. He is regarded as the father of Kazakh historiography and ethnography. The Kazakh Academy of Sciences is named after him.
A male-line descendant of Genghis Khan, Walikhanuli was born at the house of his grandfather, Wali Khan, whose own grandfather was Ablai Khan, the great khan of the Middle jüz. He received early education in his village Kushmurune at a private Kazakh maktab, or grade school.
Walikhanuli was one of the first Kazakhs educated in Russian language and worked for Imperial Russia. He lived in St. Petersburg for two years and joined the staff of the Russian Geographical Society, serving as officer of the Russian army for the remaining days of his life.
Walikhanuli published books and articles devoted to the history and culture of Central Asia; among them researches "Kyrgyz (Kazakhs)", "Traces of shamanism in Kyrgyz (Kazakhs)", "About Kyrgyz nomads' camp" and others contained ethnographic data that have been used to date. He also compiled Kazakh epic poems "Kozy-Korpesh and "Bayan-Sulu", as well as Kyrgyz Epic of Manas.
Walikhanuli'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.
