Shoqan Shynghysuly Walikhanov | |
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A portrait of Shoqan Walikhanov in his military uniform
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Born |
Kushmurun fort in Kostanay Province |
November , 1835
Died | April 10, 1865 Village of Sultan Tezek in Almaty Province |
(aged 29)
Nationality | Kazakh |
Other names | Shoqan Walikhanuli, Kazakh: Шоқан Шыңғысұлы Уәлиханұлы, Shoqan Shynghysuly Walikhanuly; Russian: Чокан Чингисович Валиханов, given name Muhammed Qanafiya Kazakh: Мұхаммед Қанафия |
Occupation | Scholar, Historian, Ethnographer and Folklorist, Officer in Asiatic Department of Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
Known for | Kazakh historian, ethnographer, and civil servant |
Shoqan Shynghysuly Walikhanov (Kazakh: Шоқан Шыңғысұлы Уәлихан, Shoqan Shynghysuly Walikhan; Russian: Чокан Чингисович Валиханов), given name Muhammed Qanapiya (Kazakh: Мұхаммед Қанапия) (November 1835 – April 10, 1865) was a Kazakh scholar, ethnographer, historian and participant in The Great Game. He is regarded as the father of modern Kazakh historiography and ethnography. The Kazakh Academy of Sciences is named after him. His name is written Chokan Valikhanov in English based on the transliteration of the Russian spelling of his name, which he used himself. The Kazakh language variant of his name was written in the Arabic script, and was similar to the Russian version.
He was born in November 1835 in the newly developed Aman-Karagai district within the Kushmurun fort in what is nowadays the Kostanay Province of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Shoqan was a fourth generation descendant of Ablai Khan, a khan of the Middle jüz. 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. It was here that he began his studies of Arabic script and his native language Chagatai, which served as the lingua franca of Central Asia at that time.