7. A Month among the Qazaqs in the Emirate of Bukhara

Abstract

If the persistent stereotype of the 'un-Islamic' nature of Muslim nomads in Central Asia is hopefully waning, at least in scholarly literature, publications containing detailed information on the specifics of education among within these groups are still difficult to come by. This chapter aims to aid in correcting this deficiency through the examination of an early 20th century Tatar manuscript history in which the author provides detailed information on Islamic education among Qazaqs in the Emirate of Bukhara during the last half of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th. This manuscript is titled Tārīkh-i Barāngavī . Its author, Aḥmad b. Ḥafīẓ ad-Dīn al-Barāngavī (1877 1930), has left us a detailed account of a month he spent among Qazaq nomads in the Emirate of Bukhara in 1905. The chapter presents translation of al-Barāngavī's account of the Qazaqs; the account also stands out for Aḥmad’s attention to ethnographic detail. Keywords:Aḥmad b. Ḥafīẓ ad-Dīn al-Barāngavī; Emirate of Bukhara; Islamic education; Muslim nomads; Qazaqs; Tārīkh-i Barāngavī