The Qazaq Khanate in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

The formation of the Qazaq Khanate and the emergence of a Qazaq ethnic and political identity at the beginning of the sixteenth century were centred in the Semirech'e (or Zhetisu) region in what is today Eastern Kazakhstan (see Chapter 13 above). During the following two centuries a politically unified Qazaq Khanate ruled by the descendants of Baraq Khan and his sons Kirāy and Jarïbek gradually expanded. In the sixteenth century the Qazaq khans contended with Shibanid rulers in Central Asia for the cities of the Syr Darya Valley, eventually making this region the political, economic and religious centre of their khanate. In defeating the Chaghatayid Moghuls in the Semirech'e, and soon after in the middle of the sixteenth century incorporating the Altïulï Manghits out of the disintegrating Noghay Horde, the Qazaq rulers created a nomadic confederation that extended from the Yayïq (Ural) River in the west to the Irtysh River in the north, and the Syr Darya Valley and the Semirech'e in the south and east.

The Syr Darya Valley was the major bone of contention between the Shibanids in Central Asia and the Qazaq khans in the sixteenth century and suffered frequent raids during the first decade of the sixteenth century led by the Qazaq khan Qāsim Khan b. Jarïbek Khan. Early in his career Qāsim Khan's main rival was his cousin Burunduq b. Kirāy Khan, but by 1511 Qāsim had forced Burunduq into exile among the Shibanids.