Ebook: Selected works of Chokan Valikhanov pioneering ethnographer and historian of the Great steppe

When Chokan Valikhanov died of tuberculosis in 1865, aged only 29, the Russian academician
Nikolai Veselovsky described his short life as ‘a meteor flashing across the field of oriental studies’.
Set against his remarkable output of official reports, articles and research into the history, culture
and ethnology of Central Asia, and more important, his Kazakh people, it remains an entirely
appropriate accolade.
Born in 1835 into a wealthy and powerful Kazakh clan, he was one of the first ‘people of the steppe’
to receive a Russian education and military training. Soon after graduating from Siberian Cadet
Corps at Omsk, he was taking part in reconnaissance missions deep into regions of Central Asia
that had seldom been visited by outsiders. His famous mission to Kashgar in Chinese Turkestan,
which began in June 1858 and lasted for more than a year, saw him in disguise as a Tashkent merchant, risking his life to gather vital information not just on current events, but also on the ethnic
make-up, geography, flora and fauna of this unknown region. Journeys to Kuldzha, to Issyk-Kol
and to other remote and unmapped places quickly established his reputation, even though he always remained inorodets – an outsider to the Russian establishment. Nonetheless, he was elected
to membership of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society and spent time in St Petersburg,
where he was given a private audience by the Tsar. Wherever he went he made his mark, striking
up strong and lasting friendships with the likes of the great Russian explorer and geographer Pyotr
Petrovich Semyonov-Tian-Shansky and the writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Despite his remarkable insights, Valikhanov is not well known in the English-speaking world. This
is the first collection of his writings translated into English since four essays were published in
1865. It includes several of his most important works, including the report on his visit to Kashgar
and a number of essays on the history and genealogy of the Kazakh people. These fill an important gap in the literary history of Central Asia and hopefully will stimulate further interest in this
remarkable man.