Islamic perspective on the social cataclysms in the history of Kazakhstan (on the example of the heritage of the school “Zar zaman”)

The texts of traditional poetry «Zar zaman» («the era of sorrow») are a special reflection of the pessimistic, anti-colonial and religious sentiments of the Kazakhs in connection with the negative perception in the collective memory of the colonial system of the Russian Empire on the territory of Kazakhstan. These samples of poetry, which illustrate the Islamic self-consciousness of educated Kazakhs, such as the poets Shortanbai, Dulat, Murat, and others, remained insufficiently studied during the Soviet period. Although over the years of political Independence in Kazakhstan, an objective study of this topic has begun, but in the available studies, a philological approach prevails, and the connection with Islam is not considered. The spiritual heritage of the Kazakh school «Zar zaman» requires deep interdisciplinary research. It is not excluded that they can be used as alternative historical sources in the study of issues of religion, ethnic consciousness and culture of Kazakhs. In these works, created by the Kazakh poets of a religious and philosophical direction that are opposed to the political regime, a peculiar Kazakh historical self-consciousness is reflected, an interesting interpretation of the civilizational conflict between the empire and the nomads is given. At the same time, the general characteristic of the “Zar zaman” school is regret and lamentation over the fact of political defeat from tsarism and the moral degradation of the people in the spirit of the religious and eschatological ideas of Sharia and Sufism. The poetry texts “Zar zaman” are interesting in the context of the discourse on Kazakh Islamic identity related to the 19th century, since the assessment of social cataclysms in them is given in accordance with one of the main plots of the Muslim worldview - the expectation of the End of the World (“Akyr zaman”)

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• Kazakh Muslim poetry as inspiration for anti-Soviet dissidence

  Ulan Bigozhin•Central Asian Survey•2026

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