Jüz

A jüz (/ˈ(d)ʒ(j)uːz/; Kazakh: ءجۇز / жүз, pronounced [ʒʉz], also translated as 'horde') is one of the three main territorial and tribal divisions in the Kypchak Plain area that covers much of the contemporary Kazakhstan.

Velyaminov Zernov (1919) believed that the division arose as a result of the capture of the important cities of Tashkent, Yasi, and Sayram in 1598.

[1] Some researchers argued that the jüz in origin corresponded to tribal, military alliances of steppe nomads that emerged around the mid 16th century after the disintegration of the Kazakh Khanate.

Historically, the Senior jüz (Kazakh: Ұлы жүз, ۇلى ءجۇز, romanized: Ūly jüz) inhabited the northern lands of the former Chagatai Ulus of the Mongol Empire, in the Ili River and Chu River basins, in today's South-Eastern Kazakhstan and China's Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture (northern Xinjiang).

The first record of the Senior jüz dates to 1748, due to a Tatar emissary of the Tsaritsa who had been sent to the steppe to negotiate the submission of Abul Khair Khan in 1732.

According to Nikolai Aristov,[citation needed] the estimated population of the Senior jüz was about 550,000 people in the second half of the 19th century.

[5] Some of Kazakhstan's famous poets and intellectuals were born in the Middle jüz territories, including Abay Qunanbayuli, Akhmet Baytursinuli, Shokan Walikhanuli and Alikhan Bokeikhanov.

During the Kazakh-Kalmyk struggles, the Khiva Khanate annexed the Mangyshlak Peninsula to repel Kalmyk raids and managed it for two centuries before the Russian conquest.

Approximate areas occupied by the three Kazakh hordes in the early 20th century; red represents the Senior zhuz, orange represents the Middle zhuz and green represents the Junior zhuz.
Ethnographic map of the Senior jüz in Kazakhstan in the early 20th century, following M. S. Mukanov (1991). [ 3 ]
Ethnographic map of the Middle or Orta zhuz in Kazakhstan in the early 20th century, following M. S. Mukanov (1991). [ 3 ]