Satellite image of the Aral region, showing the old dried-up channel of the Jany Darya
forking right from the Syr Darya towards the Amu Darya delta

Image courtesy of MODIS Rapid Response Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center


The very first historical reference to the Karakalpaks occurs in a deed for a mausoleum at Signaq, issued by the Khan of Bukhara in 1598, which mentions that they were one of the nomadic tribes living in the area. Signaq was on the south bank of the Syr Darya between modern Turkestan and Kyzyl Orda. Karakalpaks were involved with Kazakhs in riots and raids on Bukhara during the reign of Khan Baki Muhammad (1599-1605) and Abul Ghazi tells us that the Khiva Khan Habash escaped to the Karakalpaks on the banks of the Syr Darya in the 1620’s. Russian documents show that Karakalpaks fought in the Khan of Bukhara’s army and were also present in the lower Syr Darya. Just before 1700 Karakalpaks were reported living in the vicinity of Cossacks just outside one of the cities “three days from Turkestan”, on the middle Syr Darya. It was noted that they had many sheep and horses, a few cows and were involved in some light agriculture.

At around the same time, Russian documents from the 17th century refer to joint military operations between Karakalpaks and Nogays on the Ural and point to Karakalpaks in the upper reaches of the Ural and Emba rivers. In the early 17th century the Karakalpaks were closely linked to the Nogays and were raiding the cities of Siberia together. In 1690 and 1691, Karakalpaks participated in attacks on a stockaded town in the Tyumen region of western Siberia and on settlements along the river Tobol.

During the 1660’s the Tsar issued instructions for the mapping of Siberia. However, it was not until around 1696 that Semen Remezov from Tobolsk mapped the location of the various Siberian tribes in the region along with their southern neighbours, presenting them to the Tsar in the form of a “Sketch Book of Siberia” containing 23 maps. One of these maps identifies Karakalpak nomads on the Syr Darya to the east of the Aral Sea as well as between the northern part of the Aral Sea and the northern Caspian. Araltsy, or Aral Uzbeks are shown around the coast of the Aral and on some of its islands. In 1717 we know that Karakalpaks attacked Prince Bekovich just after he set off for Khiva from Gur’yev on the north coast of the Caspian. A little later in 1730, the Swedish cartographer Philipp Johann von Stralenberg, a prisoner of war in Tobolsk, published a map of Russia, which showed Karakalpaks occupying the region between the middle Syr Darya and the Ural River down to the northern Caspian.

It is clear that the formation of the Karakalpak tribal confederation occurred prior to 1600, by which time it had become divided into two groups, the majority concentrated in the wetlands of the lower and middle Syr Darya and the rest living on the banks of the Volga, Ural, and Emba rivers. The latter group were responsible for raiding the Russian outposts.

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