In the 17th and 18th centuries, the main suppliers of weapons and equipment for the Kazakh elite were Bukhara, Kokand, and Khiva. This was stated by Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Leonid Bobrov in a podcast by Kazakh historian Zhaksylyk Sabitov, reports infohub.kz.
The expert emphasized that the features of the Kazakh weapons complex should be considered in a broad historical context. During that period, there were two major arms production centers in the region.
"In Dzungaria, arms factories were launched with their own iron mining and mass production, including firearms. There is a developed craft center in the south, in Maverannahr, in the Uzbek states of western Turkestan," Bobrov noted.
The historian added that Kazakh batyrs had a hard time: both in the east and in the south, they faced armored cavalry. However, wealthy warriors, elders, heads of clans and tribes, as well as the highest Chingizid nobility, could afford the best examples of weapons.
"In Central Asia, we have a whole series of luxuriously decorated weapons that belonged to the Kazakh elite but were made by the best craftsmen of Bukhara, Kokand, Khiva, and other cities," he concluded.
Earlier, historians said that the ancestors of modern Kazakhs were part of the Army of Emir Timur.