Zeki Velidi Togan (1890-1970), a Bashkurt Turk and professor of history for over half a century, studied and taught in institutions of higher learning on three continents. His first book, Turk ve Tatar Tarihi (Turk and Tatar History), was published in Kazan in 1911. In 1913, Togan was asked by the Archeology and Ethnography Society of Kazan University to undertake a research trip to Turkistan. Togan, after successful completion of that endeavor, was sponsored by the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences and the International Central Asia Research for a more extensive expedition. Portions of Togan's findings began to be published in scholarly journals prior to the First World War. His professional output approaches four hundred individual items in at least five languages.

Togan became a leader of the Turkistan National Liberation Movement--called the Basmachi Movement by the Russians--in Central Asia from 1916 to the 1930s. This is but one example of how--like the Ukrainian scholar Mikhail Hrushevsky (1866-1934) and the Czech Thomas Masaryk (1850-1937), Togan was not only a scholar devoted to writing about the history of his nation, but also worked to secure its intellectual, cultural, civil, and political independence.

A Poem of My Mother's and Freud
My mother knew how to write, and while teaching her students prayers, she would write. But, she would not write letters. However, when my father was angry with me during 1908, when I was in Kazan, she did send me one or two letters. There were also poems she wrote to my father. These were kept scattered in my father's books.

Every now and then, property ownership issues would cause a fuss. For example, mother was very sensitive concerning the animals she had brought into the marriage from her father's house--what we called "turkun." When one of those animals was sold, without securing her complete acquiescence, she took offence with my father. Then, my father wished to marry a second woman, or, it is said, at least threatened to do so. Consequently, my mother wrote the following poem:

You said there is no other sweetheart to love
You had not loved anyone else, have you changed?
You are the one who had tasted my ruby red lips,
And the one who broke my seal
Are you a stranger, what is the meaning of this jest?

Divay, a Bashkurt (in Russian sources, Bashkir), was born on 19 December 1855 in Orenburg and lived most of his life among the Kazakhs. He attended the Orenburg Nepliuev military academy, first studying in the Asiatic Division, where the majority of his classmates were reportedly Kazakhs and second in the division for the preparation of translators of Oriental languages for the steppe regions.

In 1876-1877, at the age of 21, Divay left school to accept an appointment in the Russian bureaucracy of the Turkistan territory (krai). There in the southern steppe region Divay travelled and was able to visit many Kazakh, Kirghiz and Uzbek villages (aul). He held the post of Divisional Inspector of the Evliya-Ata (in Russian sources Aulie-Atinsk) district (uezd) and then became translator and junior official of Special Missions attached to the Governor-General of the Syr-Darya region (oblast). This latter post gave him wide opportunities to travel throughout the Turkistan territory.

In 1883, Divay began collecting ethnographic materials. The following year, the Governor-General of the Syr-Darya region, N. I. Grodekov, initiated the collection of information on Kazakh and Kirghiz customary law in order to publish a code of juridical customs of the nomadic peoples of the region. While working on this project, Divay reportedly collected "historical legends from ancient manuscripts, in the hands of educated Kirghiz, [and] heroic poems, aphorisms, fables, riddles, incantations, etc." A portion of these materials was published in Grodekov's book and the remainder, including fables, legends, songs, poems and dastans (Central Asian ornate oral histories), were published in Collection of Materials for Statistics of the Syr-Darya Region (Sbornik materialov dlia statistiki Syr-Darinskoi oblasti) for 1891-1897, 1901, 1902, 1904, 1905, and 1907. These articles by Divay were reviewed by various prominent Orientalists of the time.

Divay was active in the field prior to the invention of recording devices. Collectors of oral works of that time, recorded recitations on paper, frequently had to interrupt the narrators to keep-up. Reciters grew impatient and truncated their narrations. Aware of these pitfalls and given the many thousands of pages of material he discovered, Divay probably more than welcomed transcribed dastans which he sometimes received. This is not unusual, and other primarily oral works, including Beowulf, were printed from manuscript sources.

Editor's Introduction
A professor of history for over half a century, Zeki Velidi Togan (1890-1970), a Bashkurt Turk, studied and taught in institutions of higher learning on three continents, including the United States.1 His first book, TArk ve Tatar Tarihi (Turk and Tatar History), was published in Kazan in 1911. The renowned scholars N. Ashmarin and N. Katanov (1862-1922),2 both of Kazan University, and V.V. Bartold (1869-1930) of St. Petersburg University, invited Togan to study with them.

In 1913, Togan was asked by the Archeology and Ethnography Society of Kazan University to undertake a research trip to Turkistan. After successful completion of that endeavor, the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences,3 jointly with International Central Asia Research Society, sponsored Togan for a more extensive expedition. Portions of Togan's findings began to be published in scholarly journals prior to the First World War. His lifetime output approaches four hundred individual items in at least five languages. He also had facility in several others. Like the Ukrainian scholar Mikhail Hrushevsky (1866-1934) and the Czech Thomas Masaryk (1850-1937), Togan was not only a scholar devoted to writing about the history of his nation, but also worked to secure its intellectual, cultural, civil, and political independence. He became a leader of the Turkistan National Liberation Movement in Central Asia (1916-1930s), called the Basmachi Movement by the Russians. A revealing anecdote is offered by A. Inan, a close colleague of Togan both as a historian and as a leading member of the Turkistan National Liberation movement. The event takes place in June 1922 in the vicinity of Samarkand:

When a Bolshevik military unit, detailed to liquidate us, opened fire, we took refuge in a nearby cemetery. As we began defending ourselves, I noticed that Togan had taken out his ever-present notebook and was busily scribbling. The circumstances were so critical that some of those among our ranks even thought that he was hurriedly recording his last will and testament. He kept writing, seemingly oblivious to the flying bullets aimed at him, and the accompanying sounds of war. I shouted at him from behind the tombstone that was protecting me, and asked why he was not fighting. Without looking up, continuing to write, he shouted back: You continue firing. The inscriptions on these headstones are very interesting.4

Togan's investigation of the origin of the Kazaks and the ozbeks is adapted from his TArkili TArkistan, a project he worked on during the 1920s, a period when he was establishing extensive contacts with the Central Asian population from Ferghana to the shores of the Caspian on behalf of the Turkistan national liberation movement. After he left Central Asia, and earned his doctorate in Europe, he continued his research using published sources. Though completed in 1928, the work was not published until 1947, in Istanbul.

Togan's analysis and documentation in the excerpt printed here may contribute to the clarification of the issues involved in efforts to rediscover the ethnogenesis of the Uzbeks, Kazakhs,5 and other Central Asians. It should be recalled that these designations are primarily geographical, tribal, or confederation names, not ethnonyms. Often they were taken from geographic reference points by travelers and then were mistakenly or deliberately turned into ethnic or political classifications.

Early in the eighth century, Central Asians themselves provided an account of their identity, history, and political order.6 Later efforts to identify and disseminate information concerning the genealogy of Central Asians can be traced to a wave of native Central Asian leadership that was suppressed in the Stalinist liquidations. Examples from the period survive in abundance, in Central Asian dialects, published in three alphabets in various Central Asian cities.

The Bashkir evolved centuries ago around the southern foothills of the Ural Mountains. It used to be quite common in the Volga and Urals regions as a riding, pack, and harness animal. These horses are also providers of meat, milk, and clothing for the local population. The sturdy Bashkirs were also popular as troika hacks, and were employed as remounts by Bashkir worriers and Orenburg and Ural Cossacks. Bashkir regiments on their steppe steeds have taken part in the Napoleonic wars.

The history of the Bashkir’s evolution is typical of all the steppe breeds. It is of fairly ancient origin. The Bashkir people, known as good riders and breeders, appeared in the territory of what is now known as Bashkortostan in the 7th century. Therefore, the Bashkir horse does not belong to the Mongolian root, as is often maintained. It comes from the steppe horse of Western Asia, whose remains are found aplenty in ancient burial mounds in that huge territory.

The Bashkir is the result of the crossing of the steppe horse with the forest horses that lived north of Bashkiria. It evolved under the influence of the rigorous continental climate.

The winter in Bashkiria is long and very cold, with much snow and fierce blizzards from early November to late in April. The summer is hot but short with a lush growth of grasses. The region is known for abundance of wild bees and wild honey, an indication of health.