Kazakh

Kazakh or Khazak may refer to:

See also

Kazakhstani

Kazakhstani may refer to:

The word Kazakh is often used exclusively for the Turkic ethnic group, while Kazakhstani can be used to refer to all citizens of Kazakhstan.

See also

Kazakhs

The Kazakhs (also spelled Kazaks, Qazaqs; Kazakh: Қазақ  qɑzɑ́q , Қазақтар  qɑzɑqtɑ́r ; the English name is transliterated from Russian) are a Turkic people who mainly inhabit the northern parts of Central Asia (largely Kazakhstan, but also found in parts of Uzbekistan, China, Russia and Mongolia). Kazakh identity is of medieval origin and was strongly shaped by the foundation of the Kazakh Khanate between 1456 and 1465, when several tribes under the rule of the sultans Zhanibek and Kerey departed from the Khanate of Abu'l-Khayr Khan. Most modern Kazakhs are either irreligious or nondenominational Muslims.

The Kazakhs are descendants of the Turkic and medieval Mongol tribes – Argyns, Dughlats, Naimans, Jalairs, Khazars, Qarluqs; and of the Kipchaks and Cumans, and other tribes such as the Huns, and ancient Iranian nomads like the Sarmatians, Saka and Scythians from East Europe populated the territory between Siberia and the Black Sea and remained in Central Asia and Eastern Europe when the nomadic groups started to invade and conquer the area between the 5th and 13th centuries AD.