Publisher Description

Making a new and unique contribution to the study of Eastern philosophy and history,

An Insider's Critique of the Kazakh People and Nation offers

"a window on the Kazakh world" through the eyes of one of the most prominent and treasured

national philosopher-reformers to have appeared in their history: Abai Kunanbai-uhli,

the great Kazakh poet, philosopher and prophet who lived and wrote in Kazakhstan

from the latter part of the 19th to early 20th century as a pioneering and central figure

in the Kazakh-Turkic Muslim-Jadid renaissance movement.

His writings have received international recognition, with translations into

Russian, French, German,Chinese, English and other world languages.

They are herein complimented with and conveyed through the commentary

of a top national post-Soviet Kazakh scholar. The entire range of Kazakh religious,

cultural, social and political lifeways and institutions is covered

against the backdrop of late Tsarist Russian imperial rule in Central Asia.