Суд над султаном Бараком и кризис ханского правосудия в Казахской степи: от золотоордынских правовых традиций к новым политическим реалиям

Новое прошлое. 2022. С. 72–86.

Pochekaev R. Y.

The article is an analysis of history of the trial of Kazakh sultan Barak executed by four biys (people’s judges) in 1748. This case was not studied in details before, especially by historians of law. Meanwhile, it is a striking example of the crisis of the khans’ justice in the Turkic-Mongol states including the Kazakh Steppe as it was an offence against the principle of exclusive jurisdiction of ruling family over khans and sultans — direct descendants of Chinggis Khan. There is a retrospective historical and legal analysis of trials over members of Chinggisid dynasty in the Turkic-Mongol states. The article clarifies the reasons of gradual decline of khans’ justice system in the Mongol Empire’s and the Golden Horde’s successive states (including Kazakh Khanate and Kazakh zhuzes of 17th–18th centuries). The author analyses the situation in the Kazakh Steppe of the first half of the 18th century which prompted the sultan Barak to appeal to the biys’ court and not khans’ or sultans’ one. The paper also contains the formal legal analysis of this case in biys’ court (its membership, decision and its consequences). Primary sources are historical chronicles of the Medieval and Modern Ages as well as official documents of the Russian Empire which reflect substantial transformations in the political and legal life of the Kazakh Hordes (Zhuzes) in the first half of the 18th century including traditional institutions of power, administration and justice which were succeeded by the Kazakh Khanate from the Golden Horde.

Keywords: Russian Empire, Российская империя, Золотая Орда, Golden Horde, традиционное право, суд биев, Монгольская империя, Чингизиды, ханская власть, Mongol Empire, court biys, traditional law, Kazakh steppe, Казахская степь, khan power, Chinggisids