Vantage Point

In the period from 1719 to 1724, for a short interval, the residence of the elder khan of the Kazakhs, Abu'l-Khayr (1718–1748), was in Turkestan. In 1724 Abu'l-Khayr liberated Turkestan from the Dzhunga. For nearly a year he held the city and its neighvoring settlements under his control but in the beginning of 1725 under presure from much superior forces of the enemy, he was compelled to abandon southern Kazakhstan.

Ceremonies enthroning the Kazakh khan Abylay reads: "... in 1771... all of our distinguished and honorable people, the khans of the Kazakh yurt Uch-Alach, of the city and steppe marches, and also the dignitaries of the Turkestan yurt agreed to place me as leader above all the khans. According to our custom and rituals of prior khans, I was elevated to the throne in the city of Turkestan, in which our holy Hazrat Khoja Ahmad Yasawi passed away, and over whose grave was read the Sura al-Fatiha..." Thus the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmad Yasawi served as a place for the coronation of the supreme rulers of the Kazakhs in the period of the late medieval era.