Materials for the Study of the Cult of Saints among the Kazakhs (Evidence from West Kazakhstan Region)

Abstract

The article deals with the cult of Muslim saints in Western Kazakhstan. Religious minimalism has been inherent to western regions of the country which made the territory different from Southern Kazakhstan where Islam had occupied strong positions throughout the religious worldview and practices, where ancient mosques and mausoleums have become not only objects of pilgrimages but rather state-protected museums, their history being made part of the national ideology. Western Kazakhstan was the first region to have been included in Russia’s sphere of influence with subsequent modernization and Europeanization of the community, secularization of all aspects of life in the Soviet period. Following the changes in religious life, the cult of saints and pilgrimages became a distinct feature of the Kazakh ethnocultural landscape. In the 1990s, the sacralization of space occurred, e. g., mass venerations of burial places of saints (mazars) and pilgrimages to their graves. There also appeared a number of advocates of such manifestations and organizers of corresponding religious practices. The article provides materials collected during the international expedition Following the Route of P. S. Pallas (2010 and 2011). En route, places and graves of revered saints were fixed, oral legends and practices associated with visiting and honoring these places (including related folk healing practices) were collected. The 20th century cultural revolution and proximity to Russian territory resulted in the loss and dramatic minimization of religious practices and sacred places; so, the daily Islam has been mystified excessively. Contemporary Kazakhs tend to revere graves and attribute holiness to ‘folk mullahs’ of the Soviet period, i. e. those who had followed religious rules (observed fast days, learnt and read the Quran), engaged in healing practice, read prayers over the dead and recited the Quran’s ayats at the request of villagers during different rituals. Nowadays, their immediate descendants are alive and some of them organize pilgrimages to graves of ancestors; still, others refute the opinions about sanctity of the latter and insist that emphasis should be laid on Muslim education. At the same time, rural dwellers retain and pass on oral stories not only about lives and abilities of those people but also about miracles shown in the times of atheism and opposition to governmental authorities, about spirit patrons - aruaks. Special attributes are being installed around such graves which results in a peculiar architecture. Thus, such aul’ya become patrons and saviors of certain auls (settlements), and currently almost each aul has its own spirit patron. Except for direct descendants, there are also other followers, those usually engage in folk healing and even shaman practices.