This is the text on which I based a talk in Russian given at the plenary session of a conference held at the Eurasian National University on the 22nd November 2014. It was published in the conference proceedings: E.B. Sydykov (ed.) 'Actual Problems of Research and Teaching of National History Nowadays' (Astana: ENU, 2014) pp.6-8.
This paper was the basis for a talk I gave in Russian at a conference for the jubilee of Ashirbek Muminov at the Eurasian National University on the 20th November 2014. It was published in the conference proceedings: Yu. V. Shapoval, A. S. Kabylova & N. Robinson (ed.) Islamovedenie v Kazakhstane: sostoyanie, problemy, perspektivy (Astana: ENU, 2014), pp.24-30.