ABSTRACT
All Central Asian nations are recovering and rewriting their histories that were suppressed and distorted during the Soviet years. This does not necessarily mean that these new histories are always more objective and less distorted than the previous narratives. One of the prominent traits of the history of the peoples of Central Asia is that it vacillated between internecine wars of various closely related tribes and attempts to build strong centralized states, even empires, in order to suppress internal discords, face external challenges and threats and to conquer new lands and subjugate other peoples. The Kazakhs are divided into three big tribal units zhuses, the Elder Zhuse, the Middle Zhuse and the Younger Zhuse. Musurkul is a devout Muslim who prays five times a day and observes all the other strict requirements of his faith. From his point of view, the liberal Central Asian Islam, especially its Sufi brand that is still widely professed in the region.
