GENEALOGIES OF THE SIBERIAN BUKHARANS: THE SHIKHOVS*

Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.

speaking population had been in uenced greatly by the latter, and their missionary activity became the basis for the Islamization of the Siberian Tatars. We focus on the Shikhov family clan that settled down in the Tara district of the Tobolsk Governorate, but that originated from the city of Sayram located in the middle ow of the Syr Darya River. To date, in the villages founded and populated by the Bukharans during the 17th-19th centuries in the Tara district (the present-day Bolsherechye and Tara Districts in the Omsk Region), the collective memory still keeps legendary narratives recounting the appearance of people related to this family in Siberia as well as milestone events that occurred in the lives of the Siberian Bukharans. The depth of genealogical memory in this case is de ned by a long stretch of time during which the Shikhovs preserved the written genealogies referred to as shajara (from ETHNOLOGY Arabic word 'tree'), some of which were partially lost for various reasons during the Soviet times. Some members of the Shikhov family migrated to Turkey in the early 20th century and established a separate settlement there, where the family history has been resurrected.
The sources used in this study are divided into three categories, allowing us to provide a comprehensive reconstruction of the Shikhov family history. The rst one includes a written record made in the Persian, Arabic and Turkic languages, relating the history of this family in Siberia and Turkey. This material was collected between 2008 and 2012 in the settlements of the Omsk Region (the Ulenkul village of the Bolsherechye District); in the south of Kazakhstan (the cities of Sayram and Turkestan); and in a number of Turkish localities (the city of Konya, the village of Bogrudelik) where the Shikhovs descendants, who immigrated in the rst decades of the 20th century, live compactly. Our material includes both genealogical records (a tradition of their compilation is still alive) and verbal information that has been gathered by a local ethnographer, Manviia Kh. Shikhova ), a history teacher in the Ulenkul village of the Bolsherechye District, the Omsk Region (Fig. 1).
The second category includes materials obtained in 1975 and 1999-2000 during ethnographic expeditions carried out by Omsk State University and the Omsk Division of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of SB RAS. These are the historical traditions and genealogies of people living in the Tatar settlements of Ulenkul, Yalankul and others (the Bolsherechye District of the Omsk Region), and Rechapovo (the Tara District of the Omsk Region). The legends tell about the time when the settlements had been established, about the first inhabitants and important events. Genealogies drawn up according to methodology developed by the Omsk ethnographers provide data regarding the ethnic identity, place of birth, age, and education of informants and their relatives. At the same time, genealogies re ect ethnogenetic memory of the present-day Tatars who descended from the Bukharans. In Ulenkul, the collection of genealogies was carried out in 1975 and 2000, that is, within one generation. A signi cant difference can be observed in ethnic self-determination: if in 1975 quite a lot of informants called themselves Bukharan Tatars, then in 2000 there was just a small number of them, and the majority of people identi ed themselves as Siberian Tatars.
Archival documents have been used to reveal the reality of events re ected in folk memory, comprising the third category of sources: the Tara Inventory Book (In Russian: Tarskaya dozornaya kniga) of 1701 that contains data on the Bukharans (Russian State Archives of Ancient Acts (RGADA). F. 214, Bk. 1199); the primary materials of the 4th-10th revisions (1782-1858) and the 1897 population census; and various administrative documents providing details on settlements, inhabitants, and lands belonging to the Bukharans.
Between the 18th and early 20th centuries, the Shikhov family clan became so prominent that one may write a monograph about them. Since our study is limited by the scope of this paper, only two episodes from the history of this clan will be analyzed below.

Descendants of the Prophet Muhammad in Siberia
The study of the elite groups that included the Siberian Bukharans involves four categories of sacred groups, i.e. those related to the family of the Prophet Muhammad (sadat, ashraf) and various Islamic saints. 1. Descendants of the Saint Sayyid Ata. This family that settled down in Western Siberia as early as the second half of the 16th century was represented by two branches: the Aitikins and the Imyaminovs (Bustanov, 2009(Bustanov, , 2010Bustanov, 2011). Both family branches wielded signi cant political and religious authority based on their prestigious origin (either real or alleged), and on District of the Omsk Region). Photograph by S.N. Korusenko, 2007. formidable economic power in the form of land ownership and merchant capital. The descendants of Sayyid Ata belonged to the most respected sacred family in Siberia, and held the titles of Khwaja and Sayyid, i.e. they were considered to be the offsprings of the Prophet Muhammad through his grandson Husayn. 2. Descendants of Malik Baba. These are known under the family name of Shikhovs (the present paper deals with them). It is important to remember that this family had very close relationships with the descendants of Sayyid Ata in Siberia, trying to intermarry with them. These attempts notwithstanding, the Shikhovs bore the titles of Shaykh and Sayyid, but never Khwaja. It seems to imply that their social status was somewhat lower.
3. Descendants of Ishaq-Baba. These are closely linked to the rst group as well, since they came into the region together with the descendants of Sayyid Ata, and also held the title of Khwaja, but not Sayyid, i.e. they were not recognized as members of the Prophet Muhammad's family. The family played a crucial role in developing the sacred geography of Islam in Siberia. Sharbati Shaykh, a member of this clan, brought with him a Central Asian narrative on Islamization that has subsequently been locally adapted. Their family name was Shikhov as well, but they were not related to the descendants of Malik Baba.
4. The Yan-Khwaja family. Its origin is not quite clear, and it was obviously inferior in significance to those three clans mentioned above; though all the members of this family, which lived after 1692 near Tobolsk, held the title of Khwaja. We have a short story of it (written in 1883) at our disposal, that is preserved in Foat T. Valeev's archive and still remains unpublished. There were a number of other families with similar status and titles, but their existence is are much more sparsely documented.
The rst published work dedicated to the history of the Shikhov family is "A Husayni Genealogy of Shaykh Sayyid Battal b. Dawlat Baqi al-Shaykhi", issued by his nephew, Muhammad-Mansur Shikhov, a Su scholar, in 1908 in Orenburg-apparently based on the manuscript (Al-Shajarat, 1908). This genealogy was rendered as 'a Husayni', because the members of the Shikhov family associated their origin with Husayn b. 'Ali b. Abu Talib (626-680) (Prozorov, 1991: 285) (Al-Shajarat, 1908: 23-24). The story sounds more than plausible and corresponds to independent data. The rst investigator of this source, ethnographer Foat T. Valeev, thus found out that the Qalmyqs, under the leadership of Rabtan, seized Sayram in 1684 (Valeev, 1991: 103). Malik Baba or 'Abd al-Malik Bab, who was a "grandfather" in a genealogical chain of Zangi Ata, a central character in the Su tradition of Yasaviyya, was known among Islamic saints in Central Asia. In that regard, ethnographer Sergei N. Abashin writes the following: "According to one of the versions, his (Zangi Ata's) father was Taj Khwaja, a pupil of Ahmad Yasavi. The father of Taj Khwaja was the "saint" Shah (Shaykh) 'Abd al-Malik Bab or Padishah Malik (died in 1218): at least two of his graves are known: in Sayram, where the mausoleum was built in the 15th century, and in the valley of the Akhangaran River. Tradition has it that the "saint" Mansur Ata (died in 1197), the father of Shaykh 'Abd al-Malik Bab, was the rst murid of Ahmad al-Yasavi. In turn, Mansur Ata was the son of Arslan Bab (Bab Arslan), who was the rst teacher of Ahmad al-Yasavi" (Abashin, 2006: 151). Unfortunately, this genealogical chain is not re ected in "A Husayni Genealogy" of the Shikhovs, but the Yasaviyyan heritage is clearly emphasized here. Based on eld and archival data, an American Islamic researcher, Devin DeWeese found out that Malik Baba had a son Mir 'Ali Bab Sayyid (Fig. 2)-who in turn had two sons: Khwaja Nasrullah Farsa and Khwaja Fathullah Majdhub whose graves, according to some reports, are located beside their father's burial (DeWeese, 2000: 281). The same set of names, excluding Fathullah, is cited in the versions of the Shikhovs' genealogy. A political background of the genealogy should be noted as well: despite the fact that the descendants of Malik Baba had been granted power in Sayram by the Bukharan Amir, they also proved to be loyal to a new ruler during the seizure of Sayram by the Kokand forces of 'Alim Khan (1799-1809), and were able to retain the title of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad at a time when many genealogies were called by 'Alim Khan into question in the course of the well-known tests for "blue blood", according to Bakhtiyar M. Babajanov (Babajanov, 2010: 486-492). Further, the text provides that "'Awwas Baqi b. Khidir Baqi Shaykh was from the descendants of the mentioned Shah Malik Baba. Pure thoughts came to his mind of moving voluntarily from the city of Sayram to the Russian State, to Siberian region, [in order] to con rm and strengthen the Islamic faith as well as to spread the splendid holy Sharia. They have settled down in the Tara fortress and its surroundings. 'Awwas BaqiShaykh mentioned above was a father of four sons: 'AlimShaykh, 'Ishki Shaykh, BabaShaykhand Faizy Shaykh" (Al-Shajarat, 1908: 24).
In a letter dated from January 1, 1905, 'Abd al-Khakim b. Khair Allah, an Imam in the village of Tuskazan, wrote to the Orenburg scholar Rida al-Din b. Fakhr al-Din (1859-1936) that 'Awwas Baqi, the founder of the Shikhov family, arrived in Siberia for trading purposes (Archives of Orientalists of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, RAS (AV IVR RAN). F. 131, Inv. 1, D. 8, fols. 11-12. "Rodoslovnyie derevni Tuskazan"). The nancial power of the Shikhovs is known from various sources. Their religious status cannot be called into question either. Their wealth had been established already in Sayram, obliging them to maintain close relations with the Aitikins (marriages between these families were not rare and, according to the sources, there was a kind of status competition between them). In order to legitimize their economic conditions, the Shikhovs may have resorted to sacralization of their past and creation of an imaginary genealogy. It is known from other sources that material interests were closely linked to the development of the manuscript tradition related to genealogies (Bustanov, Korusenko, 2010;DeWeese, 1999).
'Awwas Baqi Shaykh arrived in the outskirts of Tara from Sayram. The exact date of resettlement is not known and it is not provided in the original genealogies either. At the end of their genealogy, the date of its veri cation is indicated as August 5, 1899 (according to Christian calendar only). It is also said that all the records written inside are correct: the mullah of the village of Aubatkan, Sayyid Battal b. al-Marhum Dawlat Baqi Shikhov, the owner of the genealogical treatise, is a descendant of 'Awwas Baqi Shaykh, as well as a Bukharan, and belongs to the noble family (sharif al-nasab) of the Prophet Muhammad. This genealogy was veri ed by the following persons: Sayyid Hamza b. Sayyid Mustafa 'Ataya al-Madani, Imam 'Abdullah Efendi, Imam Hajji 'Abd al-Khaliq 'Imadaddinov, Imam from the city of Zaysan (Eastern Kazakhstan) Ahmad-Zaki b. Ahtam. In addition, "many other" noble scholars and great rulers of Bukhara, Khiva, Kokand, Urgench, and Sayram af xed their signatures and seals to verify this genealogy (Al-Shajarat, 1908: 26). However, "owing to its large extent, the narrative was shortened", therefore, neither names, nor seals and signatures of these many authoritative persons can be seen in the source, which obviously raises serious concerns about the authenticity of the text.
Further, the published genealogy provides brief biographical data of Shaykh Sayyid Battal, who apparently was the owner of the document. He was born in 1840, in the village of Aubatkan of Tara district in Tobolsk Governorate. Today, this settlement no longer exists. When Sayyid-Battal grew up, he went to the city of Semipalatinsk to Hazrat 'Abd al-Jabbar and for three years diligently studied with him religious teachings and Islamic ethics (akhlaq). He got married there and stayed for a while. When the book was published, Sayyid Battal did not have any children. The nal part of the genealogical treatise is of particular interest: "The teachers [of Sayyid Battal]    and followed the Su brotherhood of the Naqshbandiya-Khalidiya. The fact that in the early 20th century students from Tara visited Halil Ishan suggests that his school in the village of Turby (Turbin) was an important Su center in Western Siberia.
The publisher of the genealogical treatise, Muhammad Mansur Shikhov, reports of himself: "I was born in 1881 in the mentioned village of Aubatkan. When I was seventeen, I went to Semipalatinsk to Sayyid Battal Shikhov and studied with him for ve years, then studied for two years with 'Abd al-Aziz Hazrat in Petropavlovsk. Now, it is already the fourth year that I am engaged in gaining knowledge in madrasa of Hazrat Hayrullah 'Usmanov in the city of Kargaly"* (Ibid.: 28).
Another important source that has been preserved in the archive of Rida al-Din b. Fakhr al-Din is the Shikhovs genealogy dated from the late 19th-early 20th centuries. This document previously belonged to Mullah Fakhr al-Din b. 'Abd Allah from the village of Kozatovo presently located in the Bolsherechye District of Omsk Region (AV IVR RAN. F. 131, Inv. 1, D. 5, fol. 70a). Linguistically, the text of the genealogical treatise consists of three parts: an introduction written in Arabic, the main part in the Persian language, and a postscript inscribed in the Tatar. The document appears to be a torn, yellowed sheet of paper with a size of 22.5 × 35.0 cm, triple-folded (apparently for mailing). The paper refers to the late 19th century, revealing no signs of ligrees and postmarks. At the bottom right corner, there is a blue-colored seal af xed by the Archive of Orientalists of the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, AS USSR. The text, containing 18 lines, is written only on one side. It is stamped with the eight imitations of seal (muhr) specifying the names of their owners. Just below comes the postscript written in pencil by the hand of Rida al-Din b. Fakhr al-Din in Tatar: "This genealogy list was taken from the Mullah of the Kozatovo village, Fakhr al-Din, the son of 'Abd Allah" (Fig. 3).
The translated document looks as follows:   This family tree reaches the descendants of 'Awwas Baqi Shaykh by the lineage of his son, Baba Shaykh. Despite the low level of "authenticity" revealed by the source, conditioned by the imitation of seals and the postscript written in the Tatar language at a later time (lines 15-18), its data generally correspond both to the names cited in "A Husayni Genealogy" and to genealogy written by Manviia Kh. Shikhova based on information obtained from the descendants of 'Awwas-Baqi in Turkey. The point is that the available archive data show that the majority of people related to this family lived in the village of Aubatkan, and in 1908 immigrated with the others to the Konya region in the Ottoman Empire, having practically established there the monoethnic settlement of Rishadiyya (subsequently renamed to Bogrudelik). In spite of the harsh conditions associated with the movement, they brought along the genealogical records and even some works on the local history (some of them were likely recovered from memory*. Not only did the text of the genealogical treatise serve as the support for a group identity of immigrants from Central Asia, but also as evidence for their rights and privileges.

Murtada and Haydar, and his kunya-Abu-l-Hasan
The former chief of the Bogrudelik village near Konya (Turkey), Adnan Cengiz (born in 1950), preserved yet another version of the Shikhovs genealogy (Fig. 4). It is written in Arabic language and most likely reveals signs of a slightly changed translation from the Persian original. The genealogy begins with an autobiographical essay entitled "Shäkhsemä gayat kecherdegem häyättäge ezlärem" and dedicated to the history of migration of the Shikhovs to Turkey. The copyist of the manuscript *Next comes the text written in the Turkic language by another hand. *Obviously made before the Russian Revolution, the owner's notation inscribed on the book "Al-Ka ya" by 'Abd al-Rahman Jami, which was printed in St. Petersburg in 1890, suggests that the religious literature was transported from Siberia to Turkey: "This noble grammar-book has come into the possession of 'Abd al-Fakkar b. 'Ismat Allah b. Imam al-Din b. Nur Muhammad b. Ahmad Shikhov, may Allah make it useful". The book derives from the private collection owned by an inhabitant of the village of Bogrudelik. was the owner's grandfather, Muhammad Yuvanbash. The manuscript itself is a notebook containing 85 pages bound in a cardboard cover, with a size of 32 × 21 cm. Both end-leaves are stamped with a seal indicating in Turkish that the book was manufactured in Konya. The text (fol. 1a-10b) was compiled in Istanbul in 1949 (fol. 1a). Black inks were used; the style of handwriting is naskh. Qur'anic quotes are cited without diacritic marks, punctuation (periods between sentences) is irregular.
The translated genealogy (fol. 10b) looks as follows: 1 I appeal to Allah for help against the cursed Satan.
In Now, it is difficult to judge about the reasons for drawing up the genealogies and editing them, but it can be stated unequivocally that these manuscripts were important for the legitimization of the social status of their owners, and gaining privileges by them. For the authors of the genealogies, it was essential to provide associations both with the images of the saints protecting those cities from which their clan had originated and with the Islamic characters (the Prophet Muhammad, the righteous caliphate 'Ali, the imams). High ranks and references to the cult of the saints in Central Asia suggest that at the time of arrival in Siberia, Din 'Ali Khwaja and 'Awwas Baqi Shaykh had high social status based on the religious and economic resources.

Resettlement of the Shikhovs in Siberia
Data resulting from the expedition contain In our expeditions we have collected several stories that are still kept preserved in the collective memory of the Shikhovs descendants (now they have different family *Quran, 112: 3-4. *The last phrase is written in the Turki language. names, as before the 1920s only the father's name was indicated in the documents). The main story tells of narrates about the resettlement of 'Awwas Baqi with his sons 'Alim Shaykh, 'Ishki Shaykh, Baba Shaykh and Faizy Shaykh from Central Asia to Siberia. According to Manviia Kh. Shikhova, who has devoted considerable energy to gathering information related to the history and genealogy of Tatar villages, the resettlement of 'Awwas Baqi in Siberia was associated with establishing the village of Ulenkul, the present-day center of the village administration. Shikhova related us two versions regarding the time when this event occurred. According to the rst one, repeated by most interviewees, Ulenkul was established in 1651 (in 2001, the 350th anniversary of the village was celebrated); and, according to the second one, in the 1580s, during the reign of Kuchum Khan (Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of Omsk State University (MAE OmSU), F. 1, Fol. 144-6, K. 380). The family history recorded by Manviia Kh. Shikhova based on the stories told by her grandfather, begins with the arrival of 'Awwas Baqi in Siberia in 1572. This genealogical tree has been published in a series of research works (Korusenko, 2006: 50;Seleznev, Selezneva, Belich, 2009: 49). Manviia Kh. Shikhova has also reported different versions of the reasons for which the village was established: 1) 'Awwas-Baqi with his four sons was sent there to spread Islam; 2) 'Awwas Baqi and his family lived in Isker, the capital of Kuchum Khan, and "escaped from someone, apparently from Yermak". According to Manviia Shikhova, the fact that the settlement was established in the midst of thick forest and off the road supports the second version. Thus, it was the arrival of 'Awwas Baqi that entailed the establishment of Ulenkul (as well as the neighboring villages, such as Yalankul, Aubatkan, Chernaly and others, populated by the Bukharans). At the same time, data resulting from the 4th-10th revisions (1782-1858) do not provide any information regarding this locality; it is reported only by the 1897 census. In other sources, the earliest reference appears in the reports of the 1828 yasak commission (State Historical Archives of the Omsk Region (GIAOO). F. 3, Inv. 1, D. 620, fols. 288-293), where the Ulenkul yurts are speci ed among other localities. Various studies suggest another date for 'Awwas Baqi's arrival in Siberia (Bakhrushin, 1959: 208;Tomilov, 1992: 84): the late 17th-early 18th centuries. The authors base their conclusion on the work by G.N. Potanin, in which he wrote about the places where the Siberian Bukharans appeared and gave an example of the resettlement of 41 persons guided by Zhurbaev from Bukhara in 1709. "It is likely that at the same time as Zhurbaev, Avaz-Bachqi Shaykh, who founded the Tara family of the Shikhovs, left the city of Sayram" (Potanin, 1868: 71). In this case, it is more plausible that 'Awwas Baqi appeared in Siberia in the early 18th century. How can this be con rmed?
The Shikhovs are not mentioned in the Tara Inventory Book of 1701 (RGADA. F. 214, Bk. 1199), in which a census of all the Bukharans is taken. This source re ects a very important event, such as involving the Bukharan immigrants in the scal system of the Russian Empire. This book, like other sources of that kind, provides census data regarding the numbers of the male population inhabiting each settlement (and homesteads within it), and tillage, grassland and other lands possessed by males, location of the settlements and lands, forms of land ownership, and information about the presence or absence of documentary evidence for the ownership of land. Therefore, the government represented by the Moscow nobleman Ivan Rodionovich Kachanov sought to take a full census of all the Bukharans. Among 25 localities inhabited in the early 18th century by the Turkic-speaking population of the Tara region of the Irtysh River basin, which were reported in two inventory books of 1701, Tara Book and Inventory Book of the Tara district (RGADA. F. 214, Bk. 1199, 1182, only seven provide census data for the Bukharans: from one family living in the yurts of the Baituganovs (the present-day village of Sebelyakovo in the Tara district) and the Aitkulovs (the village has vanished in the early 21st century) up to 23 families living in the Shikov Yurts (also known as Rechapovo). These six settlements were inhabited by the serving and dependent Tatars, and only the Shikhov Yurts were occupied exclusively by the Bukharans (except for one family of the serving Tatars). Description of a common pasture given in the Tara Inventory Book provides another name of this locality, namely Rechapovo. It appears in subsequent documents dating to the late 18th-20th centuries. The village of Rechapovo is called by its inhabitants Shyklar ( ). According to the tradition of local Tatars, this settlement was founded by the descendants of Shaykhs who arrived from Central Asia to preach Islam in Siberia: "We are the Sart (Sartlar) who came from the [land of] Uzbeks in the south. The leader of this people was a Shaykh who had a lastname Rechapov. The village was previously named Shaklar-aul" (MAE OmSU. F. 1,K. 139). According to census data recorded in the inventory book of 1701, Bakhmurat Rechapov, whose father had settled down here in the mid-17th century (as provided by the land records mentioned above), was registered in this locality (RGADA, F. 214, Bk. 1199, fols. 48v-49v). It is quite unlikely that he was related to the Shikhovs who were not mentioned in this book. The name of the village recorded in the source as the Shikhov Yurts remains a mystery.
The genealogies recorded in these manuscripts reveal two lineages coming from two sons of 'Awwas Baqi: Baba Shaykh and Faizy Shaykh. According to revisions, the descendants of all the four sons have been recognized. Ethnogenealogical approach that enabled identi cation of the time when this family appeared in the Tara region of the Irtysh basin and when a cluster of settlements inhabited by the Bukharans was founded in the Bolsherechye District of the Omsk Region (Aubatkan, Karakul, Ulenkul, Yalankul and others); as well as to consider the resettlement pattern of the Shikhovs.
The fact that the founder of the Shikhov family, 'Awwas Baqi, appeared in Siberia can be considered a controversial issue. The Shikhov's descendants tell in their stories that he arrived with four sons in 1572. In reality, the fact that the Shikhovs appeared in Siberia in the early 18th century, which was hardly mentioned in the work by G.N. Potanin (1868: 71), is con rmed by archival sources, particularly by census records. As we know from our sources, 'Awwas Baqi arrived in Siberia with his sons: Baba Shaykh (1692-1782, as reported by census records, the village of Rechapovo); 'Alim Shaykh (born in 1699, reported in the records of the 4th revision made in 1782, date of death is unknown owing to the absence of the records of the 5th revision made in 1795 with regard to the village of Sebelyakovo, where he lived with his family; in the records of the 6th revision made in 1811, his ve grandsons reported as the heads of the families); Fayzi Shaykh (1700-1772, the village of Sebelyakovo); and 'Ishki Shaykh (1704-1791, the village of Rechapovo).
Data provided by the 5th revision (1795) Murzaliev Shikhov, born in 1775, and Murvaley Shikhov (1757-1802, as the heads of the families. Another three of his grandsons with their families were registered in 1811 in the village of Aubatkanskaya. Four of the rst twelve families that appeared in Aubatkanskaya were the Shikhovs, and another ve were related directly to this family, but were registered by the fathers' names (e.g., Mullah Feizulin, the son of Fayzi Shaykh, etc.). Thus, the village of Aubatkanskaya was founded by the Shikhovs from Rechapovo and Sebelyakovo. Consequently, the village appeared between 1782 and 1795, and in 1799 another Shikhovs resettled there as well (though, some descendants of 'Ishki Shaykh and 'Alim Shaykh remained to live in Rechapovo and Sebelyakovo).
The arrival of 'Awwas Baqi Shaykh with his sons in Siberia in the rst decades of the 18th century is con rmed by the data resulting from survey of the Bukharan lands in the Tara region of the Irtysh basin in the mid-19th century, providing information as to when, where and based on what documents the lands were purchased by the Shikhovs (GIAOO. F. 3, Inv. 1, D. 3, 562). Here it should also be taken into account that the Bukharans who arrived in Siberia, particularly the wealthy ones, acquired the agricultural lands without further ado. Thus, "a remote Ibeyskyi Island, the only property owned by the Bukharans of Aubatkanskaya", was allotted to them "according to the excerpt from the former Tara province chancery as of June 13, 1738, issued in the name of the present owners, the forebears Baba and Faizy Shikhovs, to own the estate referred to as the Ibey Island in the Tara district" (Ibid. D. 3, fols. 13v-14). From the same documents, it appears that the lands were purchased by the Shikhovs in 1745, 1766, 1776, and 1832. The land, where the Sebelyakovo yurts were located, and that surrounding the settlement, was owned by the Shikhovs, according to the excerpt from the former Tara province chancery as of December 9, 1745 that was given to "the forebear of the present Bukharan owners, Alim Avazbaqi Shikhov" (Ibid. Fols. 16-17).
Another record that appeared in 1854 describes the Shikhovs who lived in Sebelyakovo as follows: "The owners of the Sebelyakovo yurts, the Shikhovs, who belong to the Bukharans, reside in the city of Tara without being involved in agriculture and vegetable farming: they purchase the food for their needs in Tara, hire freelancers to work at hayfields, and provide for themselves by conducting a trade all year round in the Siberian and Great Russian Governorates; they are very prosperous, and as for the other Bukharans... these are very poor" (Ibid. D. 562, fols. 64v-65).
More facts yet that con rm the arrival of the Shikhovs in Siberia in the early 18th century. The members of this family represented trading, landowning and religious elite of the Siberian Tatar society, they ful lled governmental assignments and expressed the interests of the West Siberian Tatars and Bukharans. The original records of the 1897 census indicate that most of the Shikhovs were taught in various Islamic educational institutions.
Thus, in studying the appearance and resettlement of the Shikhovs in Siberia, in can be concluded that initially they settled down and began to acquire lands on the right *The names and family names taken from the archival sources are cited as recorded.
bank of the Irtysh River, upstream and downstream from the city of Tara, i.e. where the main agricultural areas and settlements of the local Tatars were situated. At the same time, agricultural activity has prompted people to develop lands on the left bank of the Irtysh River as well, resulting in the foundation of the cluster consisting of the Bukharan settlements. Reconstruction of the genealogical charts based on data provided by revisions has allowed identification of the descendants of all the four sons of 'Awwas Baqi Shaykh. However, only some of the descendants related to 'Alim Shaykh and Fayzi Shaykh had an already well-established surname of Shikhov and a three-part name basis. The other members of this family clan had surnames in each generation derived from the father's name, therefore they had different family names, which were established only in the 20th century. Further studies are expected to focus on other stories associated with the Shikhov family that had a signi cant in uence on the ethnic development of the indigenous Turkic-speaking population in the middle part of the Irtysh basin (including the northern areas of the present-day Kazakhstan).