Cultural and spiritual life of the Karakalpaks

For a long time the Karakalpaks moved from nomadic life to settled life: they lived in auls in yurts and mud-brick houses, and later fortresses and towns appeared. Kungrad and Chimbay were administrative centres founded in the late 17th – early 18th century, and Khojeyli was a trading centre between the Aral and Khiva. Oral literature is rich: the epics “Forty Girls”, “Alpamysh”, “Edige” and others; jiraus performed to the kobyz, bakhshis to the dutar and ghijjak, and qissakhans read from manuscripts; Omirbek Laqqi is the hero of folk anecdotes. In applied art wave-patterned carpets and embroidery and woodcarving stand out; women wore the saukele. In written literature Jiyen Jirau (1730–1784), Kunkhoja Ibrahim (1799–1880), Ajiniyaz (1824–1878) and Berdaq (1827–1900) are famous: they wrote about the people’s lot, injustice and the homeland, Berdaq is considered the founder of Karakalpak literature, Jiyen Jirau described the hardships of migration in “Darbadar el”, and Ajiniyaz is the author of “Bozatau”. In education, according to the textbook, there were 318 schools in the early 19th century, and young people studied in Khiva and Bukhara madrasas.