“Multi-ethnic tolerance in Kazakhstan was not formed in one day,” said Eraly L. Tugzhanov, vice chairman of the Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan, the national body charged with maintaining inter-ethnic and inter-faith concord. “There were decisive moments in history.” The Kazakh people were always nomads, traders and explorers across the green ocean of the endless Eurasian steppe. From China’s Tang Dynasty of the 7th century, the Kazakh people prospered from the trade from east to west. The traditions of cosmopolitan contact, widespread trade and tolerance that comes from having to deal with diversity were well established back then.
“The Kazakh tribes were a wandering nomadic people. And they therefore laid great emphasis on the values of hospitality, generosity and gratitude,” said Alina Khamatdinova, director of the Civic Alliance of Kazakhstan. “The harshness of the steppe environment made life difficult. No one could survive it on their own: They could only do so as part of a community. And the communities had to learn to cooperate with each other and to trust one another.”
The Islamic faith of the Kazakh people arrived at the same time as the age of trade and tolerance. It arrived in the eighth century, during the first, vast wave of expansion of the faith. It was the era of the great Caliphates of Damascus, Cordoba and Baghdad that were the brightest lights of culture, learning, tolerance and science throughout the world for half a millennium.
“The Kazakh tribes were a wandering nomadic people. And they therefore laid great emphasis on the values of hospitality, generosity and gratitude,” said Alina Khamatdinova, director of the Civic Alliance of Kazakhstan. “The harshness of the steppe environment made life difficult. No one could survive it on their own: They could only do so as part of a community. And the communities had to learn to cooperate with each other and to trust one another.”
The Islamic faith of the Kazakh people arrived at the same time as the age of trade and tolerance. It arrived in the eighth century, during the first, vast wave of expansion of the faith. It was the era of the great Caliphates of Damascus, Cordoba and Baghdad that were the brightest lights of culture, learning, tolerance and science throughout the world for half a millennium.
No comments:
Post a Comment