Awliya Ata (Djambul)

Awliya Ata, "holy father", was the old name of the city called since 1938 Djambul, after the Kazakh poet Dzhambul Dzhabaev (1846-1945). It lies on the left bank of the Talas in the Kazakh SSR. The name comes from the grave of the holy man Kara Khan, which is mentioned as early as the seventeenth century; his mausoleum dates from the nineteenth century and bears no inscription. The grave of the "little holy one" (Kilik Awliya) has an inscription of 660 AH (1262), for the prince Ulugh Bilge Ikbal Khan Daud Beg, son of Ilyas. The city itself came into being only in the nineteenth century. ¹

Until 1917 Awliya Ata was the capital of the district of the Sir Darya in Russian Turkistan. It was conquered by the Russians in 1864, became a fortress, and in 1897 had 12,006 inhabitants; it was famous for fruit growing and for its cattle and wool trade. The surrounding district, of 71,097 square kilometres, had 297,004 inhabitants, and ancient Turkish inscriptions were found there in 1896. The present city of Djambul lies on the Turksib line, close to the Kirghiz frontier; it had 19,000 inhabitants in 1926 and 62,700 in 1930, with sugar and meat factories and trade. Close by lay evidently the city of Taraz. ¹