SUMMARY:

The authors reconstruct the performance of one institutional “element” of the “Islamic juridical field”– the Kazakh aqsaqal (elders) courts. The article uses the complex system of Islamic law in the Kazakh steppe during the late imperial period to highlight one of its institutions that has remained most neglected by historians – the aqsaqal courts. Unlike the imperial courts, the biys’ courts, or religious qadi’s courts, procedures of aqsaqal courts and their decisions were very rarely documented, which marginalized them retrospectively in historians’ accounts. Yet, due to their high mobility and accessibility, the aqsaqal courts were very popular and broadly used back in the day. The authors attempt to fill this lacuna, demonstrating how aqsaqal courts depended on the social cohesion of the Kazakh society and reinforced it. They suggest that further studies of these popular courts will need to rely on unconventional historical sources such as folklore.