The opinion still prevails in the historiography of Kyrgyzstan that the overwhelming majority of the Kyrgyz population did not have a religious commitment to Islam and it was imposed solely in the interests of the ruling class. Of course, the Kyrgyz feudal lords used Islam, on the one hand, to strengthen their power over all the tribal associations of the Kyrgyz, and on the other, to consolidate their status among other Central Asian and East Turkestan states. But at the same time, it should be recognized that for self-preservation and further development as an independent ethnic group in the ethnopolitical structure of the Central Asian-East Turkestan region, the Kyrgyz people had to adapt to the cultural environment of the peoples of Central Asia, Kazakhstan and East Turkestan. And the basis of all aspects of the spiritual and material culture of the peoples of this region was the ideology of Islam. In addition, the local ancient Turkic and Mughal tribes of the Tien Shan also practiced Islam for a long time.
Therefore, the great changes that took place during this period caused significant shifts in the ideology of the newcomer Kyrgyz tribes. Ancient shamanism, which originated in the bowels of the tribal system, could no longer meet the needs of not only the feudal class, but also the entire Kyrgyz society in the new conditions. The completion of the Islamization of the Kyrgyz tribes in the XVI – early XVII century was of great importance at that time. The teachings of the Islamic religion, one of the main principles of which is faith in the one supreme God, Allah, contributed to overcoming polytheism and consolidating all Kyrgyz tribes, reviving writing based on Arabic graphics and spreading literacy among the population, bringing Kyrgyzstan closer to other Muslim countries, and enriching its culture. Consequently, the spread of the religion of Islam in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries was progressive. However, the ideology of Islam gradually, as in other Muslim countries, turned into the ideology of the feudal system, strengthened the power of the feudal lords, contributing to the strengthening of feudal exploitation.
It was with the active participation of Sufi sheikhs that Kyrgyz feudal lords compiled new editions of the Shejere genealogies of Kyrgyz tribes and common Kyrgyz genealogical traditions, which reflected the essence of the new ideology generated by the formation of the dual ethnopolitical organization of Kyrgyz society on the Tien Shan and the spread of the religion of Islam among the Kyrgyz. However, with all the variety of genealogical justifications for the alleged kinship of all tribes and tribal associations of the Tien Shan, included in the dual ethnopolitical structure of the Kyrgyz. In the absence of a strictly centralized state administration, as well as permanent cultural and religious centers, the epic «Manas» becomes the main consolidating factor for Kyrgyz in the field of ideology in the Tien Shan.
It is no coincidence that it was here, on the Tien Shan, in the XVI — first half of the XVII century, that the final composition of this outstanding work of the epic tradition of the Kyrgyz people took place in the supra–dialect common Kyrgyz language, which reflected both genealogy and customary law – «torah», and the history of the people, not so much real as imaginary, as they wanted. The Kyrgyz themselves would like to have. The epic «Manas» embodied the idea of uniting tribes in the face of external danger, which was progressive for its time, and in the image of Manas, Kyrgyz storytellers created the figure of that ideal leader who could stand at the head of all Kyrgyz, rally them into a force capable of resisting any enemy. This unique phenomenon, when, along with religion and other forms of ideology, epic legend becomes the main consolidating factor, represents the main feature of the development of Kyrgyz culture on the Tien Shan.
As the evidence of written sources shows, in the process of developing the territory of Prityanshan, the Kyrgyz developed a complex economy of a new type, in which, along with cattle breeding, irrigation agriculture played a significant role. A semi-settled economy with Alpine-type cattle breeding (vertical migrations in the mountainous regions of the Tien Shan) has been formed, which suggests the completion of the formation of the socio-economic structure of Kyrgyz society. As a result of the impact of all these factors in the political, socio-economic, religious, ideological and cultural fields, Kyrgyz society had already rallied so much by the end of the 16th century that subsequent tragic events in the life of the people caused by constant oppression by the Dzungarian Khanate could not stop the course of ethnic consolidation processes, and the Kyrgyz managed to defend their independence thanks to the viability of the ethnopolitical and social structure.
Later, in the 17th century, in the process of long-term contacts with the Kazakh Zhuzes, some Kazakh tribes (Katagan, Alakchin, etc.) also became part of the Kyrgyz. The last significant inclusions of non–ethnic elements in the Kyrgyz ethnos date back to the second half of the XVII — first half of the XVIII century, when a significant part of the Kyrgyz tribes temporarily migrated to the Fergana Valley, Karategin, Badakhshan, Pamir under the onslaught of the Dzungars. These events led to the incorporation of small groups of Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Kalmyks of Dzungaria into the Kyrgyz nation. In the middle of the XVIII century, after the defeat of the Dzungarian Khanate and the return of the North Kyrgyz tribal associations to their ancestral territory, large migrations of Kyrgyz tribes practically stopped. By this time, the ethnopolitical organization of the Kyrgyz people, its ethnic identity, was finally formed, a stable economic and cultural type was determined, a folklore expression of the historical and cultural unity of the Kyrgyz was formed, and a new religious ideology was established.
Thus, our knowledge of the origin of the Kyrgyz people at the current stage of scientific development is as follows:
- The origins of the formation of the Kyrgyz ethnic group go back more than two thousand years ago and are associated with the territory of Central Asia.
- In the first half of the 1st millennium AD, a new ethnic community, the Yenisei Kyrgyz, was formed on the Yenisei (Minusinsk basin) as a result of the mixing of local (Dinlins) and newcomer (Kyrgyz) tribes.
- During the era of the «great Power» (IX-X centuries), the Yenisei Kyrgyz settled in the territory stretching from Baikal to Irtysh from east to west, from Angara to East Turkestan from north to south. As a result of the mixing of the local population and the Kyrgyz, a number (according to archaeological data, six) new subethnoses were formed. The meaning of the term «Kyrgyz» has changed: it is becoming not only an ethnonym, but also an ethnopolitonym, i.e. non-Kyrgyz tribes that were politically dependent on the Yenisei Kyrgyz began to call themselves Kyrgyz.
- One of these Kyrgyz subethnoses was formed in Altai and Dzungaria in the 9th-10th centuries. Here, the Yenisei Kyrgyz, as a result of long-term relationships with the numerically predominant local peoples who were part of the Kimak-Kipchak association, acquired a new ethnic identity (including language), but retained the ethnonym «Kyrgyz».
- In the 15th century, the Altai Kyrgyz, who were part of the state of Mogolistan, occupied the lands of Tien Shan and Tianshan. They assimilated the local Turkic-Mughal tribes and became the main core of a new ethnic entity, the Kyrgyz people on the Tien Shan. The final stage in the formation of the Kyrgyz nationality was the formation at the beginning of the 16th century of a dual ethnopolitical organization of the right and left wings with the Ichkilik group that joined them.
This is the current scientific interpretation of the current problem, but it is, let’s say, still far from final. There are a lot of white spots in it. Therefore, the long-term program of historical research involves a complex of works to further develop the problem of the origin of the Kyrgyz people. It is planned to conduct expeditions not only in Kyrgyzstan, but also in Altai, Yenisei, as well as in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China in East Turkestan and Mongolia with the participation of archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnographers, folklorists and linguists. Work is underway to identify new written sources related to the ancient and medieval history of the Kyrgyz people. End of the study.