"Qazaqliq," or "Ambitious Brigandage," and the Formation of the Qazaqs

In Qazaqliq, or Ambitious Brigandage, and the Formation of the Qazaqs Joo-Yup Lee examines the formation of new group identities, with a focus on the Qazaqs, in post-Mongol Central Eurasia within the context of qazaqliq, or the qazaq way of life, a custom of political vagabondage widespread among the Turko-Mongolian peoples of Central Asia and the Qipchaq Steppe during the post-Mongol period. Utilizing a broad range of original sources, the book suggests that the Qazaqs, as well as the Shibanid Uzbeks and Ukrainian Cossacks, came into existence as a result of the qazaq, or ambitious brigand, activities of their founders, providing a new paradigm for understanding state formation and identity in post-Mongol Central Eurasia."

Joo-Yup Lee, Ph.D. (2012) in Turko-Persian Studies, University of Toronto, is an independent scholar publishing and working on state formation and identity in post-Mongol Central Eurasia. He has lectured on the steppe frontier in Perso-Islamic and Eurasian history at the University of Toronto.