Kazykurt mountain
It is located 40 km south of Shymkent. Externally, the Kazykurt mountain massif represents two hills, closed with a saddle.
Mount Kazykurt is of sacral importance in the worldview of Central Asian peoples. Described in pre-revolutionary time by V.I. Masalsky, the mountain was named Turkestan Ararat. Despite its insignificant height in comparison with other mountains, Kazykurt has a loud legend, recorded and published by A.A.Divaev at the end of XIX century. According to the legend, Kazykurt Mountain stood above all the mountains of the Universe by its status. During the Flood, when the whole world disappeared underwater and the top of the mountain remained unsinked, Noah's Ark docked there. At that time Kazykurt ata lived on the mountain. Since that time the mountain was called Kazykurt.
Undoubtedly, the folk etymology connects the origin of the toponym Kazykurt with the anthroponym Kazykurt ata. However, the origin of the word "Kazykurt" goes back to ancient times, to the pre-Islamic era. The first mention of the toponym is found in the work composed in the middle of the IX century by Ibn Hordadbeh, who used in his work earlier material relating to the VIII century. His work "Kitab al-Masalik va-l-Mamalik" - "The Book of Ways and Countries" tells about the caravan route between Shasha (Tashkent) and Ispidzhab (Sairam), where we read: "[From ash-Shash] to the iron gate of 2 miles; [from ash-Shash] to Kubala 2 farsah, then to Garkard 6 farsah, further along the desert to Isbijab 4 farsah. From ash-Shash to [Isbijab] there are only 13 farsah".
S. Volin, who translated this work, wrote: "In the manuscripts of the r.k.r.d., apparently, one should read Gazgerd; he is probably identical with the mentioned Abdulla-name' ... Kazgerd - the area near Sairam".
Obviously, the word consists of two parts: Gar and Gurd (Gird, Card, Gerd). The element Gar must be understood as a substratum that participates in various word-formation processes and has a large territory of distribution in Eurasia in the names that give the concept of mountain. Let's compare: other Iranian "gari" - mountain, Avestiysky "garay" - mountain, Indo-European parallels: Arab "mountain" - "insulated hill with hard slopes", "remnant": Georgian "gora" - "mountain", "hill"; Tibetan "garkhi" - "fortress".
The second part of the toponym "Kurt" is also widely used on the Eurasian continent. G.E. Kornilov, who studied Eurasian lexical parallels, noticed the presence of borrowings in Turkic, Slavic and Proto-Slavic languages. For example, in Turkic: 'Kurd' is literally 'the main stake', 'the wolf pack', 'the wolf'; 'the house' in the Komi, 'the tree', 'the settlement', 'the village' in the Udmurt; 'kort' (kurt) - 'the dwelling or settlement' in the Khantyi, as well as in the Slavic parallels, e.g. in the Ukrainian 'gurt' - a group, a company, a crowd, a ruck, a herd'. According to G.Ye. Kornilov, the proto-Slavic "gord" is reflected in the Lithuanian "gordos" - "fencing", the Gothic "house", the Albanian "gortkh" - "fence".
Interestingly, the topoformer "Gurt" (Gurd) is also found in Iranian (West Iranian) languages in the meanings "settlement" and "stan". A.L. Khromov, who studied the Iranian toponymy of Maverannahr in the IX-XIII centuries, explains the appearance of kird/gird topoformants in the territory of Sogd by the spread of Nestorian Christianity in the VI-VII centuries A.D. (the center of which was Merv), as all the names of this period are mentioned as the names of the village of Christians. He attributes this topoformer etymologically to the Middle Persian "kart" and Old Iranian "krta", pointing out that the names with the topoformer "gird" are widespread in Transcaucasia and Iran.
It is tempting to develop the Nestorian line of origin of the toponym Kazykurt, and it is appropriate to recall the biblical legend of the flood and Noah's Ark, published by A.A. Divayev. At the same time, we do not exclude the possibility that the legend could have arisen in an older time, in the pre-Christian era. Anyway James George Fraser has convincingly shown us in the work geography of distribution and time of this great accident of mankind.
Mount Kazykurt, associated with the legend of the Flood, all religious concessions always carried a global sacred meaning of existence of mankind from creation to the Apocalypse. And those sacral ceremonies (or ritual visits to holy places of the mountain), which probably already existed before the Nestorians, were immediately canonized by them, and later canonized by Muslims. This assumption is proved by the message of Zainuddin Wasifi, which says that in 1536, Hazrat Ubaidallah Khan, moving with his army, specifically stopped at the camp near Kazykurt and arranged a conversation with the Almighty with repentance and requests for help in his campaign.
Traditions, customs and rituals of worship to the sacral zones of Kazykurt, which arose in ancient times, are still observed today. Both at the foot and on the mountain itself, there are several sacred places: "Ak-Bura", "Tamshy Bastau", "Keme Kalgan", "Kazygurt-ata", "Shiltir-ata", "Angir-ata", "Ospan-ata" and others. All the listed objects of worship are highly revered, they are visited by various pilgrims and tourists.