Middle Horde

A zhuz (Kazakh: жүз, translit. ju’z, ٴجۇز IPA: [ʒʉz], also translated as "horde" or "hundred") is one of the three main territorial and tribal divisions in the Kypchak Plain area that covers much of the contemporary Kazakhstan, and represents the main tribal division within the ethnic group of the Kazakhs.

The earliest mention of the Kazakh ju’z or hordes dates to the 17th century. Velyaminov-Zernov (1919) believed that the division arose as a result of the capture of the important cities of Tashkent, Yasi, and Sayram in 1598.

Some researchers argued that the ju’z in origin corresponded to tribal, military alliances of steppe nomads that emerged around mid-16th century after the disintegration of the Kazakh Khanate. Yuri Zuev argued their territorial division comprises three ecological or topographic zones, the Senior zhuz of the southern and southeastern steppe being set apart from the two other zones by Lake Balkhash.

According some researchers, Kazakhs was separated in the first civil war in the Kazakh Khanate. Tribes that recognized Buidash Khan formed Senior juz. Tribes that recognized Togim Khan formed Middle juz. Tribes that recognized Akhmed Khan formed Junior juz.

According to Kazakh legends, the three ju’z were the territorial inheritances of the three sons of the mythical founder father of the Kazakhs. In Kazakh language, ju’z means either "union" or "hundred".

Historically, the Senior zhuz (Kazakh: Ұлы жүз, translit. Uly ju’z, ۇلى ٴجۇز; Russian: Старший жуз, translit. Staršij žuz) inhabited the northern lands of the former Chagatai Ulus of the Mongol Empire, in the Ili River and Chu River basins, in today's South-Eastern Kazakhstan and China's Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture (northern Xinjiang). It was also called Üysin jüz.

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Wikipedia