Monuments of the town of Kokshetau.

“My gracious Creator, put on the right track,
By your mercy and love illuminate.
Set your erring slaves on the right track
This path is impossible without you.”

Hikmet Khoja Ahmed Yassavi.

Sights of Kokshetau.

The name of Nauryzbay Talasov, known in the people and literature as Nauan Khazret, was hushed up in Soviet times, and if mentioned, only in a negative way as a reactionary mullah professing obscurantism. Meanwhile, this historical figure, known throughout the Kazakh steppe as a theologian who preached Muslim morality, as an unyielding fighter for the rights of Kazakhs selected by tsarism.
Nauryzbay Talasov was born in 1843 in the village of Zhilkeldy of the Mezgil volost of the Kokshetau district. His father is from the Karaul clan of the Shungyrsh generation. Further, his pedigree goes in this sequence - Shugul-Akan-Kutbolat-Talas-Nauryzbay.
Nauan Hazret died in Kokshetau in 1916 at the age of 73 and was buried in a Muslim cemetery on the shore of Lake Kopa. But until recently, neither the exact date of death, nor the place of his burial was known, therefore in 2001 an obelisk with the inscription:
“Nauan Khazret” was installed at the entrance to the cemetery at the expense of Tolegen Khamzin, the grandson of one of the students of N. Talasov. After some time, a tombstone was accidentally discovered, which was split into two parts and buried in the ground.
The inscription in Arabic script was well read on the stone: "Bұl Kөkshetau shaһaranyң bass of imam Nauan-Mмhammed Talasұlyn Koyyldy, 73 jasynda faniden bakhiғa kөshti, 1916 zhil." ("The imam of the city of Kokshetau rests here, passed away in 73 years, 1916."
The stone was restored in its original form by the cares of Karatai-kazhi Raev, a former party-Soviet and business worker, now retired and thanks to the sponsorship of Alibi Galym, director of the Burabay national park, which is Nauan Khazret, a distant relative.
He studied at Nauryzbay aul school, and then in a madrasah in Petropavlovsk, after which he, as a gifted student, was recommended to the Kokaltash Higher Theological Seminary in Bukhara. For some time, having worked in his native village, having accumulated funds, he entered the theological seminary in the early 1870s.
And in the new educational institution, Nauryzbay was noticed not only by his diligence, but also by his deep knowledge in all subjects studied. At the end of the courses, N. Talasov, as the most capable seminarist, was sent for an internship in the center of the entire Muslim world, in the city of Baghdad.
Upon returning from an internship, he was left as a teacher in the same seminary where he had studied before. In 1886, the Kazakh community of Kokshetau County sent a delegation of three to Bukhara with the aim of returning Nauryzbay Talasov to their homeland. At the request of the Kokshetau emissaries, the Bukhara responded with understanding and allowed Talasov to return to Kokshetau.
Nauryzbay returned as a diversified person. He, along with the ancient Turkic, Uzbek languages, was fluent in Farsi and Arabic, he studied the literature of the East well, spoke fluent Tatar and Russian. The outstanding scientist and theologian Nauryzbay Talasov was awarded the academic title and became known among the people as Nauan Hazret.
In the fall of 1886, at the choice of the public, Nauan Khazret was elected and approved by the regional ruler as the imam of the Kokshetau Cathedral Mosque. Nauan Hazret did a lot in the spiritual education of the population, streamlined and simplified religious rites, and established close ties with the leadership of mosques in neighboring counties.
The fact that, on his initiative and at the donation of Muslims, a new mosque was built in the center of Kokshetau also speaks of his increased authority. The marriage was registered in the mosque, and since 1886 the metric registration book for newborns was transferred to its jurisdiction.
The document states that "this was done under the district chief Kostyrko, and this order was preserved under the heads of Tupolev, Konovalov, Selitsky and Keltsev" First of all, Nauan Hazret organized retraining courses for rural mullahs at the mosque.
Being highly educated, he advocated the wide enlightenment of his people, especially cared for the school education of children. At the cathedral mosque on the donation of Muslims Nauan Hazret opened a madrasah with a boarding school. As a school assistant, he took his former student Shaimerden Koschegulov, a native of Kotyrkol volost.
At that time in Kazakhstan there were two types of meteba schools and madrassas. In schools, students received primary education, which mainly came down to the study of theological books, arithmetic, reading, Arabic spelling and calligraphy - the correct spelling of Arabic letters.
Usually, madrasah schools were opened in the cities at the mosque, and children who graduated from aul schools were accepted there. In the madrasa school, Nauana Khazret, along with a Muslim, secular education was also given, schoolchildren learned to read and write, studied oriental literature, Arabic and Russian graphics.
Interestingly, the children recited verses of Abai, songs of Birzhan sal, Akan sere by heart. In the madrasah, great attention was paid to the study of Arabic and Persian languages ​​and classics of Oriental literature.
During searches carried out by the district governor at the boarding school, the books of Firdousi, Navoi, Saadi, Nizami and other authors were seized from students. Parents did not pay for the training, since the madrasah had a subsidiary farm, the students themselves looked after the cattle, bought on donations from believers, and in the summer they harvested hay for the winter.
Thus, more than a hundred years ago, Nauan Hazret’s madrasah worked on the principles of self-sufficiency and in fact and in reality carried out the combination of schoolchildren’s education with productive labor.
Teachers in the madrassah, along with Nauan Khazret and Shaimerden Koschegulov himself, worked as Uzbek native Ingam Kari, as well as political exile Pyotr Garlishev, both spoke the Kazakh language. At classes in madrassas and sermons, Nauan Hazret spoke about the need to acquire modern knowledge, spoke out and actually carried out modernization of traditional education, preached Islam to the intelligible masses of his native language.

Authority:
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Abuev K.K. http://srh.kz/content/mesto-zahoroneniya-nauana-hazreta-g-kokshetau/