Abstract
This article examines how intra-clan rivalry among Kazakh elites shaped cross-border movement and political alignment on the Ili frontier between 1862 and 1871. Focusing on the Atban clan, it analyses elections, petitions, taxation, administrative service and disputes over office during the Muslim uprising in the Qing northwest. It argues that the Chuguchak Protocol of 1864 formally delimited the frontier but did not stabilise everyday practices of mobility, allegiance and subjecthood. Kazakh elites were not passive objects of Russian or Qing policy: they used competing jurisdictions and imperial institutions to pursue authority, protection and advantage within intra-clan political struggles.