Abstract
This article presents a historiographical and archaeological synthesis of the cultic and memorial architecture of Saryarka during the Ulus of Jochi (Golden Horde) period. The study aims to evaluate the development of scholarly research from the eighteenth century to the present and to reassess the role of mausoleums in the Islamization of the Kazakh steppe and the formation of its sacred landscape. The research adopts an interdisciplinary approach combining historical sources, archival records, archaeological excavation data, architectural documentation, and published scholarship. Particular attention is devoted to recent investigations of the mausoleums at Bytygai, Bozok, Auliekol, Zhanibek-Shalkar, Kyzyl Oba, Uyaly, and Kon, which have significantly expanded the archaeological record of monumental funerary architecture in Central Kazakhstan dating to the thirteenth–fifteenth centuries. The results demonstrate that the memorial architecture of Saryarka reflects both the dissemination of Islamic funerary traditions across the steppe and their adaptation to local cultural and architectural practices, resulting in the emergence of a distinctive regional architectural tradition. The study contributes to current scholarship by integrating recent archaeological discoveries with historiographical evidence, introducing previously unpublished materials into academic discourse, and re-evaluating mausoleums as key indicators of cultural transformation, religious change, and sociopolitical processes in the Ulus of Jochi.