Abstract
The article discusses scientific works of Ablet K. Kamalov who is one of the leading historians of Kazakhstan, an outstanding expert in Oriental Studies. It dwells on his achievements and contribution to the study of important problems of history and culture of the ancient Turks, Turkic-Chinese relations, history of Uyghurs of Central Asia and China. Of great significant for social sciences are books written by A.K. Kamalov, including those devoted to the military and political history of the Uyghur Kaghanate (744-840 AD) and to the history of the Turks and Iranians of Tang China (618-907 AD). Based on the analysis of the Chinese sources and their comparison with the ancient Turkic runic inscriptions, A.K. Kamalov could reconstruct and characterize the main stages of the nomadic Uyghurs who dominated on the vast territory of Inner Asia in the VIII-IX cc. and highlight the role and place of the ancient Turkic and Iranian peoples (Sogdians etc.) in the history of the Tang Empire. The article also emphasizes the contribution of the scholar to the study of various aspects of the history and culture of contemporary Uyghurs and Dungans of Kazakhstan, as well as international relations in the Chinese province Xinjiang in the 1940s describing them as the last stage in ‘great game’, a competition between great powers for domination in Central Asia. The article also reveals pedagogical activity of A.K. Kamalov, who made a significant contribution to training young university teachers and scholars working in humanities across Kazakhstan and Central Asia.