Great jüz is one of three traditional unions of the pastoral tribes of the Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

n steppe

Steppe

In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...

 area (called Desht-i Kypchak, "Kipchak Steppe" by some) within the territories of modern Southeastern and southern Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

, parts of Northwestern China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 and parts of Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

. In contemporary Kazakhstan, the Great jüz is regarded as one of the oldest unions of the Kazakh

Kazakhs

The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....

 nation. According to some sources, the origins of the three jüzes go back to the Genghisid military/state traditions. Following Genghisid military tradition, the Great jüz designated the left flank of the steppe armies. According to others, the Great jüz was the inheritance of the eldest son of the legendary forefather of Kazakhs

Kazakhs

The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....

. Jüzes are also regarded as nomadic military confederations. Still, researchers, such as Yuri Zuev, argued that Desht-i Kypchak comprised three ecological, topographic zones that divided nomadic clans from each other. The Great jüz, south, southeastern steppe, was set apart from the two other zones by Lake Balkhash

Lake Balkhash

Lake Balkhash is one of the largest lakes in Asia and 12th largest continental lake in the world. It is located in southeastern Kazakhstan, in Central Asia, and belongs to an endorheic basin shared by Kazakhstan and China, with a small part in Kyrgyzstan. The basin drains into the lake via seven...

, constituting a distinctive ecological zone for nomadic habitation. The Great jüz is located in the Zhetysu area and is also known as the Uysun (or Uysyn

Uysyn

Uysyn is the name of one of the largest tribes of the Senior Juz in Kazakhstan. Uysyn history can be traced from the 3rd century BC...

) Orda.

The Great jüz was formed sometime between 16th-17th centuries. The first time the name Great jüz was recorded by a western researcher was in 1748, by a Tatar servant of the Tsar

Tsar

Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...

 who had been sent to the steppe to negotiate the submission of Abul Khair Khan

Abul Khair Khan

Abul Khair Khan was leader of the Kazakh Little jüz in present-day western Kazakhstan. During this period, the Little jüz participated in the 1723-1730 war against the Dzungars, following their "Great Disaster" invasion of Kazakh territories...

 in 1732. According to Nikolai Aristov

Nikolai Aristov

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Aristov was a Türkologist by calling, who utilized his experience, education, and access to official information he had as a fairly high-level official in the Turkestan czarist administration, to accumulate and analyze the ethnographic and ethnic history of the Central...

, the estimated population of the Great jüz was about 550 thousand people in the second half of the 19th century.

First-order clans

• Dulat
• Jalayir
  Jalayir
  Jalayir is one of the Darliqin Mongol tribes according to Rashid-al-Din Hamadani's Jami' al-tawarikh. After the Mongol conquest in the 13th century many Jalayirs spread over Central Asia and the Middle East. Jalayirs are one of the founding tribes of Mongolia's largest ethnic group Khalkha....
  
  
• Qangly
• Alban
• Suwan
• Sary-Uysin
• Shapyrashty
• Sirgeli
• Oshaqty
• Ysty
• Shanyshqyly
• Janys
• Siyqym
• Botbay
• Shymyr