Choʻqon Valixonov
Shoqan Shokan Shyngysuly Balikhanov (qozoqcha: Шоқан Шыңғысұлы Уәлихан, ruscha: Чокан Чингисович Валиханов), given name Mukhammed Kanafiya (qozoqcha: Мұхаммед Қанафия) (November 1835 – April 10, 1865) was a Kazakh scholar, ethnographer, historian and participant in the Great Game. His reputation "as the father of modern Kazakh history and ethnography" is recorded in the Historical Dictionary of Kazakhstan . The Kazakh Academy of Sciences became the Ch.Ch. Valikhanov Kazakh Academy of Sciences in 1960 . English-language texts sometimes give his name as "Chokan Valikhanov", based on a transliteration of the Russian spelling . that he used himself.