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A valuable exhibit of the extensive collection of the Elbasy Library is a fragment of the saber of the Kazakh statesman and politician, Khan of the Kazakh Khanate Abylai.
This relic was handed over to the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan - Elbasy N.A. Nazarbayev on behalf of the descendants of Abylai Khan on December 30, 2003 by Nailya Bekmakhanova, daughter of the famous Kazakhstan historian Ermukhan Bekmakhanov, author of the monographs “Kazakhstan in the 20-40s of the XIX century”, “Accession of Kazakhstan to Russia”.
According to researchers, in 1758 the All-Russian Empress Elizabeth I sent gifts and signs of khan's dignity to the Khan of the Middle Zhuz Abylai, including a decorated saber.
Subsequently, Sultan Chingiz, the grandson of Abylai Khan, donated ethnographic products of Kazakh craft to the exhibition of the III International Congress of Orientalists in St. Petersburg. Among them were personal belongings of the khans of Abylai and his father Uali, including the saber donated by Elizabeth.
The further fate of this item is unknown: how the saber ended up in Central Asia again, and why it was broken is unknown.
Nailya Bekmakhanova in her book “Myths. Magic. Science” writes that she received this fragment of a saber in the city of Turkestan during a visit to the grave of Abylai Khan in the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yassavi.
The upper part of the saber has been preserved with a handle and a remnant of a blade, at the end of which traces of cutting are visible. On one side of the blade there is an inscription engraved with a notch made of gold: "By God's mercy Elizabeth, the First Empress and Autocrat of the All-Russia granted this saber to her subject Kirgis Kasatsky, Ablai Soltan, for his military service in St. Petersburg in 1758".
On the second side there is an inscription of similar content in the "Jagataid language" in Arabic script. The inscriptions are read from top to bottom towards the blade shaft. The metal under the inscription was selected with a chisel, and a thin gold wire was hammered into the grooves. However, the gold padding has hardly survived.
At present, a fragment of Ablai Khan's saber is one of the most valuable exhibits of the Elbasy Library, arousing great interest among all visitors.