The book offered to the reader is devoted to revealing one of the important pages of the history and development of Central Asia and examines the difficult relationship between politics and Islam in this region for two and a half centuries. This edition is the first part of the book, which covers the period from the end of the XVIII to the beginning of the XX century. The main attention in the work is paid to considering the role of religion in the Central Asian khanates and among the Kazakhs, the history of the region's entry into the Russian Empire and the formation of the Islamic policy of the new government, as well as relations between the state and the local Muslim elite.