Nowadays, sovereign Kazakhstan, being one of the largest countries in Central Asia, reconstructs its real history and maintains relations with many countries of the worlds, and is unquestionable the leader in its region. The demand for orientalists today is higher than ever due to necessity for studying relations between Kazakhstan and eastern countries, exploring history, economics and culture of the East, even for studying own history of Kazakh people.

The Oriental Studies Department in Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU) has become the largest centre in the Republic training highly qualified specialists of eastern languages. Study of eastern languages (in particular, Arab) in the University dates back to the 70-s of XX century. Hence, the Oriental Studies Department founded in 1989 on the basis of the Department of Asian and African Countries History and Arab Language Department is based on almost 40 years of oriental languages and history study practice.

Oriental studies in Kazakhstan constitute both ancient and young science. Such great minds of the East as Al-Farabi, Muhammed Haidar Dulati, Mahmud Kashgari lived and created their masterpieces in the ancient land of Kazakhstan. Chokan Valikhanov carried on the tradition of the foregoers.