Abay Kunanbayuly was born in the Chingiz meadows of the Semipalatinsk district of the West Siberian governor general (since 1845, the Semipalatinsk region) (in the current administrative division in the Abay district of the East Kazakhstan region) in the family of a large bai Kunanbay Oskenbaev (Uskenbaeva) of the Tobykta clan from the Kazakh Argyn tribe. The Abai family belonged to the local nobility; grandfather (Oskenbai) and great-grandfather (Irgizbai) dominated in their kind as rulers and biys.

Begun in childhood, home schooling at the mullah was continued in the madrasah at Mullah Ahmet-Riza in Semipalatinsk, where they taught Arabic, Persian and other Oriental languages. At the same time he attended the Russian school. By the end of the five-year study, he began to write poetry, first attributing their authorship to his friend Kokpay Dzhantasov. From the age of 13, Father Kunanbai begins to accustom Abai to the activities of the head of the clan. At the age of 28, Abai departs from it, taking up self-education entirely, but only by the age of 40 creates his first adult poems. A significant event for Abai was his communication with political exiles EP Michaelis, N. Dolgopolov, S. Gross.

The formation of the worldview of Abai was influenced by poets and scholars of the East, who adhered to humanistic ideas (Firdousi, Alisher Navoi, Nizami, Fizuli, Ibn Sina and others) , as well as works by Russian classics, and through them European literature in general. He translated Krylov, Lermontov, Pushkin, Goethe and Byron.

The story of the poem "Karaңғy tдеnde tau қalғıp" ("The mountains are asleep in the dark night") , which became a folk song, is characteristic. Goethe wrote "Wanderers Nachtlied", Lermontov translated it into Russian ("Mountain peaks sleep in the dark at night ... ") , and after another half a century Abai Kunanbayev conveyed its content in the Kazakh language.

Abai Kunanbayev promoted the spread of Russian and European culture among the Kazakhs.

For some time, Abai worked as a parish governor.