Mahmoud al-Kashgari

Origin

Mahmoud al-Kashgari was born in the city of Barskhan ^{[1] [Comm 1] [Comm 2]} , the capital of a large Turkic Muslim state, now called Karakhanid, in a local noble family. According to the assumption of the Ukrainian-American orientalist Omelyan Pritsak ^[2] , Mahmud Kashgari came from the Bograkhans clan of the ruling dynasty of the Karakhanids and was the son of Hussein ibn Muhammad, the emir of the city of Barskhan, the grandson of the ruler Kashgar Muhammad Bograhan and the great-grandson Harunan ( ¹ ) Khasun Alun ^{(1) ] [3]} .

Life

Mahmoud al-Kashgari received a good education at that time. He studied at the Kashgar madrassah of Sajia , where famous teachers in the region taught, such as Imam Zahid Hussein.

In 1056, the grandfather of Mahmud, Muhammad Bograhan, came to power in Kashgar, and after 15 months he decided to transfer power to his son Hussein, the emir of the city of Barskhan, the father of Mahmud Kashgar. The opinion that Mahmoud Kashgari was the son of Hussein ibn Muhammad, the emir of the city of Barskhan, was supported by the Ukrainian-American orientalist Omelyan Pritsak ^[2] .

But soon, as a result of a palace plot, Hussein and Muhammad Bograhan were poisoned. By virtue of this, in 1057 Mahmud was forced to flee Kashgar. He goes west to Maverannahr , and from there goes to Baghdad , where the Seljuk Turks rule.

Moreover, Mahmud travels for a long time through the lands inhabited by Turkic peoples and tribes.

Some researchers believe (without factual reinforcement) that around 1080, Mahmud returned to Kashgar, where until October 1083 he continued work on the Dictionary of Turkic dialects. The year and place of his death is unknown. But some Uighur scholars believe that he allegedly died, according to one version, in 1101, and according to another - in 1126. They also claim that Mahmud Kashgari was buried in the Kyrgyz village of Opole (Opal), near Kashgar.

The Mazar of Mahmud Kashgari in Opal, later called the “Tomb of the Holy Teacher,” was restored in 1984. But local people say that this mazar belonged to another Sufi sheikh who lived in the 18th century.

The famous book of Mahmoud al-Kashgari “Divani Lugat at-Turk” is an encyclopedia in which an extensive historical, cultural, ethnographic and linguistic material is collected and summarized. “Divani” al-Kashgari is a monument of Turkic culture, perpetuating ethical values ​​and norms of behavior, a specific worldview of Turkic peoples in the XI century. The book, along with the ancient Zoroastrian - shamanistic worldview, captures the basic elements of Islam and its branch like Sufism .

As a junior contemporary of Yusuf Hass-Hadjib Balasaguni , who experienced his influence - especially in his views on the role and essence of language - Kashgari introduced a comparative method and historical approach into the study of languages, laying the foundations of what we now call Turkology . Kashgari’s predecessor was Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn-Muhammad ibn-Tarkhan ibn-Uzlag al-Rex (Al-Farabi) , on whose work “Divan al-adab fi bayan lugat al-arab” (“Collection of literary works in the Arabic language ") Relied al-Biruni . The Türkic names of medicines in Biruni and Kashgari are the same. In Mahmud, along with an excellent Arabic-philological education, a thorough knowledge of all areas of medieval Muslim science is also visible.

It is impossible to give a better description of the book of Mahmoud Kashgari, which embodied all his life experience and research than in his own words:

.

"Dictionary of Turkic dialects", dedicated to the Caliph al-Muqtadi, was compiled by Mahmoud Kashgari in 1072-1074. Here he presented the main genres of Turkic-speaking folklore - ritual and lyric songs, fragments of a heroic epic, historical traditions and legends (about the campaign of Alexander the Great in the region of Chigil Turks), more than 400 proverbs, sayings and oral sayings. One of the rajazi describes the defeat by the Muslim Turks of the Buddhist kingdom in Khotan :

We threw a flurry of water at them,
Breaking through the jets between their cities,
Temples of the Gentiles overwhelming
And Buddha's head splits! ^{[4] [5] [6]}

The “Divan” (“Dictionary”) of Mahmud Kashgari is the only monument of Turkic dialectology of the early period, giving an idea of ​​the phonetic and morphological phenomena and the specificity of dialectal forms. The “Dictionary” also contains texts of the oral and poetic works of Turkic tribes and peoples of Central Asia, East Turkestan, the Volga Region, and the Urals. The work of Mahmoud Kashgari, written using the scientific methods of Arabic philology, is of exceptional value today for linguists, folklorists and literary scholars.

Quotes

Some of the philosophical views of Kashgari are given in the following passages from his book.

Reprints

Translations into Russian

• Mahmoud al-Kashgari. Sofa Lugat at-Turk / Translation, foreword and comments by Z.-A. M. Auezova; indexes compiled by R. Ermers. - Almaty : Dyke-Press, 2005 .-- 1288 p. - ISBN 9965-699-74-7 .
• Mahmoud al-Kashgari. Sofa Meadow at-Turk (Code of Turkic words): In 3 volumes / Transl. with arab. A.R. Rustamova, ed. I.V. Kormushina ; foreword and enter. I.V. Kormushina; note I.V. Kormushin, E.A. Potseluevsky, A.R. Rustamov; Institute of Oriental Studies RAS : Institute of Linguistics RAS . - M .: " Oriental literature ", 2010. - T. 1. - 464 p. - ( Monuments of the written language of the East . CXXVIII, 1 / editorial: G.M. Bongard-Levin and others). - 800 copies. - ISBN 5-02-018202-8 , ISBN 978-5-02-036424-0 . (in per.)

• Yusuf Hass Hajib Balasaguni
• Kashgars

General information

• Mahmoud Kashgari // Brief Literary Encyclopedia . T. 4. - 1967.

Research and publications

• Borovkova T. A. About labial consonants in the “Meadow-it-Turk sofa” by Mahmud Kashgari: bibliography / T. A. Borovkova // Turkic collection. - Moscow, 1966. - S. 24−28.
• Borovkova T. A. On the question of the longitude of vowels in the language “Divanu Meadow it-Turk” by Mahmud Kashgari // Turkic Conference in Leningrad, June 7–10, 1976. Abstracts. - L., 1967. - S. 12−13.
• Korogly Kh. Alp Er Tonga and Afrasiyab according to Yusuf Balasaguni, Mahmud Kashgari and other authors: On the relationship between Iranian and Turkic folklore / H. Korogly // " Soviet Turkology ". - 1970. - No. 4. - S. 108−115.
• Kuliev G. K. On the form of the accusative case of the type sozin, tewesin in the text “Divanu lugat-at-turk” by Mahmud Kashgari: catalog / G. K. Kuliev // “Soviet Turkology”. - 1970. - No. 4. - S. 67−70.
• Kuchkartaev I. Vocabulary “Sofa Meadow-it-Turk” by Mahmud Kashgari and the modern Uzbek literary language / I. Kuchkartaev // “Soviet Turkology”. - 1972. - No. 1. - S. 83−90. (The materials in this issue are dedicated to the 900th anniversary of the “Lugat-it-Turk sofa”)
• Iskakova N. The accusative case in the phrase “Divan” by Mahmud Kashgari / N. Iskakova // “Soviet Turkology”. - 1977. - No. 1. - S. 94−97.
• Baskakov N.A. On the ancient predicate type in the Uyghur language of the Karakhanid era (based on the material of the Dictionary of Mahmud of Kashgar) // Medieval East. History, Culture, Source Studies. - M., 1980.
• Najip E.N. Mahmud Kashgari and his dictionary “Sofa-u Meadow It-Turk” // Studies on the history of Turkic languages ​​of the XI-XIV centuries. / E.N. Najip; USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of Oriental Studies; Repl. ed. A.N. Kononov, G.F. Blagova. - M.: “Science”, 1989. - 283 p. - Bibliography: S. 280−282. - S. 32−45. - ISBN 5-02-016993-5 .
• From “Sofa Meadow at-Turk” by Mahmoud Al-Kashgari: [Fragments] // Poetry of the ancient Türks of the VI – XII centuries / Comp. I.V. Stebleva ; Poetic translation of Anatoly Prelovsky. - M .: "Rarity", 1993. - S. 111−147.

• Ravshanov M. R. Comparative historical lexicography and methods for its description in “Sofa Meadow at-Turk” by Mahmoud al-Kashgari // Website “Khurshid Davron Kutobhonashi” = “Xurshid Davron kutubxonasi” = (kh-davron.uz) (25.01. 2013)
• Content and historical value of the dictionary “Sofa Meadow at-Turk”
• Borodinov K., Sitko N. Makhmud of Kashgar after a thousand years spoke in Russian , // IA Kazinform , March 24 , 2004 , - cit. on the site "International Kazakh server" KAZAKH.RU "" (www.kazakh.ru). Date of appeal September 24, 2012.
• Isakova M. Mahmoud Kashgari after 1000 years , // The newspaper “Let's start from Monday”, 07.28.2006 , - cit. on the site “Internet newspaper“ ZONAkz ”” (www.zonakz.net) - Kazakhstan, Almaty. Date of appeal September 24, 2012.
• Shashkova L. Zifa-Alua Auezova: “I'm flying home!” , // “Megapolis” (www.megapolis.kz) (10.23.2006). Date of appeal September 24, 2012.