 Kutadgu Bilig written in theOld Uyghur script (15th century, on the 4th line, thebasmala is written in the Arabic script) | |
| Author | Yusuf Khass Hajib |
|---|---|
| Language | Khaqani Turkic |
| Genre | Poetry,Mirrors for princes |
Publication date | 11th century |
| Publication place | Kyrgyzstan |
TheKutadgu Bilig[a] orQutadğu Bilig (/kuːˈtɑːdɡuːˈbɪlɪk/;Khaqani Turkic:[qʊtɑðˈɢʊbɪˈlɪɡ]) is an 11th-century work written byYūsuf Balasaguni for the prince ofKashgar. The text reflects the author's and his society's beliefs, feelings and practices with regard to quite a few topics and depicts interesting facets of various aspects of life in theKara-Khanid Khanate.
At several points throughout theKutadgu Bilig, the author talks some about himself; from this we know a certain amount about him.
The author of theKutadgu Bilig was named Yūsuf and was born inBalasagun, which at the time was the winter capital of the Karakhanid empire and was located near present-dayTokmok inKyrgyzstan. He was about 50 years old when he completed theKutadgu Bilig and upon presenting the completed work to the prince of Kashgar, was awarded the title Khāṣṣ Ḥājib (خاص حاجب), translating as something like "Privy Chamberlain" or "Privy Councilor".[3] He is often referred to as Yūsuf Khāṣṣ Ḥājib.[4]
Some scholars suspect that the prologue to theKutadgu Bilig, which is much more overtly Islamic than the rest of the text, was written by a different author—particularly the first prologue, which is inprose, unlike the rest of the text.
TheKutadgu Bilig was written in 1069-1070[5] and presented to Tavghach Bughra Khan, the prince of Kashgar. It was well known through the Timurid era (Dankoff, 3), but only three manuscripts—referred to by the name of the city they were discovered in—survived to give us our modern knowledge of the text:
TheKutadgu Bilig is written in aKarluk language known as the "Karakhanid language" but often simply referred to as "Middle Turkic". It's similar to the language of theOrkhon inscriptions, inOld Turkic, but in addition to theTurkic base, has a large influx ofPersian vocabulary. Aside from specific vocabulary fromArabic and Persian, Dankoff mentions a good number ofcalques in the language of theKutadgu Bilig from Persian.
One of the features of the language of Karakhanid is that its 3rd person imperative always has /s/ instead of /z/ and around half of the Brahmi instances are not -zUn but -sUn. This is often rendered assU in Kutadgu Bilig:
kutadsu atı bersü iki cihân
May he be happy, may his name spread to the two worlds
——Kutadgu Bilig 88
bayat ok bolu bersü arka yölek
May Allah become your pillar
——Kutadgu Bilig 90
tuta bersü teŋri bu taht birle baht
May God bring you happiness too
——Kutadgu Bilig 92
The following is the excerpt from the Kutadgu Bilig; the first column is the text in the original (Karluk or Middle Turkic) language, but transliterated into Turkish (Latin) letters. Second column is the text's Turkish translation,[6] while the third one is its English translation.
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Despite the prevalence of Islamic wisdom fromhadiths and theQurʻān, Persian calques and Arabic and Persian vocabulary, there are no specific references to Islamic texts, nor are Arabic and Persian words used for Islamic concepts. This strengthens the argument that Islam came into Central Asia through wanderingSufis.
The author of theKutadgu Bilig used the Arabicmutaqārib metre, consisting of couplets of two rhyming 11-syllable lines, often broken down further—the first six syllables forming the first group in each line and the last five syllables forming another group. This is the earliest known application of this metre to a Turkic language.The original metre is composed of preceding short and long vowels:
| Vowel 1 | Vowel 2 | Vowel 3 |
|---|---|---|
| short | long | long |
| short | long | long |
| short | long | long |
| short | long |
Since Turkic language did not differentiate between short and long vowels, he transformed them to open and close syllables, for example:
| Vowel 1 | Vowel 2 | Vowel 3 |
|---|---|---|
| ya(open) | ġiz (close) | yir(close) |
| yı(open) | par(close) | tol(close) |
| dı(open) | kaf(close) | ur(close) |
| ki(open) | tip(close) | |
| be(open) | zen(close) | mek(close) |
| ti(open) | ler(close) | dun(close) |
| ya(open) | kör(close) | kin(close) |
| i(open) | tip(close) |
(The snow molten, the earth full of fragrance, taking off the winter clothes, the world is in new elegance.
——Kutadgu Bilig·Volume 4·2)
TheKutadgu Bilig is structured around the relations between four main characters, each representing an abstract principle (overtly stated by the author). Dankoff summarises the specifics nicely in the form of a chart (Dankoff, 3):
| Name | Translation | Occupation | Principle |
|---|---|---|---|
| küntoğdı | "the sun has risen" / Rising Sun | king | Justice |
| aytoldı | "the moon is full" / Full Moon | vizier | Fortune |
| ögdülmiş | "praised" / Highly Praised | sage | Intellect (orWisdom) |
| oðğurmış | "awakened" / Wide Awake | Dervish | Man's Last End |
Dankoff suggests that the author of theKutadgu Bilig was attempting to reconcile the Irano-Islamic andTurkic wisdom traditions present among the Karakhanids, the former with urban roots and the latter withnomadic roots. Certainly the recent move from a more nomadic way of life changed the requirements for a good leader; theKutadgu Bilig's agenda does appear to include instruction for how to be a good leader. In addition, the author of theKutadgu Bilig states in the text that he was trying to make a Turkic version of something like theShāh-nāmeh.
Aside from the Irano-Islamic and Turkic influences, Dankoff posits some amount ofGreek and Buddhist influence on the text.
