Maḥmūd al-Kashgari | |
|---|---|
| محمود الكاشغري | |
 Upal, Mausoleum of Mahmud al-Kashgari | |
| Born | 1005 CE Kashgar,Kara-Khanid Khanate, now China |
| Died | 1102 CE Upal,Kara-Khanid Khanate, now China |
| Nationality | Kara-Khanid |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Linguistics,Lexicography,Turkology |
Mahmud ibn Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Kashgari[a] was an 11th-centuryKara-Khanid scholar andlexicographer of theTurkic languages fromKashgar.
His father, Husayn, was the mayor ofBarsgan, a town in the southeastern part of the lake ofIssyk-Kul (nowadays village of Barskoon in NorthernKyrgyzstan'sIssyk-Kul Region) and related to the ruling dynasty ofKara-Khanid Khanate. Around 1057 C.E., Mahmud al-Kashgari became a political refugee, before settling down inBaghdad.[1]
Al-Kashgari studied the Turkic languages of his time and in Baghdad,[2] he compiled the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkic languages, theDīwān Lughāt al-Turk (English: "Compendium of the languages of the Turks") in 1072–74.[3][4][5][6] It was intended for use by theAbbasid Caliphate, the newArab allies of the Turks. Mahmud Kashgari's comprehensive dictionary, later edited by the Turkish historian,Ali Amiri,[7] contains specimens of old Turkic poetry in the typical form ofquatrains (Persio-Arabicرباعیات,rubā'iyāt;Turkish:dörtlük), representing all the principal genres:epic,pastoral,didactic,lyric andelegiac. His book also included the first known map of the areas inhabited byTurkic peoples. This map is housed at the National Library in Istanbul.[8]
Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk also contains linguistic data about multiple Turkic dialects that may have been gathered from merchants and others involved in trade along routes that travelled throughTransoxiana. The origin of the compiled information is not known. Scholars believe it is likely that Kashgari would have gathered most of the content about Oguz-Turkmen from Oguz tribes inKhorasan since he himself was a student in Seljuk Baghdad, but it is possible that some of this material could have come from early Turkmen.[9] Other scholars believe that the compendium was based on the Turkiyya language of theChigil tribe in theKara-Khanid confederation.[10] However, scholars have not yet come to a settled conclusion.
Al-Kashgari advocatedmonolingualism and thelinguistic purism of the Turkic languages and held a belief in the superiority ofnomadic people (the Turkic tribes had traditionally been nomads) over urban populations. Most of his Turkic-speaking contemporaries were bilingual inNew Persian, which was then the urban and literary language of Central Asia.
The most elegant of the dialects belongs to those who know only one language, who do not mix with Persians and who do not customarily settle in other lands. Those who have two languages and who mix with the populace of the cities have a certain slurring in their utterances.[11]
Even so, Kashgari praised the dialect spoken by the bilingualUyghurs as "pure" and "most correct" on par with those of Turkic monolinguals.[12]
Al-Kashgari cautioned against the assimilation of the nomadic way of life into a sedentary culture. He recorded a Turkic proverb that warned, “Just as the effectiveness of a warrior is diminished when his sword begins to rust, so too does the flesh of a Turk begin to rot when he assumes the lifestyle of an Iranian.”[13][14]
Some researchers think that Mahmud al-Kashgari died in 1102 at the age of 97 inUpal, a small city southwest of Kashgar and was buried there. There is now a mausoleum erected on his gravesite. But some modern authors reject this assertion, saying that the date of his death is just unknown.[citation needed]
He is claimed byUyghur,Kyrgyz andUzbek nationalists as part of their respective ethnic groups.[15]
An oriental study university, situated in the capital city of Bishkek in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, was named after Makhmud Kashghari, in the 1990s.
UNESCO declared 2008 the Year of Mahmud al-Kashgari.[16]
The most elegant of the dialects belongs to those who know only one language, who do not mix with Persians and who do not customarily settle in other lands. Those who have two languages and who mix with the populace of the cities have a certain slurring in their utterances... The most elegant is that of the Khagani kings and those who associate with them.
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