Abai Qunanbaiuly | |
|---|---|
 Abai in 1900 | |
| Native name | Абай Құнанбайұлы |
| Born | Ibrahim Qunanbaiuly (1845-08-10)10 August 1845[1] |
| Died | 6 July 1904(1904-07-06) (aged 58)[1] Semipalatinsk Oblast, Russian Empire (now Abai District, Abai Region)[1] |
| Occupation | |
| Notable works | The Book of Words |
| Spouse | Dilda Shukiman (Aigerim) Erkejan |
| Children | 10 |
Abai Qūnanbaiūly[a] (10 August [O.S. 29 July] 1845 – 6 July [O.S. 23 June] 1904) was aKazakh poet, composer andHanafiMaturiditheologian philosopher.[2] He was also a cultural reformer toward European and Russian cultures on the basis of enlightenedIslam.
Abai was born in Karauyl village in Chingiz volost ofSemipalatinsk uyezd of the Russian Empire (this is now inAbay District ofAbai Region, Kazakhstan). He was the son of Qunanbai and Uljan, his father's second wife. They named him Ibrahim, as the family was Muslim, and he stuck with the name for the first few years of his life.
Ibrahim first studied at a localmadrasah underMullah Ahmed Ryza. During his early childhood years in Ryza's tutelage, he received the nickname "Abai" (which means "careful"), a nickname that stayed with him for the rest of his life. His father was wealthy enough to send Abai to a Russian secondary school inSemipalatinsk. There he read the writings ofMikhail Lermontov andAlexander Pushkin, which were influential to his own development as a writer. Moreover, he was fond of reading eastern poetry, including theShahnameh andOne Thousand and One Nights.[citation needed]
Abai's main contribution to Kazakh culture and folklore lies in his poetry, which expresses greatnationalism and grew out of Kazakh folk culture. Before him, most Kazakh poetry was oral, echoing thenomadic habits of the people of the Kazakhsteppes. During Abai's lifetime, however, a number of important socio-political and socio-economic changes occurred. Influence continued to grow inKazakhstan, resulting in greater educational possibilities as well as exposure to a number of different philosophies, whether Russian,Western or Asian. Abai Qunanbaiuly steeped himself in the cultural and philosophical history of these newly opened geographies. In this sense, Abai's creative poetry affected the philosophical theological thinking of educated Kazakhs.
In 1885, American journalist and explorerGeorge Kennan visitedSemey (then Semipalatinsk) and was deeply impressed by the city’s public library. To his surprise, local Kazakhs actively borrowed and read books, a rare sight for that time and region. In his influential workSiberia and the Exile System, Kennan specifically mentioned Abai, marking one of the earliest references to the Kazakh thinker in Western literature.[3]
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The leaders of theAlash Orda movement saw him as their inspiration and spiritual predecessor.
ContemporaryKazakh images of Abai generally depict him in full traditional dress holding adombra (the Kazakh national instrument). Today, Kazakhs revere Abai as one of the first folk heroes to enter into the national consciousness of his people. Kazakh National Pedagogical University is named after Abai, so is one of the main avenues in the city of Almaty. There are also public schools with his name. Abai is featured on postal stamps of Kazakhstan, Soviet Union, and India.The Kazakh city ofAbay and theAbai Region are named after him.Among Abai's students was his nephew, a historian, philosopher, and poetShakarim Qudayberdiuli (1858–1931).
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Statues of him have been erected in many cities of Kazakhstan, as well asAshgabat,[4]Beijing,Moscow,New Delhi,Tehran,Berlin,Cairo,Istanbul,Antalya,Kyiv,Tashkent,Sarajevo,Bucharest andBudapest.[5]
Abai is featured on theKazakhstani Tenge,[6] a subway station in Almaty is named after him,[7] along with a street, a square, a theater, and many schools.[8]In 1995, the 150th anniversary of Abai's birth,UNESCO celebrated it with the "Year of Abai" event. A film on the life of Abai was made byKazakhfilm in 1995, titledAbai. He is also the subject of two novels and anopera byMukhtar Auezov, another Kazakhstani writer.[citation needed]Another film describing his father's life was made in December 2015, titled "Qunanbai".[9] In 2016, Qunanbai film has been selected for the 12th Kazan International Muslim Film Festival.[10] Only 60 of 700 applied films from countries passed the official selection.[11]In 2016, Abai Qunanbaiuly was chosen as one of the nominees in the "proposed candidates" category of the national project «El Tulgasy» (Name of the Motherland) The idea of the project was to select the most significant and famous citizens ofKazakhstan whose names are now associated with the achievements of the country. More than 350,000 people voted in this project, and Abai was voted into fifth place in his category.[12]
In 1995, Şair Abay Konanbay (English: Poet Abay Konanbay) Anatolian High School was opened inSultangazi, Istanbul.
In 2020, the government of Kazakhstan announced plans to celebrate the 175th anniversary of his birthday throughout the year.[13] The same year, the Park and memorial plaque in honor of Abai opened inAntalya, Turkey.[14]
In 2021, Abay Kunanbayoğlu Square was opened inZeytinburnu, Istanbul.[15] The same year, a monument to Abai opened in Seoul, South Korea, and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took part in the opening ceremony.[16] A monument dedicated to Abai was unveiled inBerlin, Germany.[17] Another monument was unveiled in Paris, France, as part of a celebration of the 30th anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence,[18] as well as inAtyrau in front of the center of Abai.[19]
In 2022, a monument was opened inTbilisi; the avenue next to the square where the monument was erected will also bear the name of Abay Kunanbayev.[20] The same year, a monument dedicated to the friendly relations betweenKazakhstan andKyrgyzstan was unveiled inBishkek.[21] A bust of Abai was installed in San Martin Square inNew Delhi.[22]
On 21 March 2023, a monument to Abai Kunanbayev was unveiled inTaldykorgan. The architects of the monument is Akmyrza Rustembekov and Manarbek Dzhakipbayev. The sculptor is Mirlan Azmaganbetov.[23]
Abai also translated into Kazakh the works of Russian and European authors, mostly for the first time. Translations made by him include poems byMikhail Lermontov,Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,Lord Byron,Ivan Krylov'sFables andAlexander Pushkin'sEugene Onegin.
Abai's major work isThe Book of Words (қара сөздер,Qara sözder), a theological philosophic treatise and collection of poems where he encourages his fellow Kazakhs to embrace education, literacy, and good moral character in order to escape poverty, enslavement and corruption. InWord Twenty Five, he discusses the importance of Russian culture, as a way for Kazakhs to be exposed to the world's cultural treasures.[citation needed]
On 9 May 2012, after two days of protests in Moscow following Vladimir Putin's third inauguration as President of Russia, protesters set up camp near the monument to Abai on theChistoprudny Boulevard in centralMoscow, close to the embassy of Kazakhstan. The statue quickly became a reference point for the protest's participants.[24] OccupyAbai was among the top ranking hashtags on Twitter for several days thanks to Russian opposition leaderAlexei Navalny who set up a meeting with his followers next to Abai Qunanbaiuly's monument in Moscow that he called "a monument to some unknown Kazakh". This comment later led to much controversy.[25] This also brought Abai's poetry into the top 10AppStore downloads.[26]
Abai and his works have been featured numerous times in Kazakh cinema. Film expert Dana Ämırbekova compiled the movies dedicated to Abai in a list, and it includedAbai's Poems (1945) byGrigori Roshal,Abai (1995) by Ardaq Ämırqūlov, andQūnanbai (2015) by Doshan Joljaqsynov. In 2020, theAbai series were released on theQazaqstan TV channel and theAbai joly series were released on theKhabar channel.[27]
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