The most ancient examples of the Turkic muslim mystic poetry in Mahmud al-Kashgari’s Divanu Lugati-t Turk

Abstract

This article covers the analysis of the didactic poems from the work of the 11th-century Turkic scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari which is called Divanu Lugati-t Turk (“Сompendium of the languages of the Turks”). The author of the article considers these poems the authentic examples of the original Turkic poetry. The author of the poems in question could be one of the Turkic-language poets from the Kara-Khanid Khanate. He was probably one of the first Islamic mystic missionaries among the Turkic people, being the follower of the Sufi Khorasanian school. It is possible that the didactic poems from Divanu Lugati-t Turk were written not earlier than the 11th century, judging, first of all, by their formal features. In the poems the ascetic motives prevail, and they are close enough to the Odγurmyš’ speeches from the 11th-century poem “Wisdom Which Brings Good Fortune” (Kutadgu Bilig), just as they are close to the heritage of the Persian mystic poet Abdullah Ansari (1006–1089) and to the Turkic Sufi poetic works of the later period by Ahmad Yassawi (1093–1166) and Ahmad Yugnakiy (early 13th century). In Divanu Lugati-t Turk poems a strong influence of the Persian poetic tradition could be observed. It is known that in the 12th century a great number of Turkic poets from the Kara-Khanid Khanate experienced such influence, as can be seen in the poetry forms, meters, types of rhyme and some elements of content. The poems in question, as well as Kutadgu Bilig, the Persian Sufi poetry of the 11th century and the works of Khoja Ahmad Yassawi and his followers share similar content patterns. Taking into account various evidences and traces of the Sufi tradition amongst Turkic people of the Kara-Khanid Khanate before Ahmad Yassawi period (such as work of his mentor Arslan Baba, recently discovered writing of the early 13th century Nasab nama etc.) we can affirm that the history of the Turkic Sufi poetry starts not with the Ahmad Yassawi’s hikmats, like it was generally thought earlier, but with the Divanu Lugati-t Turk poems. Refs 5.

Keywords:

Muslim mystic poetry, Turkic poetry, Islamic (Muslim) mysticism, Sufism, Religious- Ascetic content, Didactic poems, Arabic-Persian poetic tradition