1 republic of uzbekistan ministry of higher and secondary specialised education

Mahmud 
ibn 
Husayn 
ibn 
Muhammed al-Kashgari
was an 11th-
century 
Kara-Khanid 
scholar 
and 
lexicographer of the Turkic languages 
from Kashgar. 
His father, Husayn, was the mayor 
of Barsgan, a town in the southeastern part 
of the lake of Issyk-Kul (nowadays village 
of Barskoon in Northern Kyrgyzstan's 
Issyk-Kul Region) and related to the 
ruling dynasty of Kara-Khanid Khanate. 

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317 
Map from Mahmud al-Kashgari's Diwan (11th century) 
Al-Kashgari studied the Turkic languages of his time and in 
Baghdad he compiled the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkic 
languages, the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk (English: "Compendium of the 
languages of the Turks") in 1072–74. It was intended for use by the 
Abbasid Caliphate, the new Arab allies of the Turks. Mahmud 
Kashgari's comprehensive dictionary, later edited by the Turkish 
historian, Ali Amiri, contains specimens of old Turkic poetry in the 
typical form of quatrains (Persio-Arabic 
تایعابر
, rubā'iyāt; Turkish: 
dörtlük), representing all the principal genres: epic, pastoral, didactic, 
lyric and elegiac. His book also included the first known map of the 
areas inhabited by Turkic peoples. This map is housed at the National 
Library in Istanbul. 
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 through the Oguz steppe. 
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 in Khorasan, since he himself was a 
student in Seljuk Baghdad, but it is possible that some of this material 
could have come from early Turkmen. Scholars have not yet come to a 
settled conclusion, however. 
Al-Kashgari advocated monolingualism and the linguistic purism 
of the Turkic languages and held a belief in the superiority of nomadic 
people (the Turkic tribes had traditionally been nomads) over urban 
populations. Most of his Turkic-speaking contemporaries were 
bilingual in Tajik (a Persian language), 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. Even so, Kashgari praised the dialect spoken by the 
bilingual Uyghurs as "pure" and "most correct" on par with those of 
Turkic monolinguals.The non-Muslim Turks worship of Tengri was 
mocked and insulted by the Muslim Turk Mahmud al-Kashgari, who 
wrote a verse referring to them - The Infidels - May God destroy them! 

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318 
Some researchers think that Mahmud al-Kashgari died in 1102 at 
the age of 97 in Upal, 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.Some claim Mahmad Kashghari was Hazrat Mullam. 
Legacy. He is claimed by Uyghur, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek nationalists 
as part of their respective ethnic groups. 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.