The ''Kutadgu Bilig'' or ''Qutadğu Bilig'' (;
Middle Turkic: ), is an 11th century work written by
Yūsuf Balasaguni
Yusuf Khass Hajib; kk, Жүсіп Баласағұни, Jüsip Balasağunï; ug, يۈسۈپ خاس ھاجىپ; ky, Жусуп Баласагын, Jusup Balasagın; uz, Yusuf Xos Hojib was an 11th-century Central Asian Turkic poet, statesman ...
for the prince of
Kashgar. 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 the
Kara-Khanid Khanate
The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; ), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia in the 9th through the early 13th century. The dynastic names of Karakhanids and Ilek K ...
.
Author
At several points throughout the ''Kutadgu Bilig'', the author talks some about himself; from this we know a certain amount about him.
The author of the ''Kutadgu Bilig'' was named Yūsuf and was born in
Balasagun
Balasagun ( or ''Balasagyn''; ) was an ancient Sogdian city in modern-day Kyrgyzstan, located in the Chüy Valley between Bishkek and the Issyk-Kul lake. Located along the Silk Road, the ruins of the city were inscribed in 2014 on the UNESCO Wor ...
, which at the time was the winter capital of the Karakhanid empire and was located near present-day
Tokmok
Tokmok ( ky, Токмок, lit=hammer; russian: Токмак, Tokmak) is a city in the Chüy Valley, northern Kyrgyzstan, east of the country's capital of Bishkek, with a population of 71,443 in 2021. Its elevation is 816 m above sea level. Fro ...
in
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...
. He was about 50 years old when he completed the ''Kutadgu Bilig'' and upon presenting the completed work to the prince of Kashgar, was awarded the title Khāṣṣ Ḥājib (), translating as something like "Privy Chamberlain" (Dankoff, 2) or "Privy Councilor." He is often referred to as Yūsuf Khāṣṣ Ḥājib.
Some scholars suspect that the prologue to the ''Kutadgu 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 in
prose
Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the ...
, unlike the rest of the text.
Text
History
The ''Kutadgu Bilig'' was completed in the history 843 sheep year 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:
* The Vienna manuscript is written in the 8th century. TURK DIL KURUMU,(I. N. Dilman),Kutadgu bilig Tipkibasim,Viyana Nushasi,Alaeddin Kiral Basimevi,Istanbul,1942.
* TURK DIL KURUMU, Kutadgu Bilig Tipkibasim, Fergana Nushasi, Istanbul, Alaeddin Kiral Basimevi, 1943.
* TURK DIL KURUMU, Kutadgu Bilig Tipkibasim, Misir Nushasi, Istanbul, Alaeddin Kiral Basimevi, 1943.
Language
The ''Kutadgu Bilig'' is written in a
Karluk language known as the "
Karakhanid language
Karakhanid Turkic, also known as Khaqani Turkic, was a historical Turkic language developed in the 11th century during the Middle Turkic period under the Kara-Khanid Khanate. It has been described as the first literary Islamic Turkic language. ...
" but often simply referred to as "Middle Turkic". It's similar to the language of the
Orkhon inscriptions, in
Old Turkic
Old Turkic (also East Old Turkic, Orkhon Turkic language, Old Uyghur) is the earliest attested form of the Turkic languages, found in Göktürk and Uyghur Khaganate inscriptions dating from about the eighth to the 13th century. It is the old ...
, but in addition to the
Turkic base, has a large influx of
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
vocabulary. Aside from specific vocabulary from
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
and Persian, Dankoff mentions a good number of
calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language w ...
s in the language of the ''Kutadgu 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 as ''sU'' 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,
while the third one is its English translation.
:Text in original Turkic language:
:Bayat atı birle sözüg başladım, törütgen egidgen keçürgen idim
:Üküş ögdi birle tümen miŋ senâ, uğan bir bayatka aŋar yok fenâ
:Yağız yer yaşıl kök kün ay birle tün, törütti halâyık öd üdlek bu kün
:Tiledi törütti bu bolmış kamuğ, bir ök bol tedi boldı kolmış kamuğ
:Kamuğ barça muŋluğ törütülmişi, muŋı yok idi bir aŋar yok eşi
:Ay erklig uğan meŋü muŋsuz bayat, yaramaz seniŋdin adınka bu at
:Uluğluk saŋa ol bedüklük saŋa, seniŋdin adın yok saŋa tuş teŋe
:Aya ber birikmez saŋa bir adın, kamuğ aşnuda sen sen öŋdün kedin
:Turkish translation:
:Yaratan, yetiştiren ve göçüren rabbim olan Tanrının adı ile söze başladım.
:Kadir ve bir olan Tanrıya çok hamd ve binlerce sena olsun; onun için fânilik yoktur.
:Kara yer ile mavi göğü, güneş ile ayı, gece ile gündüzü, zaman ile zamaneyi ve mahlûkları o yarattı.
:İstedi ve bütün bu varlıkları yarattı; bir kere: — "ol!"— dedi, bütün diledikleri oldu.
:Bütün bu yaratılmış olanlar ona muhtaçtır; muhtaç olmayan yalnız Tanrıdır; onun eşi yoktur.
:Ey kuvvetli, kadir, ebedî ve müstağni olan Tanrı, senden başkasına bu ad yakışmaz.
:Ululuk ve büyüklük sana mahsustur; sana eş ve denk olan başka biri yoktur.
:Ey bir olan Tanrı, bir başkası sana şirk koşulamaz; başta her şeyden evvel ve sonda her şeyden sonra sensin.
: English translation:
: I started with the name of God, my Lord, who created, cultivated and moved.
: Praise be to God, who is Powerful and one and only; there is no fraud for him.
: He created the dark earth and the blue sky, the sun and the moon, the night and the day, the time and all creatures.
: He wanted and created all these beings; Once: - "Be!" - he said, everything He wanted came to fruition.
: All these creatures need him; the only one who does not need anything is God; He has no equal.
: God, who is mighty, powerful, eternal and our master, this name does not suit anyone else than you.
: Greatness belongs to you; There is no one who can match you or be equal to you.
: O only God, no one can reach you; you are first ahead of everything and last behind everything.
Despite the prevalence of Islamic wisdom from
hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...
s and the
Qurʻān, 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 wandering
Sufis
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...
.
Style
The author of the ''Kutadgu Bilig'' used the Arabic
mutaqārib 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:
Since Turkic language did not differentiate between short and long vowels, he transformed them to open and close syllables, for example:
(The snow molten, the earth full of fragrance, taking off the winter clothes, the world is in new elegance.
——''Kutadgu Bilig·Volume 4·2'')
Content
The ''Kutadgu 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):
Influences
Dankoff suggests that the author of the ''Kutadgu Bilig'' was attempting to reconcile the Irano-Islamic and
Turkic wisdom traditions present among the Karakhanids, the former with urban roots and the latter with
nomadic
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...
roots. Certainly the recent move from a more nomadic way of life changed the requirements for a good leader; the ''Kutadgu Biligs agenda does appear to include instruction for how to be a good leader. In addition, the author of the ''Kutadgu Bilig'' states in the text that he was trying to make a Turkic version of something like the
Shāh-nāmeh.
* Islamic and pre-Islamic
strife poems, found in Arabic and Persian literature,
*
Aytış, responsive song competition between two opponents found today among the
Kazakhs and the
Kyrgyz,
*
Askiya, a similar style of song competition found today among the
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks ( uz, , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the wider Central Asian region, being among the largest Turkic ethnic group in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak mino ...
,
* Songs between boys and girls, such as Uzbek
lapar and Kazakh
bedil songs,
* Wedding songs such as Uzbek
yor-yor
'' Yor-yor '' or ''Gde ty, moya Zulfiya?'' (transliteration of the Russian title of the film meaning "Where are You, My Zulfiya?") ( uz, Yor-yor, Ёр-ёр; russian: Где ты моя, Зульфия?, italic=yes) is a 1964 Uzbek comedy produced ...
and Kazakh
jar-jar
Aside from the Irano-Islamic and Turkic influences, Dankoff posits some amount of
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and Buddhist influence on the text.
Selected Online Resources
Kutadgu Bilig Complete TextRobert Dankoff— includes bibliography
* http://aton.ttu.edu/kilavuzlar.asp at the
Uysal–Walker Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative
The Uysal–Walker Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative is a searchable archive of oral Turkish literature. The archive is housed in the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, United States. It in ...
— includes scanned copies of the ''Kutadgu Bilig'' in various languages
Kutadgu Bilig— article about the ''Kutadgu Bilig'' (page in Windows Turkish encoding)
''Kutluk Veren Bilgi ve Ağustos'a Giden Yol'' H. B. Paksoy, D. Phil., Ottoman Studies, posted by Anonym, 26 August
Gokmen Durmus— Upenn Master's Thesis on Turkish Wisdom
See also
*
Turkish literature
Turkish literature ( tr, Türk edebiyatı) comprises oral compositions and written texts in Turkic languages. The Ottoman and Azerbaijani forms of Turkish, which forms the basis of much of the written corpus, were highly influenced by Persian a ...
*
Mirrors for princes
Mirrors for princes ( la, specula principum) or mirrors of princes, are an educational literary genre, in a loose sense of the word, of political writings during the Early Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages, the late middle ages and the Renaissance. ...
*
Kut (mythology)
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
Robert Dankoff
Robert Dankoff is Professor Emeritus of Ottoman & Turkish Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at University of Chicago
Robert Dankoff was born on 24 September 1943 in Rochester, New York. In 1964, he received a Bachelor ...
— Yusuf Khass Hajib, ''Wisdom of Royal Glory (Kutadgu Bilig): A Turko-Islamic Mirror for Princes'', translated, with an introduction and notes, by Robert Dankoff. University of Chicago Press, 1983. Pp. 281
Turkish literature
Central Asian manuscripts
Turkic literature
11th-century manuscripts
Islamic mirrors for princes
Sunni literature
Hanafi literature
Maturidi literature
{{Maturidi