Mahmud al-Kashgari

Mahmud ibn Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Kashgari was an important scholar who lived in the 11th century. He came from a family that was part of the ruling group in the Kara-Khanid Khanate and was known for his work with words.

Al-Kashgari was especially famous for writing about the Turkic languages. He helped people understand these languages better by creating a dictionary that showed how they were spoken and used. His work remains valuable for learning about the history of these languages.

Because of political problems, al-Kashgari had to leave his home and moved to Baghdad, where he continued his studies and writing. Today, his books are important for historians and language experts who want to learn about the past.

Work

Mahmud al-Kashgari studied the Turkic languages and created the first big dictionary of these languages, called the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, which means "Compendium of the languages of the Turks". He wrote it in Baghdad between 1072 and 1074 for the Abbasid Caliphate and their new Arab allies.

His dictionary has old Turkic poems and the first known map showing where Turkic peoples lived. The map is kept in a library in Istanbul. He believed that people who only spoke one language were better and praised the way of life of nomadic people.

Death

Some researchers believe Mahmud al-Kashgari passed away in 1102 at the age of 97 in Upal, a small city near Kashgar, where he was also buried. A mausoleum now stands at his burial site. However, other writers say we do not actually know the exact date of his death.

Legacy

Mahmud al-Kashgari is claimed by people from the Uyghur, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek groups as part of their history.

In the 1990s, a university in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, was named after him. In 2008, UNESCO honored him by declaring that year as the Year of Mahmud al-Kashgari.