Mahmud al-Kashgari

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

Al-Kashgari was famous for writing about the Turkic languages. He made a dictionary to help people understand these languages. His work is still useful for learning about the history of these languages.

Because of political problems, al-Kashgari had to leave his home. He moved to Baghdad, where he kept studying and writing. Today, his books are important for historians and language experts.

Work

Mahmud al-Kashgari studied the Turkic languages and made 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 died in 1102 at the age of 97 in Upal, a small city near Kashgar. He was buried there, and a mausoleum now stands at his burial site. However, other writers say we do not 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.