950th anniversary of “Divani Lugat at-Turk” marked at UNESCO Headquarters
The UNESCO Headquarters in Paris hosted the International Conference “Drawing a world map in textual studies: for the 950th anniversary of the “Divani Lugat at-Turk” (“Dictionary of Turkic Dialects”). The event, organized by the National Commission of Azerbaijan for UNESCO, highlights the importance of the work of the outstanding 11th-century philologist Mahmud al-Kashgari, UzA reports.
The author is an outstanding scientist and thinker of the 11th century, Mahmud al-Kashgari; his manuscript was written 950 years ago and is the second most important monument of Turkic writing, preserved after the “Orkhon monuments”. The original manuscript is kept in Istanbul. Presenting the Azerbaijani translation from the original Arabic, made by the famous linguist and Turkologist Khalid Said Khojaev, who, unfortunately, was subjected to repression and whose works were destroyed, became an important moment of the conference.
Three years ago, working translation records were found among the archives, which made it possible for a group of scientists led by Nadir Mammadli, Director of the Nasimi Institute of Linguistics of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, to resume work on deciphering the manuscript. During the conference, participants from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Hungary, and other countries discussed the historical and cultural significance of the work.
The conference also included a demonstration of a documentary about “Divani Lugat at-Turk” and a thematic exhibition. Translations of the books “Divani Lugat at-Turk” by Said Khojayev in Azerbaijani and Zifa-Alua Auezova in Russian, published by the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation, were presented.
The encyclopedic work “Divani Lugat at-Turk" demonstrates the monumental beauty of culture through the rich vocabulary of the Turkic language and exceptional artifacts of civilized life. It is also the first textbook of the grammar of the Turkic language and the encyclopedia of civilization, which introduces the Turkic tribes and the geography of Turkestan, providing unique knowledge about Turkic mythology, folklore, daily life, and customs of the Turkic society.
It was noted that the dictionary contains Arabic equivalents of more than 9,000 Turkic words. The examples of poems, proverbs, and prose used to explain the words give this book an encyclopedic character. Thus, the text of the most valuable manuscript contains geographical references (50 provinces, 63 cities, 22 lands and towns, and 49 settlements), cultural and household references (106 utensils and kitchen utensils, 62 types of clothing, 53 items related to weaving, 58 weapons of war and 38 references to animal husbandry), literary elements (758 verses, 266 proverbs).
Earlier, it was reported that UNESCO added traditional design and practices for building Chinese wooden arch bridges to its Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
