ZHUSSIP BALASSAGUNI

BALASSAGUNI ZHUSSIP KHAS KHADJIB (approximately 1017/1021-1075) – a scientist, poet, thinker. He possessed extensive knowledge in liberal arts and sciences.

He was born in Balassagun, a town more known as Kyz-Orda. Zhussip is sprung from cultured community which resided in Otyrar, Shash (Tashkent), Taraz, Issykkol, Fergana, Kashgara. He was educated in Farab (Otyrar), Kashgar, Bukhara. He spoke Arab and Persian languages. He devoted his well-known philosophic dastan (poem) «Kutty Bilik» («Blessed Knowledge») to Tabgash Kara Bograkhan, Khas Khadjib (court minister). There are 3 versions of the poem which came through to our days. The first version found in XV in Gerat (Afghanistan) is written in Uighur language and is stored in the National Library or Vienna (Austria). The second version written in Arabic is stored in Cairo National Library. The third version was found in Namangan (Uzbekistan). The full text of Balassaguni?s poem was published in 1983 under the auspices of scholar A. Kononov. The full poem was translated into German in 1891-1900 by V. Radlov. In 1896 K. Kerimov translated it into the Uzbek language and in 1986 poet A. Yegeubayev translated the poem into Kazakh. The characters of the poem are allegoric images personifying justice, happiness, intelligence, contentment. The poem is composed as a dialogue between the characters. ?Kutty Bilik? is an encyclopedic creation in the Turkic language which depicts political events, science and culture of the Middle Ages and also addresses the meaning of human life. Another peculiarity of the poem is that it also mentions various pre-Islamic religions. Reference: Kazakhstan National Encyclopedia, Volume 1 «Historical Figures»