Poetry
Wisdom of Royal Glory
Qutadgʻu bilig
Yusuf Khass Hajib · 1070
Synopsis
A long didactic poem in Turkic, built on the dialogue of four characters who each embody a virtue: the king Küntoğdı justice, the vizier Aytoldı fortune, the sage Ögdülmiş intelligence, and the dervish Oğğurmış man's final end. As they talk, they examine what a sovereign owes his subjects, what fortune and knowledge are worth, and the place of renunciation of the world, in the manner of the mirrors for princes of the Irano-Islamic tradition.
Context
The poem uses the Arabic metre mutaqārib, in couplets of two rhymed lines of eleven syllables: it is the first known use of this metre for a Turkic language. Its title is translated as “the knowledge that leads to happiness”. Three manuscripts survive, named after the places where they were found: Vienna, Fergana and Egypt. Robert Dankoff translated it into English in 1983, for the University of Chicago Press; Reşid Rahmeti Arat had published a Turkish translation in Ankara in 1959, and Asqar Egeubaev a Kazakh translation.
Who it is for
A work of long breath, to be read first as the earliest monument of Turkic letters, rather than for the pleasure of the story.
Prizes and reception
Kyrgyzstan has made its author a national hero: his portrait has appeared on the thousand-som banknote since 2000, and a university bears his name.
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