At several points throughout the Kutadgu Bilig, the author talks some about himself; from this we know a certain amount about him.
The author of the Kutadgu Bilig was named Yūsuf and was born in Balasagun, which at the time was the winter capital of the Karakhanid empire and was located near present-day Tokmok in Kyrgyzstan. He was about 50 years old when he completed the Kutadgu Bilig and upon presenting the completed work to the prince of Kashgar, was awarded the title Khāṣṣ Ḥājib (خاص حاجب), translating as something like "Privy Chamberlain" or "Privy Councilor".[3] He is often referred to as Yūsuf Khāṣṣ Ḥājib.[4]
Some scholars suspect that the prologue to the Kutadgu Bilig, which is much more overtly Islamic than the rest of the text, was written by a different author—particularly the first prologue, which is in prose, unlike the rest of the text.
Text
History
The Kutadgu Bilig was written in 1069-1070[5] and presented to Tavghach Bughra Khan, the prince of Kashgar. It was well known through the Timurid era (Dankoff, 3), but only three manuscripts—referred to by the name of the city they were discovered in—survived to give us our modern knowledge of the text:
The Vienna manuscript is written in the 8th century. TURK DIL KURUMU，(I. N. Dilman)，Kutadgu Bilig Tipkibasim，Viyana Nushasi，Alaeddin Kiral Basimevi，Istanbul，1942.
TURK DIL KURUMU, Kutadgu Bilig Tipkibasim, Fergana Nushasi, Istanbul, Alaeddin Kiral Basimevi, 1943.
TURK DIL KURUMU, Kutadgu Bilig Tipkibasim, Misir Nushasi, Istanbul, Alaeddin Kiral Basimevi, 1943.
Language
The Kutadgu Bilig is written in a Karluk language known as the "Karakhanid language" but often simply referred to as "Middle Turkic". It's similar to the language of the Orkhon inscriptions, in Old Turkic, but in addition to the Turkic base, has a large influx of Persian vocabulary. Aside from specific vocabulary from Arabic and Persian, Dankoff mentions a good number of calques in the language of the Kutadgu Bilig from Persian.
One of the features of the language of Karakhanid is that its 3rd person imperative always has /s/ instead of /z/ and around half of the Brahmi instances are not -zUn but -sUn. This is often rendered as sU in Kutadgu Bilig:
kutadsu atı bersü iki cihân
May he be happy, may his name spread to the two worlds
——Kutadgu Bilig 88
bayat ok bolu bersü arka yölek
May Allah become your pillar
——Kutadgu Bilig 90
tuta bersü teŋri bu taht birle baht
May God bring you happiness too
——Kutadgu Bilig 92
The following is the excerpt from the Kutadgu Bilig; the first column is the text in the original (Karluk or Middle Turkic) language, but transliterated into Turkish (Latin) letters. Second column is the text's Turkish translation,[6] while the third one is its English translation.
Üküş ögdi birle tümen miŋ senâ, uğan bir bayatka aŋar yok fenâ
Yağız yer yaşıl kök kün ay birle tün, törütti halâyık öd üdlek bu kün
Tiledi törütti bu bolmış kamuğ, bir ök bol tedi boldı kolmış kamuğ
Kamuğ barça muŋluğ törütülmişi, muŋı yok idi bir aŋar yok eşi
Ay erklig uğan meŋü muŋsuz bayat, yaramaz seniŋdin adınka bu at
Uluğluk saŋa ol bedüklük saŋa, seniŋdin adın yok saŋa tuş teŋe
Aya ber birikmez saŋa bir adın, kamuğ aşnuda sen sen öŋdün kedin
Turkish translation:
Yaratan, yetiştiren ve göçüren rabbim olan Tanrının adı ile söze başladım.
Kâdir ve bir olan Tanrıya çok hamd ve binlerce sena olsun; Onun için fânilik yoktur.
Kara yer ile mavi göğü, Güneş ile Ayı, gece ile gündüzü, zaman ile zamaneyi ve mahlûkları O yarattı.
İstedi ve bütün bu varlıkları yarattı; bir kere: — "ol!"— dedi, bütün diledikleri oldu.
Bütün bu yaratılmış olanlar Ona muhtaçtır; muhtaç olmayan yalnız Tanrıdır; Onun eşi yoktur.
Ey kuvvetli, kâdir, ebedî ve müstağni olan Tanrı, Senden başkasına bu ad yakışmaz.
Ululuk ve büyüklük Sana mahsustur; Sana eş ve denk olan başka biri yoktur.
Ey bir olan Tanrı, bir başkası Sana şirk koşulamaz; başta her şeyden evvel ve sonda her şeyden sonra Sensin.
English translation:
I started with the name of God, my Lord, who created, cultivated and moved.
Praise be to God, who is Powerful and one and only; there is no fraud for Him.
He created the dark earth and the blue sky, the Sun and the Moon, the night and the day, the time and all creatures.
He wanted and created all these beings; Once: - "Be!" - He said, everything He wanted came to fruition.
All these creatures need Him; the only one who does not need anything is God; He has no equal.
God, who is mighty, powerful, eternal and our master, this name does not suit anyone else than You.
Greatness belongs to You; There is no one who can match You or be equal to You.
O only God, no one can reach You; You are the first ahead of everything and last behind everything.
Despite the prevalence of Islamic wisdom from hadiths and the Qurʻān, Persian calques and Arabic and Persian vocabulary, there are no specific references to Islamic texts, nor are Arabic and Persian words used for Islamic concepts. This strengthens the argument that Islam came into Central Asia through wandering Sufis.
Style
The author of the Kutadgu Bilig used the Arabic mutaqārib metre, consisting of couplets of two rhyming 11-syllable lines, often broken down further—the first six syllables forming the first group in each line and the last five syllables forming another group. This is the earliest known application of this metre to a Turkic language.
The original metre is composed of preceding short and long vowels:
Vowel 1
Vowel 2
Vowel 3
short
long
long
short
long
long
short
long
long
short
long
Since Turkic language did not differentiate between short and long vowels, he transformed them to open and close syllables, for example:
Vowel 1
Vowel 2
Vowel 3
ya(open)
ġiz (close)
yir(close)
yı(open)
par(close)
tol(close)
dı(open)
kaf(close)
ur(close)
ki(open)
tip(close)
be(open)
zen(close)
mek(close)
ti(open)
ler(close)
dun(close)
ya(open)
kör(close)
kin(close)
i(open)
tip(close)
(The snow molten, the earth full of fragrance, taking off the winter clothes, the world is in new elegance.
——Kutadgu Bilig·Volume 4·2)
Content
The Kutadgu Bilig is structured around the relations between four main characters, each representing an abstract principle (overtly stated by the author). Dankoff summarises the specifics nicely in the form of a chart (Dankoff, 3):
Dankoff suggests that the author of the Kutadgu Bilig was attempting to reconcile the Irano-Islamic and Turkic wisdom traditions present among the Karakhanids, the former with urban roots and the latter with nomadic roots. Certainly the recent move from a more nomadic way of life changed the requirements for a good leader; the Kutadgu Bilig's agenda does appear to include instruction for how to be a good leader. In addition, the author of the Kutadgu Bilig states in the text that he was trying to make a Turkic version of something like the Shāh-nāmeh.
Islamic and pre-Islamic strife poems, found in Arabic and Persian literature,
Aytış, responsive song competition between two opponents found today among the Kazakhs and the Kyrgyz,
Askiya, a similar style of song competition found today among the Uzbeks,
Songs between boys and girls, such as Uzbek lapar and Kazakh bedil songs,
^Translated as the Wisdom which brings Happiness, the Wisdom that Conduces to Royal Glory or Fortune[1] or more concisely the Wisdom Which Brings Good Fortune.[2]
Robert Dankoff — Yusuf Khass Hajib, Wisdom of Royal Glory (Kutadgu Bilig): A Turko-Islamic Mirror for Princes, translated, with an introduction and notes, by Robert Dankoff. University of Chicago Press, 1983. Pp. 281
