Mind, Body, Soul

The slave, Mahmud ibn al-Husayn ibn Muhammad [al-Kash-ghari] states: When I saw that Allah Most High had caused the Sun of Fortune to rise in the Zodiac of the Turks, and set their Kingdom among the spheres of Heaven; that He called them “Turk,” and gave them Rule; making them kings of the Age, and placing in their hands the reins of temporal authority; appointing them over all mankind, and directing them to the Right; that He strengthened those who are affiliated to them, and those who endeavor on their behalf; so that they attain from them the utmost of their desire, and are delivered from the ignominy of the slavish rabble; [then I saw that] every man of reason must attach himself to them, or else expose himself to their falling arrows. And there is no better way to approach them than by speaking their own tongue, thereby bending their ear, and inclining their heart. And when one of their foes comes over to their side, they keep him secure from fear of them; then others may take refuge with him, and all fear of harm be gone.

I heard from one of the trustworthy informants among the Imams of Bukhara, and from another Imam of the people of Nishapur: both of them re-ported the following tradition, and both had a chain of transmission going back to the Apostle of God, may God bless him and grant him peace. When he was speaking about the signs of the Hour and the trials of the end of Time, and he mentioned the emergence of the Oghuz Turks, he said, “Learn the tongue of the Turks, for their reign will be long.” Now if this hadith is sound—and the burden of proof is on those two!—then learning it is a religious duty: and if it is not sound, still Wisdom demands it.

I have traveled throughout their cities and steppes, and have learned their dialects and their rhymes; those of the Turks, the Turkmen-Oghuz, the Chigil, the Yaghma, and the Q’irghiz. Also, I am one of the most elegant among them in language, and the most eloquent in speech; one of the best educated, the most deep-rooted in lineage, and the most penetrating in throwing the lance. Thus have I acquired perfectly the dialect of each one of their groups; and I have set it down in an encompassing book, in a well-ordered system.

Mahmud al-Kashghari – 11th Century Lexicographer – “Diwan Lughat al-Turk” (1072)

Text Translation Excerpted from “Islamic Central Asia – An Anthology of Historical Sources” – Levi, Sela (2010)