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KUTADGU BILIG: One of the first written monuments of the aesthetic thought of the Turkic people.
Bahtiyar Nazarov
Doctor of Science (Philology); Director,
Institute for Language and Literature, Uzbek Academy of Sciences,
Tashkent
[This paper is adapted from a presentation given at the 30th meeting of PIAC, held at Indiana University, Bloomington, during 1987. The couplets quoted from Kutadgu Bilig by Dr. Nazarov were in the original. English translations and references are substituted from Robert Dankoff (Tr.), Wisdom of Royal Glory: Kutadgu Bilig (Chicago, 1983), indicated pages. -- Ed.]

Kutadgu Bilig by Yusuf Balasagun (completed 1070 A.D) is one of the first written literary monuments of the aesthetical thought of the Turkic people.

In the history of the mankind, almost without exception, every state, every empire, every social formation is reflected not only in their historical works and scientific treatises but also in great art works of oral and written character, that gives the future generations rather vivid and clear representation of the detailed picture about the life of the society and the people of the previous epoch.

Among those is one the first written masterpieces of the Turkic language people Kutadgu Bilig appeared in the period when the Samanid empire was in decline and the Karahanid state was emerging -- which existed from the middle of the IX th up to the beginning of the XIII century on the territory of the Eastern and Western Turkestan.

This wonderful work of Turkic and of world written literature has become the object of investigation by many scholars: Russian, Turkish, German, English, French, Hungarian, Uyghur and others. Noteworthy are the investigations of such scholars of different generations as A.Vambery, R.Radloff, S.E.Malov, V.V.Bartold, E.E.Bertels, F.K pr l zade, A.Kononov, R.R.Arat, A.Dilachar, A.Valitov, E.K.Tenishev, N.A.Baskakov, S.N.Ivanov, I.V.Steblev, D.Majidenov, U.Asanaliev, K.Ashuraliev, Fitrat, S.Mutalibov, G.Abdurakhmanov, N.Mallallaev, A.Kajumov, K.Karimov should be mentioned.


We are convinced that the books like Kutadgu Bilig are necessary for us at the present time, since in it we can find answers to the urgent, exciting questions, the answers which our ancestors left as their legacy to us. In our communication we are trying to enlighten the aspects of aesthetic problems, reflected in Kutadgu Bilig.

One of the central problems in aesthetics is known to be the problem of beauty. Democritus saw beauty in the order, symmetry and harmony of one part to the other. It must be noted here, that Yusuf Balasagun's views in relation to the beautiful coincide in many aspects with those of Aristotle and Confucius.

In order to be beautiful, esteemed in society, a person, in our case the Grand Chamberlain (the post Yusuf Balasagun occupied at the Karakhanid court), according to Yusuf, must possess both inner and outer beauty. Thus, the beauty in the man acts as the whole category in Yusuf's conception. The harmony and symmetry of the mind, physical beauty and moral basis in a man, especially the man influencing the life of the society, is one of the central principles of the aesthetic conception of Yusuf. On this occasion he writes the following: [Pp.119-123]


...He should be handsome in appearance.... He should have a sound mind and a quiet demeanor. The man with a sound mind does not forget his word.... He should have a humble and quiet heart, full of compassion. And he should be skillful and knowledgeable about royal custom. It is skillful men who produce all the beautiful objects in the world... He should have a cheerful face and smiling eyes...
Here to some extent one can not help but notice the nearness of Yusuf's conception to the classical understanding and treatment of the beautiful - known to us from aesthetic views of the ancient philosophers - the harmony of the beautiful in both spirit and mind.

In our opinion, Yusuf's understanding of the beautiful is one of considerable achievements of aesthetic thoughts of Turkic people, expressed in written form. This is simultaneously one of the significant treatments of the conception of man.

http://vlib.iue.it/carrie/texts/carrie_ ... 4/2-1.html

[EPSILON]

Since GR was humiliated in his own stupid thread, he has taken it upon himself to attack the Greeks in almost every single one of his posts since, no matter how irrelevant to the thread. He even turned an April Fools thread into an attack on Greece. Clearly bruised pride. He would have never jumped to Turkey's defence before, just shows you what a battering he took from us.

I used to think of GR as a credible forumer who sticks to common sense, even though he was slightly eccentric in some of his views. However, I now see what Miltiades is talking about. His reputation has been damaged irreparably in my eyes; and the more he continues posting the same rubbish about the Greeks, the more I just see him as the forum clown not to be taken seriously.

Keep on.. we are much more than they think and we are still in position to f/up some Annan and other bsh around