Uyghur Language
Studies

Together we live this language.

“The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.”
__________________ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

All literature is political.
__________________________LeVar Burton

Uyghur Literature

Early Mystics in Turkish Literature

From : Early Mystics in Turkish Literature is a translation and edition of Mehmed Fuad Köprülü’s (1890–1966) Turkish masterpiece Turk edebiyatinda ilk mutasavviflar, originally published in 1918 and republished numerous times. Focusing on two great medieval poets, Ahmad Yasawi in Central Asia and Yenus Emre in Anatolia, it examines the origin and early evolution of Turkish literature.

1. Pre-Islamic literature

The literature produced by the Turks before their adoption of Islam consisted – with the exception of some insignificant translations made under Chinese, Indian, and Iranian influence – of popular poetry sung to the accompaniment of the saz {a Turkish stringed instrument, see EI2, s.v. “Saz” ( J. Cler)}. In all the social institutions of the Turks at that time, there was, moreover, a primitive genuineness that revealed the spirit and personality of the people in language, religion, ethics, customs, and legal practices. Although the civilizations of China, India, and Iran had begun to have an influence on the Turks in some fields, this {cultural} penetration was very piecemeal and superficial. Because it never spread from the center to the periphery, i.e. from the enlightened elite to the mass of the people, it was not able to have a real effect on society. Thus, the works that constituted the Turkish literature of that time were also, in conformity with the other elements of society, far from foreign influence and genuinely reflected all the attributes of the people. Everyone, from the ruler to the most insignificant person, sensed himself in the {popular} poetry. Poets in that period were uniformly simple men with kopuz {ancestor of the saz} in hand. Wandering from encampment to encampment, they would appear at public or private gatherings and sing the exploits of the old heroes and recite the national epics, or fashion new {folk} songs {s. türkü} about recent events. At the same time, they might also perform magic or do fortune telling with their kopuzes. And the poets were certainly present at national hunting rites, called sıgır {properly, sagır, “royal battue”}, at public banquets or Sölen, and at mourning ceremonies called yog.
All of this poetry was recited in the syllabic meter {hece vezni}, which was natural for Turkish. This metrical system had several varieties depending on the number of syllables, because Turkish syllables, while they are all precise and unvarying in length, naturally divide into groups with distinct pauses or caesuras. The oldest were the simplest, i.e. the ones with the smallest number of syllables. All of the poems of that period, whatever the subject, had a precise form. In these early forms of Turkish poetry, two main features are conspicuous. The first is the paucity and specificity of the forms. The reason for this is that the literarypersonality in those primitive times could not develop freely, but every poet had to respect the existing forms with a kind of religious devotion. Second, in strophes of poetry, which were usually composed of four verses {i.e. quatrains}, only the first three verses rhyme with each other while the fourth rhymes with {the fourth line of } all the strophes. It seems clear that this type of poetry was written to be sung and that the fourth verse always naturally maintained the same rhyme, operating like the refrain of a folk song. In the works of this early period, when music and poetry had not yet been separated, the rules of rhyme were also very simple and basic, so much so that, in the modern sense, it would be more correct to speak of assonance rather than rhyme. For them, it was sufficient for the last syllables of the verses to have a slight similarity, in order to create a rhyme, and this similarity was usually brought about by the inflection of verbs, thus assuring the poets an ample ease of composition. In short, although the literary products of this early period were of limited scope, simple, and basic, they sprang from the spirit of an entire people and expressed their joys and sorrows. This elementary, but lively and heartfelt literature, which spread with vigor and majesty across the steppes of Asia, was rich enough to show the rough and warlike and, at the same time, refined and profound spirit of the Turk in its naked glory.1

2. The Turks and Islam

In the sixth century ce, the Turks known as the Göktürks established a large empire in Central Asia, stretching from Siberia to Lake Baikal, and began, on the one hand, to threaten seriously China and, on the other, the Sasanid rulers. They even held discussions with the Byzantine Empire {about an alliance} against {the Sasanid ruler} Khusraw Aneshirwan. Problems of succession, however, resulted in the division of this empire into two parts, known as the Western and the Eastern Turks, in 581. In the eighth century, it almost seemed that the Eastern Turks, or T’u-Chüe, would be able to re-establish the former Turkish unity, but at that time Arab armies propagating a new religion entered Transoxiana under the command of Amcr Qutaiba {b. Muslim}. Both the Western and Eastern Göktürks resisted the Muslim invasion for a long time. The new religion gradually advanced, however, sometimes by blood and iron and sometimes by peaceful means, and expanded its area {of dominance} toward the east. In order to invade Soghdia and Farghana, the Muslim armies that were marshalled in Khurasan followed the old military road that passed through Marw and Balkh south of the Amu Darya {Oxus} River. Despite the great disorders that the Turkish world then faced, it occasionally struck fairly successful blows against the conquerors. In 712, a Turkish army entered Soghdia and rendered great assistance to the local population, who had risen in revolt after Qutaiba’s return to Marw, and left the Arabs in possession of only the city of Samarqand. Nevertheless, the following year, the Arabs again carried out successful conquests in the region. After the death of Emperor Mo-ch’o {716, the ruler of the Eastern Turks}, the Western Turks again separated from the Eastern Turks. But Su-lu, a leader of the Türgesh, who had formed a strong government and had taken possession of the old provinces of the Western Göktürks between Talas {Taraz} and Tokmak, did not want to give up Transoxiana easily. Consequently, for most of his life, he did not leave the Arabs in Soghdia in peace. Although the conquests of Qutaiba had advanced rather far to the north of the Amu Darya, the Turks, who had previously penetrated deeply into Iran, were able to hold out and entered the region of Gurgan via the corridor between the Amu Darya and the Caspian Sea.
During the period of the Arab Umayyad caliphate, the situation in Transoxiana remained in doubt for a long time. If the plan of Caliph ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-‘Azcz {d. 101/720} to build caravansaries and hospitals throughout his domain and establish a just administration, while not taking kharaj {land tax on non- Muslims} from converts, had been properly applied, Transoxiana would have been very quickly Islamized. The tyrannical and selfish policy of the Umayyads prevented this, however, and war against the Turks continued for a long time. During this interval, the Chinese unjustly killed the ruler of Shash {Tashkent}, who had surrendered to them. His son took refuge with the Muslims and sought their help. Although the Chinese dispatched a powerful army with the support of the Ikhshid of Farghana, the army that Abe Muslim sent under the command of Ziyad b. Salih completely defeated it – because of the uprising of the Qarluqs.2 This battle (133/751) then sealed the fate of Transoxiana, which, henceforth, would definitely be Islamized and enter the orbit of Islamic civilization. And, indeed, so it was. 
During the ‘Abbasid caliphate, the Turks were not able to carry out a major operation in Transoxiana, only some minor actions. As in the Umayyad period, there were no formidable masses of Turks to resist the Arabs. After the defeat of the Chinese and the collapse of the Türgesh state, two groups of Turks appeared. The Qarluqs conquered the entire province of Yedi-Su {Semirechy} and the region east of the Syr Darya { Jaxartes} and in 766 took the capital {Seyab/ Ordukent} of the Türgesh. Meanwhile, the Oghuz took the area west of the Syr Darya. These were the remnants of the Western Turks who had scattered after the death of Su-lu. It was these Oghuz who participated in the events of the ninth century, and they should not be confused with the Toquz Oghuz {i.e. Uyghurs} of Eastern Turkistan. Although they were unable to conduct large-scale operations, they occasionally pillaged the countryside, became involved in uprisings in Transoxiana and came to the aid of local rulers or Arabs who had rebelled. Large walls were built around cities like Bukhara and Shash as protection from their depredations. 
Transoxiana became completely Muslim in the Samanid period. Most of the people of that region were probably already Muslim by the reign of Caliph al-Mu‘tatim {d. 247/861} and even carried out military expeditions {ghazA} against the unbelievers in the desert. As the people of Shash had done previously, the inhabitants of Isfcjab, north of the Syr Darya, also converted to Islam a short time after Ner b. Asad, the uncle of the first Samanid ruler Isma‘cl b. Armad, captured that city in 838. Furthermore, Caliph al-Ma’men, as a result of various campaigns, brought members of important local families to the capital of the caliphate {Baghdad} and induced them to convert by bestowing upon them major gifts and other rewards. This sensible policy of Islamization was followed even more vigorously during the reign of al-Mu‘tatim when Turks from the areas of Soghd, Farghana, Ushresana, and Shash were taken directly into the caliph’s imperial guard. Al-Mu‘tatim built the city of Samarra for his Turkish bodyguard troops. After al-Mu‘tatim’s reign, not only did the number and influence of the Turks in Iraq gradually increase, but this situation also contributed to the rapid Islamization of Turkistan.3 In 350 ah {961} nomads of 200,000 tents – Qarluqs, Oghuz, and the remnants of the Western Turks – who lived, without recognizing Muslim rule, in territories on the Muslim side of the fortified frontier between Shash and Farab accepted Islam. This religion also began to be firmly established in the fourth/tenth century in the areas of Kashghar and Balasaghen. During the fifth/eleventh century, at any rate, virtually the entire Turkish world did become Islamized and fell under the influence of Islamic civilization.4

3. The  Sufi movement

As early as the second/eighth century, Islam had begun to differ significantly from its original form. In fact, when various nations {s. millet} who had lived with their own cultures and traditions for centuries in different parts of the world entered the sphere of Islam, they inevitably introduced a great many changes even on the most fundamental points. An old and rich civilization like that of Iran was thus able to defend at least its moral independence against the irresistible force from the desert. Subsequently, because of its rapid spread, Islam also came face to face with civilizations and religions other than Iran. The influence of Indian civilization (even if indirect), Judaism, Christianity (which had completely dominated Syria), intellectual movements that resulted from the translation of the works of the ancient Greek philosophers – these and many other factors affected the development of Islam. Consequently, throughout the Islamic realm there were a great many religious doctrines {s. madhhab} and sects {s. maslak} that clashed sharply with each other.5 The old Sasanid dominion, which was already on the verge of collapse because of steadily increasing Turkish attacks,6 initially submitted to the Arab sword; but then the Iranian spirit {Yrânîlik}, by considering the descendants of lusain {the grandson of the Prophet} to be the inheritors and successors of the Sasanids, struck terrible blows against the Arab nation and the Islamic religion under the screen of “defending the rights of ahl al-bait” {the family of the Prophet}. By insinuating Zoroastrian beliefs in a Muslim guise, the Iranian spirit asserted itself, demonstrating that an ancient civilization could not easily be destroyed.7 In the fifth/eleventh and sixth/twelfth centuries, various religious doctrines and practices held sway throughout the Muslim world and the personal and political ambitions of the rulers gave great scope to their development.8
One of the most striking things in many places in the Islamic world at that time was the spread of mysticism {nefism} and the multitude of mystics {nefcs}. nefism hardly existed in the first centuries of Islam. It took shape under the influence of Iranian, Indian, and Greek ideas, and to some degree Christianity – albeit taking most elements from Islam – and soon spread throughout the Muslim world.9 Beginning with Abe Hashim al-Kefc {d. 161/777–8}, who first took the name nefc and founded the first zAwiya {nefc lodge} in Syria, many great nefcs – including Sufyan al-Thawrc (d. 161/778); Dhe ‘l-Nen al-Mitrc (d. 246/ 861), who grew up in Egypt, which had been the home of the early Christian hermits; Abe Yazcd al-Bistamc (d. 261/874–5 or 264/877–8) from Khurasan; {al-lusain b. Manter} al-lallaj (d. 309/922), about whom all sorts of ideas were advanced; and al-Junaid al-Baghdadc {d. 298/910} – succeeded in spreading their doctrines despite all forms of opposition and imputations. In his famous treatise {al-RisAla al-Qushairiyya}, Abe ‘l-Qasim ‘Abd al-Karcm al-Qushairc (d. 465/1072) tried to demonstrate that the nefc way of life was compatible with Sunnc doctrine. Somewhat later, al-Ghazalc (450–505/1058–1111) succeeded, in many of his works, in convincing the Sunnc establishment that this was the case. Afterwards, al-Suhrawardc al-Maqtel {d. 587/1191}, the author of Likmat al-ishrAq, Shihab al-Dcn al-Suhrawardc {d. 632/1234}, the author of “AwArif al-ma“Arif, ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jclanc (d. 561/1166), and a great many other nefcs who fill the books of UabaqAt al-TEfiyya {nefc biographical dictionaries} gained tremendous spiritual authority among thousands of disciples, as well as the general public, as they expounded their doctrine.10 Many famous religious scholars {“ulamA ”} attached themselves to the great shaikhs, and many rulers and commanders {s. amCr} encouraged this movement – or, rather, were caught up in it – by sponsoring the construction of zAwiyas and tekkes {also nefc lodges}. Thus, shaikhs and dervishes were trained throughout the Muslim world and new social groups were, in effect, brought into being. Moreover, after the death of every great shaikh, he acquired a miraculous aura in the popular imagination. Such flights of fancy fill not only the manAqib works {works of the legendary deeds of nefc saints}, which are replete with superstitions of no historical value, but also those sources that are most valuable for the history of nefism.

4. Sufism in Turkistan

Khurasan, which nourished the ancient traditions of Iran in its bosom, was a primary, perhaps the primary, center of the nefc movement after the rise of Islam. Consequently, after the Islamization of Transoxiana, it was quite natural for this movement to enter Turkistan by the routes that Islam had previously followed. And this is exactly what happened. In the third/ninth century, nefcs were abundant in Herat, Ncshaper, and Marw, while in the fourth/tenth century shaikhs began to appear in Bukhara12 and also in Farghana.13 Indeed, the Turks in Farghana gave their shaikhs the name bAb, or bAbA. nefcs also appeared among the Turks who traveled, in whatever capacity, to and from Khurasan. Murammad Ma‘sheq oesc, whom the famous nefc Abe Sa‘cd Ibn Abc ‘l-Khair {d. 440/ 1049} greatly esteemed, and Amcr ‘Alc ‘Abe were pure Turks.14 In the event, influenced by various factors of this sort, the nefc movement slowly gained strength among the Turks as it spread from the great Muslim centers like Bukhara and Samarqand to the hinterlands, and as dervishes, armed with an ecstatic religious love, introduced new beliefs among the nomadic Turks.15

The spread of Sufism, which claimed roots going back to the Prophet via Abe Bakr {the first caliph} or ‘Ali {the son-in-law of the Prophet and the fourth caliph}; the de facto official recognition that it received from the political powers through the construction of tekkes; and the high regard that a great many notables, statesmen, and even sultans paid to the shaikhs – all these factors gave the shaikhs enormous moral influence. Both the Qarakhanids, who were so observant of {Islamic} religious norms {s. Rukm} that they would not drink wine, and the early Seljuks, who defended Islam with enthusiasm and passion, showed great respect and reverence to religious scholars and shaikhs alike.16 On the other hand, because the Turkish rulers were so devoted to Islamic beliefs, 17 they had accepted lanafism with great vigor and conviction. This tendency, which essentially arose from the social conscience of the Turkish nation, on the one hand hindered the spread of heretical Shc‘c and Mu‘tazilc doctrines within Islam and, on the other, also as a natural result of this, created a profound and sincere harmony between legal religious norms and the nefc ideas that developed in Turkish circles.18
In my view, by the time Armad  Yasawi came on the scene, the Turkish world had already been accustomed to nefc ideas for a rather long time – probably since the fourth/tenth century – and {word of } the legends and miracles of the nefcs had spread not only in the cities but also, to some extent, among the nomadic Turks. As for the dervishes, who recited hymns and poetry, who did many good works for the people in order to please God, and who showed the people the ways to happiness and paradise, the Turks enthusiastically accepted them and believed what they said, likening them to the ozans {troubadour poet-singers} whom they had endowed with religious sanctity since ancient times. In this manner, a number of the dervishes, who were called ata {father} or bAb {spiritual leader}, took the place of the old ozans. Well known among the people were tales of such nefcs as Arslan Baba, who was depicted as a companion of the Prophet; Korkut Ata,19 the famous patron saint of the ozans who, according to legend, went from Turkistan to Arabia in order to learn about Islam and, after meeting with Abe Bakr, accepted the new faith; and Choban Ata.20 It seems certain, then, that, at the time of Armad  Yasawi, there were dervishes trying to spread Muslim beliefs and traditions among the nomadic Turks, who lived along the banks of the Syr Darya and in the steppes, by addressing the people in a language they could understand – simple Turkish. One must assume that Armad  Yasawi was a greater and more powerful personality than the dervishes who preceded him. Still, if the earlier generations had not prepared the way for him, his success could not have been as great.

5. The influence of Iran

Because of their geographical location, the Turks were in continuous contact with China and Iran from very ancient times. The early Chinese chronicles, which are reliable and comprehensive, show the relationship of the Turks with China fairly clearly. The early relationship of the Turks with Iran, however, only enters the light of history – leaving aside the legends in the ShahnAme – at the time of the last Sasanid rulers. After the Turks had lived under the influence of these two civilizations for centuries, Iran, which had accepted Islam, gradually brought them into its sphere of influence.21 Even during the development of the Uyghur civilization, which was the {Turkish civilization} most strongly influenced by China, the attraction of the Turks to Iranian civilization, which had proven its worth in art, language, and thought, was virtually unavoidable, especially after it was invigorated with a new religion.22
Even before it drew the Turks into its sphere of influence, Iranian civilization had had, in fact, a major effect on Islam. With respect to the concept of government and the organization of the state, the ‘Abbasids were attached not to the traditions of the khulafA” al-rAshidEn {the first four caliphs} but to the mentality of the Sasanid rulers.23 After Khurasan and Transoxiana passed into the hands of native Iranian – and subsequently highly Iranized Turkish – dynasties with only nominal allegiance to the ‘Abbasids, the former Iranian spirit, which the Islamic onslaught was not able to destroy despite its ruthlessness, again revealed itself. In the fourth/tenth century, Persian language and literature began to grow and develop in an Islamic form. This Perso-Islamic literature was influenced, to a large extent, by the literature of the conquerors. Not only were a great many words brought into the language via the new religion, but new verse forms, a new metrical system, and new stylistic norms were also adopted in great measure from the Arabs. Indeed, almost nothing remained of the old Iranian syllabic metrical system, the old verse forms, or the old ideas about literature. Still, the Iranians, as heirs of an ancient civilization, were able to express their own personality in their literature despite this enormous Arab influence. They adopted from the “arEQ meters only those that suited their taste. They created or, perhaps, revived the rubA“C form {of verse}.24 They also introduced novelties in the qaTCda form {of verse}, which can be considered an old and well known product of Arabic literature, and in the ghazal {lyric “love song”}.25 Above all, by reanimating {their own} ancient mythology, they launched an “epic cycle” that was completely foreign to Arabic literature.26 These developments were on such a scale that the fifth/eleventh century witnessed the formation of a new Persian literature in all its glory.
The Turks adopted a great many elements of Islam not directly from the Arabs, but via the Iranians. Islamic civilization came to the Turks by way of Transoxiana from Khurasan, the cultural center of Iran. Indeed, some of the great cities of Transoxiana were spiritually far more Iranian than Turkish. Also, the Iranians were no strangers to the Turks, for they had known each other well before the appearance of Islam. For all these reasons, it was the Iranians who guided the Turks into the sphere of Islamic civilization. This fact, naturally, was to have a profound influence on the development of Turkish literature over the centuries.
To be sure, we do not know precisely how and to what extent Persian literature at first influenced Turkish literature, but the earliest Turkish work recognized by the scholarly world as a product of the post-Islamic period, the Kutadgu Bilig written in Kashghar in 462/1069–70 at the time of the Bughra Khans {Qarakhanids}, clearly exhibits Persian influence in many respects. This is not the place to give a fully detailed description of this old Turkish composition, 27 but the Persian influence on it is striking, especially in language, meter, and form.
Linguistically, the Kutadgu Bilig is full of Persian and Arabic words. If one takes into consideration the longstanding relations of the Turks with the Iranians, the many concepts that the new religion introduced, and the new words that were used to express them, then the number of foreign words does not appear to be excessive. As for the question of meter, this composition – despite the mistaken claims of certain European scholars – was not written in the syllabic meter but was modeled directly after the meter of the ShAhnAme and, as in all Persian works of this type, the preferred form was that of mathnawi {rhymed couplets}. The verse is very defective, because the Turkish of that time could not, of course, suddenly accord with the “arud metrical system, which was alien to its structure. This is one of the main reasons why some people considered it to have been written in the syllabic meter. With regard to subject matter, ideas, and metaphors, one encounters the influence, at the same time, of both {Turkish} popular literature and Chinese literature. But in the meter, especially, the strong influence of Persian literature is immediately apparent. Indeed, this influence was so strong that within a short time it eventually was able to drive out all others.

Like all Muslim works, the Kutadgu Bilig begins with a prose preface that includes the tahmid {al-Ramdu li-”llAh, praise be to God} and taTliya {TallA “llAhu ‘alayhi wa sallam, God bless him (the Prophet) and grant him salvation}. In the prologue to this work, the author Yesuf Khatt lajib finds the human aptitudes to consist of “justice, ability, comprehension, and contentment.”28 He then animates each one in the form of a person and presents lengthy debates among them. With regard to its subject, this book is a variation on the Persians’ siyAsatnAme {advice for rulers} genre. One of these four aptitudes, Ögdülmish son of Qut {rather, he is the son of Ay-towdi who represents “Fortune” (= Qut)}, describes to the ruler, one by one, all the officials and classes who constituted Turkish society in Kashghar at that time and explains the qualifications they should have and how the ruler should treat them. The book is full of such questions as “How should one be a tapucu, i.e. a civil servant?” “How should one be a subayı or military commander?” “How should one treat the people?” “What should one do for farmers, merchants, doctors, and sorcerers?” “How should one behave toward women?” “What qualities should be sought in a good wife?” “How should the dynasty show respect to the mission of the Prophet?” There is also a kaside in praise of Bughra Khan, following the example of Persian mathnawC writers. Nevertheless, as regards the subject of the work – i.e. portraying the various human aptitudes through personification – as well as the simplicity and specificity of its figures of speech and metaphors, nothing like it can be found in Persian literature. For these aspects, Chinese influence on the one hand and vestiges of {Turkish} popular literature on the other are much more significant. Even the ode in praise of Bughra Khan is closer to the products of early {Turkish} popular literature than to Persian examples.29
This work, which was written in Kashghar in 462/1069–70, should by no means be considered an isolated literary product. Indeed, there are references in the preface that clearly reveal this point. If one considers that the Turks already had {various} scripts before Islam and that they had books composed in these scripts, then it becomes immediately obvious that Muslim works would be written in Kashghar, which was an old center of Turkish civilization, soon after that city accepted Islam, and that one would not have to wait centuries before this occurred. When the Turks adopted Islam, they were not a barbarian people who were strangers to writing, books, and education.30 Thus, we can assert that by the fifth/eleventh century at least, Turko-Islamic works had begun to be written in Turkistan and that they were subject to Perso-Islamic influence. If Iranian influence had made an impact so quickly and vigorously in an eastern region like Kashghar, which was a center of the old Uyghur civilization and had been under continuous and strong Chinese influence, then naturally this influence must have been felt on a much wider scale in regions further to the west and closer to the cities of Khurasan. But unfortunately, ruinous invasions, wars, and a thousand other things over the centuries have destroyed the products of those early periods and virtually nothing remains in our possession. Let me state clearly here, however, that such Turkish works that imitated Persian forms and were written under the influence of Persian literature in Muslim centers were not widespread among the masses. They were only circulated among the learned who received a Muslim education in the madrasas {these colleges of Islamic law began to spread in the fifth/eleventh century}.

6. Popular literature

We know that the Turks possessed a rich popular literature in the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries, and we also have some valuable examples of it. These works allow us to explain how, and with what kinds of compositions, the Turks were able to express their literary impulse in the time before Armad  Yasawi. While the Kutadgu Bilig and similar works were read and studied by men educated in the madrasas of the cities of Turkistan, which had become strong centers of Islam, the needs of the popular masses were met, as they had been for centuries, by the simple products of the popular poets.31 Because popular literature, for various reasons, underwent hardly any perceptable change over the centuries, it preserved its basic pre-Islamic features into the Islamic period. Some of the surviving works from that period can be regarded as codes of ethics of a didactic nature. The evil of stinginess and envy, the obligation to gain a reputation for generosity among one’s people, the qualities of the hero, the greatness of God, and the need to respect and obey one’s parents and elders are among the items dealt with in these pieces in a simple and straightforward manner. The most valuable of these works, however, are the lamentationselegies {s. sagu-mersiye}. These elegies were sung during mourning ceremonies or in general assemblies – regarded in pre-Islamic times as only a religious practice but afterwards as more of an aesthetic one – to the accompaniment of the kopuz and were usually rather long. They describe the merits of the deceased, the various stages of his combats, how he attacked the enemy, where the battles occurred, and how grieved all the people were – indeed, all of nature was – because the hero died. The metaphors are simple and primitive but sincere and colorful. Sometimes summer and winter are personified and, as in the Kutadgu Bilig, engage in a debate. We find in them a rapturous feeling, not only toward nature but toward all manifestations of life. Saying that when summer comes the snows will melt, the nightingales will sing, and happy couples will make love, the reciter of the elegy dwells on the joy of life. When he sees a beautiful slave girl, he likens her face to the moon and her neck to the juniper tree. Like all lovers, he speaks of the beauty of his beloved, her cruelty, and her bewitching eyes and he weeps profusely. The beauty of the countryside and the plains, the frosty nights, the wild steppes, the misty hills, the ducks, geese, and small water fowl are all described in these elegies with a lively affection.32
These elegies are expressed in quatrains, each verse having seven or eight syllables. Sometimes the verses of the first quatrain all rhyme {aaaa}, sometimes all but the third rhyme {aaba}. As for the following quatrains, the first three verses rhyme while the fourth returns to the rhyme of the initial quatrain {ccca, ddda, etc.}, thus forming a larger unit, whose rationale I explained above (section A {i.e. that this type of poetry was written to be sung and the fourth verse maintained the rhyme, like the refrain of a folk song}). The other poems, of a didactic nature, are occasionally in the form of quatrains with five, six, or seven syllables per verse, but more often consist of couplets of 10, 12, 14, or 15 syllables per verse {Köprülü is mistaken here. This should be 11 or 12}. Aside from poems, there existed among the people legends or sagas, such as the Oghuz menkabesi {Legend of the Oghuz},33 that had survived from very early times. Although they belonged fundamentally to the pre-Islamic period, a number of these legends acquired an Islamic form and circulated in that fashion thanks to the efforts of the dervish poets who made religious propaganda in the Islamic period. This, then, was the level of literary development of the Turkish people when Ahmad  Yasawi appeared on the scene in the fifth/eleventh and sixth/twelfth centuries.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Chagatai Literature

Name of language
The word Chagatai relates to the Chagatai Khanate, a descendant empire of the Mongol Empire, which was left to Genghis Khan's second son, Chagatai Khan. Many of the Chagatai Turks and Tatars who were the speakers of this language claimed descent from Chagatai Khan.

History

Chagatai belongs to the Uyghur branch of the Turkic language family. It is descended from the Old Uyghur that served as a lingua franca in Central Asia, with a strong infusion of Arabic and Persian words and turns of phrase. It was developed as a sophisticated written language using the Perso-Arabic alphabet. It can be divided into three periods:

Pre-classical Chagatai (1400-1465)
Classical Chagatai (1465-1600)
Post-classical Chagatai (1600-1921)
The first period is a transitional phase characterized by the retention of archaic forms; the second phase starts with the publication of Mir Alisher Navoi's first Divan and is the highpoint of Chagatai literature, followed by the third phase, which is characterized by two bifurcating developments. One is the preservation of the classical Chagatai language of Navoi, the other trend is the increasing influence of the dialects of the local spoken languages. The Chagatai Turkic language lived its heyday in the Timurid Empire. Chagatai remained the universal literary language of Central Asia until the Soviet reforms of the early twentieth century.

Influence on later Turkic languages
Uzbek and modern Uyghur are the two modern languages most closely related to Chagatai, and Uzbeks regard Chagatai as the origin of their own language and claim Chagatai literature as their own. In Uzbekistan, then a part of the Soviet Union, Chagatai was replaced by a literary language based on the local Uzbek dialect in 1921. The so-called Berendek, a 12th century medieval nomadic Turki people possibly related to the Cumans, seem also to have spoken a language which ultimately was identified as Chagatai.

Ethnologue records the use of the word "Chagatai" in Afghanistan to describe the "Tekke" dialect of Turkmen. Up to and including the eighteenth century Chagatai was the main literary language in Turkmenistan as elsewhere in Central Asia, and had some influence on Turkmen, but in fundamentals the two languages belong to different branches of the Turkic family.

Important works continued to be written in the Chagatai language into the early twentieth century. Among them are Musa Sayrami's Tārīkh-i amniyya (completed 1903) and its revised version Tārīkh-i ḥamīdi (completed 1908), representing the best sources on the Dungan Rebellion in Xinjiang.[1][2]

Chagatai literature is still studied in modern Turkey and regarded as part of the Turkish heritage.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Uygur Literature

The earliest Uyghur script was derived from Sogdian (and, therefore, ultimately from Aramaic), and was written vertically along a 'spine'. From the 11th century the Uyghurs began using an Arabic-based script similar to that used for Farsi and Urdu and adapted to write Turkic. It was later used to write the very Persianised form of literary Turkic known as Chagatai used in Xinjiang and elsewhere. Then, between the 1930s and 1980s there were four reforms of the Arabic-based script including Cyrillic and Roman- (or, rather, pinyin-)based scripts. In 1984 the Chinese reintroduced a modified Arabic form. Since then efforts have been made at Xinjiang University and among Uyghurs to develop a new romanised orthography more compatible with the use of computers. Additionally, all Uyghur children now must study Chinese in school which, with its immense body of non-alphabetical characters and uninflected tonal system, seems to be particularly difficult for Uyghur students, few of whom learn Chinese well enough to enter university. These rapid changes, imposed by outsiders, have had a very disruptive effect on Uyghur life, culture, and literature.