Mahmud al-Kashgari's Compendium of the Turkic Dialects
An eleventh-century Turkic dictionary and world map by a Qarakhanid prince, made at Baghdad, 1072 to 1077.
Full title Compendium of the Turkic Dialects: Arabic-Turkic dictionary with ethnographic notes and a circular world map centred on Balasaghun, editio princeps from the unique Istanbul manuscript (Millet Kutuphanesi Ali Emiri Arabi 4189), printed Matbaa-i Amire 1915-1917
ديوان لغات الترك
Mahmud al-Kashgari (fl. 1072-1077)
Mahmud al-Kashgari, a Qarakhanid prince, wrote this Arabic dictionary of Turkic words at Baghdad in 1072 to 1077, saying he had travelled among the Turkic tribes to record their speech. It adds notes on the tribes and a circular world map centred on Balasaghun, with Gog and Magog beyond a wall. It is known from one manuscript copied in 1266 and found in 1914. The corpus holds scans of the 1915 Istanbul print, but this guide has not read them and quotes nothing from them.
- How they knew
- Eyewitness
- Who “Tartar” means here
- The card lists Tatars as one of the Turkic peoples he records, with the Oghuz, Qipchaq, Kirghiz and Yaghma. He wrote well before the Mongol empire.
- Why read it
- The eleventh-century Turkic view of the steppe from Kashgar to the Volga, and the earliest Turkic world map.
- Watch out
- It survives in a single manuscript, and Kilisli's print has errors corrected in later editions. The atlas quotes nothing from this work.
What it says
No quotes from this one yet. Its text is out of reach for now, or the scan could not be read.
The fine print
How we know
firsthand The author saw the places or people described.
firsthand: the author, a Qarakhanid prince, states he travelled among the Turkic tribes recording their dialects; compiled at Baghdad 1072-1077
Research notes
- Single manuscript; Kilisli's print has errors corrected in the 1941 Ankara facsimile, Atalay's Turkish (1939-43, IA divan-1939) and Dankoff and Kelly's English (1982-85, not open).
- Map record recommended: 'World map of Mahmud al-Kashgari, 1072-1077, in the 1266 manuscript; reproduced in the 1915 print and the 1941 facsimile'.
Why it matters
The eleventh-century Turkic self-description of the steppe from Kashgar to the Volga, listing the tribes in geographical order from Rum to China, and the earliest Turkic world map (should be recorded in the map inventory: the map shows the Turkic lands with Balasaghun at the centre and Gog and Magog beyond a wall).
Places named
Kashgar; Balasaghun; Tarim basin; Semirechye; Syr Darya; steppe to the Volga (Bulghar, Suvar); China (Sin, Machin)
Peoples named
Qarakhanids; Oghuz; Qipchaq; Kirghiz; Uyghur; Chigil; Yaghma; Tukhsi; Bashkirs; Bulghars; Tatars; Qay; Yabaku; Basmil; Chinese; Tibetans
Who copied whom
- accompanying text or map (stated)Kashgari's map within his Divan