Linguist. Kaşgarlı Mahmut,
about whose life not enough information is available, is known to have come
from the lineage of Karahanlılar and to have been living around the same period
as Yusuf Has Hacip, who wrote Kutadgu
Bilig. He presented his famous work Divan-u
Lügati’t-Türk (Dictionary of the Turkish Language), which he began to write
on 25 January
Kaşgarlı
Mahmut, who said he wrote his work in Arabic in order to teach the Arabians
Turkish and to prove that the Turkish language was rich, gave very valuable
information about the language and folklore of the Turkish tribes who lived in
the 11th century in his work Divan-u
Lügati’t-Türk (Dictionary of the Turkish Language). This work, in which
there are examples from proverbs, laments and parts from poems and epics, was
written in order to demonstrate that Turkish was a rich language. Known as the
first Turkish grammar book, it was found by chance in İstanbul some time after
1908. At first, it was published as three volumes in 1915-17 and then it was
translated into Turkish by Besim Atalay and published as five volumes by the
Turkish Language Association (1939-43).
REFERENCE:
Ahmet Caferoğlu
/ İlk Türk Dilcisi Kaşgarlı Mahmut (1938) - Türk Dili Tarihi Notları (1943) -
Kaşgarlı Mahmut (1970), Nihal Atsız / Türk Edebiyatı Tarihi (1943), M. Şakir
Ülkütaşır / Büyük Türk Dilcisi Kaşgarî Mahmut-Hayatı-Şahsiyeti-Divanü Lûgat’ı
(1948), Fuad Köprülü / Türk Edebiyatı Tarihi (1980), Turgut Günay / Şükrü Elçin
Armağanı (1983, s. 43-46), “Kâşgarlı
Mahmud” (Türkiye
Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi (c. 25, İ 2002), Doğu
Perinçek / Bozkurt Efsaneleri ve
Gerçek Orta Asya Kavimlerinin Tarihsel Gelişmeleri (5. bas.,
2003), Ahmet Caferoğlu / Milli Klasikler Kaşgarlı Mahmut (2004), İhsan Işık / Ünlü
Fikir ve Kültür Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 3, 2013) -
Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013).
