In the period of the Karahanli State, there
were widespread cultural and scientific activities among the Turks. The regions of
domination of this state were located within the ancient cultural areas. The Western
Karahanli State was under the effect of Iran-Islam culture while the eastern Karahanli
State was under the effect of the Chinese and Uighur cultures. Despite these effects, the
Islam culture developed in the period of Karahanli State. Particularly, in the regions
under the dominion of the Eastern Karahanli people, a Karahanli era was opened pertaining
to the Turkish culture, Turkish had become a literary language and the Turkish-Islam
literature was established for the first time. This literature was written with the Uighur
and Arabic alphabets. On the other hand, Karahanli people had communicated with the
Gazneli and the other state sultans in Turkish written in Uighur letters. The officials
who arranged these communications were called as "Alımga" in Turkish. The city of Kasghar developed as a
cultural and religious centre in the period of the Eastern Karahanli State. Various
Turkish works of art must have been written in this period. The principal work pertaining
to that period is "Kutadgu Blig" written by Yusuf Has Hacib in the year of
1069-1070). This masterpiece is the most ancient monument of the Islam era that was
written in Turkish language with the Uighur and Arabic letters and it deals with the ideal
state administration system.
Another scholar of
this period, Ebu'l-Füuth Abdulgafir b. El-Hüseyin el-Almai, (died in 1096) had written a
work titled as "Tarih-i Kaşgar" (History of Kasghar) that could not survive
until nowadays.
On the other hand, the
work of Mahmuf el-Kasgari titled as "Divan-i Lügat it-Turk" was written in
Baghdad in the years of 1073-1077. Despite these years, it must have been an output of
this cultural environment. Kasgarli Mahmud who was probably the grandson of Mohammed b.
Yusuf Kadir Han that was the great khan of the Eastern Karahanli State had displayed some
examples from the dialects of various Turkish tribes ranging from the Byzantine borders
towards the borders of China. In his book, he had provided valuable information about the
geography of Turkish cities, the political and economical life of Turks and their beliefs.
Furthermore, he had also given some examples of literary works and the ancient pics and
the folk literature that could not survive until nowadays.
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