Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

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Collection of the manuscripts
of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi
Inscribed 2003
What is it
This is a collection of manuscripts in the medieval Turkic
language of the writings of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, one of
the most revered Islamic religious figures of Central Asia,
and of one of his disciples, Suleiman Bakyrgani.
Why was it inscribed
The texts had great influence upon the development
of the spiritual culture of the ancient Turks and
promoted the development of the Turkic language
and literature that had an impact upon the wider
Islamic world.
Where is it
National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan,
Almaty, Kazakhstan
The National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan holds a
unique collection of the earliest known manuscripts of the
works of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi (died 1166–67), one of the
most revered Islamic religious figures of Central Asia, and
of his follower, Suleiman Bakyrgani. All the manuscripts are
in the medieval Turkic language, Chagatai, and together
comprise about 1400 pages. The works of Yasawi had a great
influence on the spiritual culture of the Turks, then powerful
in Eurasia and the Islamic world. By writing in the Turkic
language, despite the customary practice of writing in Arabic
or Farsi, Yasawi and Bakyrgani promoted the development
and expansion of Turkic Chagatai as a literary language.
Khoja Ahmed Yasawi lived most of his life in Yasi (the
city now called Turkestan, one of the four most important
surviving Silk Road cities, with Khiva, Bukhara and
Samarkand). He was buried there with great honours, his
grave becoming a place of pilgrimage and worship for
Muslims throughout Central Asia and the wider Muslim
world. The domed mausoleum later erected over his
grave (1389–1405) is a masterpiece of medieval Islamic
architecture and the greatest surviving monument
The great mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, built at
the end of the 14th century, in Yasi (now Turkestan), one
of the great architectural treasures of Kazakhstan. �
186 Collection of the manuscripts of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi
in Kazakhstan. By the 16th century Yasi was referred
to throughout the region and beyond as a second Mecca
and became the focus of the Sufist discipline known as the
‘study of truth’ which occupied the principal place in the
philosophical studies of Yasawi.
The manuscripts in this collection represent the key
monuments of medieval Turkic literature, and date back
to the 16th and 17th centuries. The collection contains
unique and very important data on the history, culture,