The Wisdom of the Great Steppe Abai Kunanbaiuly

Every nation and every civilization has its founding values. On this basis, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Abai Kunanbaiuly is at the forefront of the national, spiritual and cultural values of the Kazakh society. When we consider the sources and environment that shape intellectual and literary personality of Abai, in fact, we can regard him as the common heritage not only of today’s Kazakh society, but also of the great steppe and even of all Turkic peoples. Because his knowledge of the works of Al-Farabi, Khoja Akhmed Yasawi, Nizami Ganjavi, Nava’i, Fuzuli and Şehabeddin Mercani, who have an important place in Turkic-Islamic thought, is a clear indication of this view. This quality of Abai adds another personality, the carrier of values, to his founding personality. In addition to the above-mentioned luminaries, Abai also read works of Russian and Western thinkers such as Tolstoy, Pushkin, Lermantov, Goethe, Spinoza and Spencer and even translated the works of some of them, and brought them to Kazakh intellectual and literary life. Considering all these aspects, Abai not only paved the way for the intellectual and political independence of Kazakhstan, but also laid the foundations for the social and human development of today’s modern Kazakhstan as a spiritual guide.

Even this brief statement can be considered among the justifications for further research of Abaiwith all aspects such as poet, thinker, hakim, moralist and opinion leader, and for his promotion in wider public and scientific circles. For the very reason, making 175th anniversary of his birth occasion we, Eurasian Research Institute of Khoja Akhmet Yassawi University, aimed to bring a work that can be considered the first to relevant literature in terms of language and content in order to make the thoughts and works of great poet and thinker known all over the world.

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