Epigraphic Monuments of Arabic Writing in Kyrgyzstan
Epigraphic monuments of Arabic writing have been found in both southern and northern Kyrgyzstan (see the map-scheme below). Mostly, these are gravestones (kairaks), varying in shape and size. Visitor inscriptions have also been discovered on rocks and stones. According to our estimates, there are about 350 monuments with texts in Arabic on the territory of Kyrgyzstan. If we add Arabic inscriptions on various buildings, objects found during archaeological excavations, as well as on domes, mausoleums, and mosques, their number will significantly increase.
Due to poor preservation, we have only been able to publish half of the kairaks from Yangy-Naukat so far. The total number of such monuments in this village exceeds 100. According to local residents, there used to be many more. We have not been able to determine the whereabouts of many kairaks that were taken away at different times from Yangy-Naukat.
Some kairaks are being lost and destroyed everywhere these days. In this regard, there is an urgent task to document all the monuments of Arabic writing in Kyrgyzstan, photograph them, make drawings, and prepare them for inclusion in the "Corpus of Monuments of Arabic Writing in Kyrgyzstan." Our publication is, to some extent, one of the stages in preparing such a publication.
Epitaph inscriptions in Arabic are carved on stones (of various shapes and sizes), usually unprocessed. Another type of burial Arabic inscriptions is represented on steles found in Kyrgyzstan in the Chon-Kemin, Kegety, and Baytike areas, dating from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries. Such steles were made by stonecutters in Berik-Tash, in the Shamshinsky Gorge, and other places.
Islam began to spread in Kyrgyzstan from the 9th to the 12th centuries. Some epitaphs on kairaks date back to the 60s of the 12th century.
Islam has left a deep mark on the history and culture of Turkic-speaking peoples in Central Asia and other regions. It brought with it both the Arabic language and Arabic writing. The Arabic language was not used as a means of communication among Kyrgyz people; it was mainly applied only in the sphere of religion. However, a significant number of Arabic and Persian-Tajik words penetrated the Kyrgyz language through various means (borrowings through neighboring peoples, trade, adherence to the traditions of Arabic and Persian literature, direct contacts with the Tajik population, especially in the Fergana Valley). In the fundamental "Kyrgyz-Russian Dictionary" by K. K. Yudakhin, there are 2,177 words borrowed from Arabic, which constitutes 5.57% of the vocabulary of the dictionary.
The didactic poem "Kutadgu Bilig" ("Blessed Knowledge") by Yusuf Balasaghuni, created in 1069-1070, and the dictionary "Divan Lugat At-Turk" ("Collection of Turkic Words") by Mahmud Kashgari, whose father came from the city of Barskhan on the southern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, characterize the social, political, and cultural life of that era and the degree of Muslim influence in this region of Central Asia. If Yusuf Balasaghuni, being well acquainted with Arabic and Persian literature, took them as a model when creating his poem, and Mahmud Kashgari, flawlessly mastering the Turkic speech, including dialects, wrote his work in Arabic, this can only be seen as a consequence of a profound knowledge of the Arabic language, Arabic vocabulary, Arabic and early New Persian poetry, and the traditions of their versification.
We have discussed the history of the discovery and study of monuments of Arabic writing in Kyrgyzstan in detail in previous works. The monuments found in the northern part of the republic are now almost all collected in historical and local lore museums and in the funds of the Institute of Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz SSR. The kairaks of southern Kyrgyzstan overwhelmingly continue to be located outdoors, near domes, mausoleums, and old Muslim cemeteries. They are generally not accounted for and not protected. An exception is made for 8 kairaks from the city of Osh, which have been collected and displayed in the exhibitions of the historical and local lore museum of the Osh region.
Judging by the dates provided in the inscriptions, the kairaks of Kyrgyzstan date from the early 60s of the 12th century to the 30s of the 15th century. The oldest (1161-1162) kairak was found at the Burana settlement. The most recent inscription (1743) was discovered at the cemetery in Yangy-Naukat. However, most epitaphs do not have dates.
The inscriptions are made in the scripts of kufi (various variants), naskh, suls, and divani.
Some epitaph inscriptions allow us to infer the kinship relations of the deceased. They provide their genealogy, including several generations. An illustration of this is the genealogy of the mufti of Kysirgan, Imran, and his descendants, sheikhs and imams, buried in Yangy-Naukat:
None of the epitaphs mentioning these individuals provide dates. It should be noted that at their burial site, near the dome of Kysirgan-Ata, there are three (the fourth is at Sahaba-Mazar) gravestones, on which the names of Muhammad, Abu Bakr, Mahmud, Razi ad-Din, and al-Husayn are mentioned, while the monuments of their ancestors Ahmad, al-Husayn, Shirana, and mufti Imran al-Kysirgani are absent. A similar picture is found with the gravestones of the Uzgen sheikhs, descendants of Ibrahim an-Nisaburi.
Arabic inscriptions on rocks and roadside stones, serving as peculiar autographs of travelers, as well as inscriptions containing sayings from the Quran or other literary texts, are an important source of materials for studying the culture of the peoples who inhabited this area in that distant time (Table XV, Fig. 1, 2, 3). Special attention should be paid to the inscriptions from the Aravan Gorge in the Osh region and from Tosor on Issyk-Kul. We have information about the existence of rock Arabic inscriptions in the Laylak district, in the caves of Chil-Ustun. Besh-Unkur (Chil-Mayram Range) near the village of Tash-Ata, in Kan-i-Gut (ur.TShdShShG) where ore was mined as early as the 6th-11th centuries. According to geologist-speleologist V. Mikhaylov, in the Chil-Ustun cave in the Osh region, various signs, figures, and inscriptions are carved on most of the stalactites. There are reports of inscriptions in the Kaji area, in the upper reaches of the Ton River on the southern shore of Issyk-Kul, in the Kyrk-Kyzdyn beyti ("Cemetery of Forty Girls") in the Kochkor district, in the upper reaches of the Kalmak-Aryk River — in the Orto-Keltbek area of the At-Bashin district of the Naryn region, in the gorge of Ken-Kol-Ata in the Talas Valley, and other places.
Some inscriptions, which we believe to be important, have been irretrievably lost for various reasons. For example, an Arabic inscription carved on a rock at the top of Suleiman Mountain in Osh, where once stood Babur's gazebo, has essentially been destroyed by modern visitors who have scratched their autographs over the inscription.
Visitors often left inscriptions on the walls of religious buildings — in Tash-Rabat (At-Bashin district), Kamyr-Ata (Uzgen district), and others. Over time, these inscriptions have worn away and are now difficult to restore.
Arabic inscriptions on kairaks are usually carved with a hard sharp object. Some of them contain quotes from Persian texts, sometimes with a large number of Arabisms.