The Karakhanid period, as the apex of Turkic civilization, was a time when science and education were at the roots of the formation of two deeply interconnected cultural civilizations — sedentary agricultural and nomadic. The greatest minds of the Middle Ages lived in Central Asia during the 10th to 12th centuries — Abu Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Omar Khayyam, Abu Rayhan Biruni, Muhammad Al-Farabi. In the 10th century, Islam as a religion spread not only among the sedentary but also the nomadic population of the Karakhanid state. As a result, an increasing number of people among the population became literate in Arabic script. To some extent, this fact evidently contributed to the emergence of the first Turkic-language works, which were “Kutadgu Bilig” (“The Beneficial Knowledge”) by Yusuf Balasaghuni and “Divan Lugat At-Turk” (“Dictionary of Turkic Dialects”) by Mahmud Kashgari in Arabic transcription.
A brief description of the works of these two thinkers can serve as an indicator of the level of scientific thought in Kyrgyzstan during that period.
A few words about the cultural achievements of the Yenisei Kyrgyz. It has been established that during that period, the Kyrgyz had their own writing system, and a certain part of the population was literate. In the 10th century, a significant group of Kyrgyz youth studied in Northern China. The most capable and educated were invited to serve at the courts in other countries. Thus, one of the Chinese chroniclers, recounting the Buddhist religion in Tibet, noted that there served “a man from a small ruling house of the Kyrgyz state.”
Scholars suggest that the Yenisei Kyrgyz had been using one of the varieties of writing based on the Aramaic alphabet from the time of the Arsacid Empire since at least the early 5th century. This writing, which originated 2800 years ago, was widespread in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Egypt (Misir), and some regions of Central Asia by the beginning of the first millennium AD. In essence, modern alphabets of Arabs and Jews also trace their origins to Aramaic writing, being modifications adapted to the linguistic peculiarities of these peoples.
In the 5th century, writing spread among the Yenisei Kyrgyz as well. The Yenisei written monuments contained 39 letters (five of which were vowels). Later, the population of the Blue Turkic Khaganate, the Uyghurs, and the Basmyls adopted this system from the Kyrgyz. The revised and supplemented Kyrgyz variant of this writing was called “Yenisei.” This writing became widely known in science after the discovery of the so-called Orkhon-Yenisei stone inscriptions (1896-1961). Similar inscriptions have been found in Talas. They, along with Orkhon and Yenisei scripts, illuminate events from the period of the Turkic Khaganate. In this regard, they are referred to as “Old Turkic writing.” To date, more than 200 stone inscriptions are known. Some scholars (Stahlenberg, Misserschmidt), finding a great similarity between the signs of this ancient Kyrgyz writing and runes — the letters of the alphabet used by the peoples of Northern Europe, have called it rune-like writing.
The Kyrgyz widely used their writing and left a number of valuable pieces of information about themselves. The epitaphs (tomb inscriptions) that have survived to this day on stones found in the Orkhon Valley, monuments to Kül-Tegin, Bilge-Kagan, Tonuyukuk, Barsbek, and others, recorded vivid historical events and dates.
Yenisei scripts were written and read from right to left.
Scholars express different opinions regarding which of the Turkic dialects the mentioned Orkhon and Yenisei texts were composed in, as the inscriptions vary in volume and are dedicated to Turkic khans, Kyrgyz, Uyghurs, Kimeks, and others. The Yenisei and Talas texts are concise, presented in the form of laments for the deceased, and the inscribed dates are not identifiable. The Orkhon inscriptions are more extensive and contain more facts. For example, the epitaph in honor of the hero Kül-Tegin is a kind of poem. Such monuments were erected by deceased relatives, friends, and in some cases at the expense of the khanate.
The Kyrgyz used writing for several centuries. The signs of Orkhon-Yenisei writing were convenient for engraving on hard objects — stone, brick, wood, metal, etc. Among the Turkic peoples of the Middle Ages, the Kyrgyz were a strong tribal union. This is narrated by more than 120 Orkhon-Yenisei texts that have survived to this day, engraved on stones.