Kashgarli Mahmud, Dîvânu Lugâti't-Türk and the importance of the map in Dîvânu Lugâti't-Türk

Abstract

Kashgarli Mahmud was a nobleman who lived in the Karakhanid State. He was essentially a linguist and lexicographer. In addition to being an excellent linguist and field researcher, he was the first known cultural historian, geographer, ethnologist, anthropologist, folklorist, and encyclopedist of the Turks. Kashgarli Mahmud's birth and death dates are not exactly known. Although researchers indicate 1008 as his birth year and 1105 as his death year, this information is not definite. Kashgarli Mahmud, in his bilingual dictionary work called Div & acirc;nu Lug & acirc;ti't-T & uuml;rk, evaluated the material he obtained by compiling from the places where Turkish tribes and communities lived before (from the regions where Turkish, Turkmen, Oghuz, & Ccedil;i & gbreve;il, Ya & gbreve;ma, K & imath;rg & imath;z etc. tribes lived) very well with the successful method he applied; he tried to prove that Turkish is a language that is equal to Arabic in all aspects (phonetics, morphology, etymology, semantics and syntax). Kashgarli Mahmud also included a world map in his work, where the names of the regions and places where Turkish tribes and communities live, and the places/geographies where the nations/countries neighboring them live are presented in an organized manner. The map in question is colorful and circular. This map is the first map included in a language/dictionary work by the Turks. The map reflects both Kashgarli Mahmud's knowledge and the level of the language and culture of the nation he emerged from and grew up in. The map given by Kashgarli Mahmud in his work is based on his knowledge, experiences, field research, and studies. In the map, Balasagun city, which is located within the borders of the Kyrgyz Republic today and is on one of the busy points of the Silk Road, is taken as the center; other settlements, countries, regions, and landforms are positioned accordingly. On the map, mountains are shown in red, seas in green, sandy areas in yellow, and rivers in blue. The places, regions, and cities where Turkish tribes and communities live are included for the first time on this map. The names of the places where some countries, nations, and communities, especially Japan, live are also shown on this map. For this reason, the map given by Kashgarli Mahmud in D & icirc;v & acirc;nu Lug & acirc;ti't-T & uuml;rk is of great importance both in terms of the history of Turkish cartography and the history of world cartography.