Kunanbaev, Abai
(1845–1904), Kazakh writer, poet, lyricist, social philosopher. Born in Kazakhstan in Semey province, Abai Kunanbaev (Ibragim Qunanbaiuly ) was educated at home and then sent to a medressa (Muslim religious school) where he learned Arabic and Persian and became acquainted with Eastern literature and poetry. His father ordered him home to train as his successor as clan chieftain, but appalled by what he regarded as his father's autocratic and brutal leadership, Kunanbaev broke with his family and at the age of twenty-eight returned to his studies in Semey city. While there, he actively participated in the city's intellectual life, studied Russian and Western classics by Pushkin, Goethe, and Byron, among others, and translated many of them for the first time into Kazakh. He also began writing poetry and prose and reinterpreted Krylov's Russian fables to suit Kazakh cultural sensibilities.
Kunanbaev's works were influenced by his belief in human reason. He was attracted to Western Enlightenment thinking and wove criticism of Kazakh culture into his works, most notably in his collection of poems called Qarasozder (often translated as the Book of Words). He criticized Russian colonial policies and encouraged his fellow Kazakhs to embrace education and literacy to escape from colonial oppression.
Most scholars consider Kunanbaev the first Kazakh to use poetry and prose to broaden the Kazakh literary milieu and to express social and political ideas designed to arouse the Kazakh nation. His writings, first published five years after his death and many times afterward, deeply influenced early-twentieth-century Kazakh activists. His life has been retold in films, operas, and novels, the best known being Auezov's Abai zholy (The Path of Abai).
Further Reading
Auezov, Mukhtar. (n.d.) Abai. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House.
Nurgaliev, R. (1995) Abai: Entsiklopediia (Abai: Encyclopedia). Almaty, Kazakhstan: Atamura.
Winner, Thomas. (1958) The Oral Art and Literature of the Kazakhs of Central Asia. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
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