Abai Qunanbaiuly
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Patronymic name Template:Infobox writer Abai QūnanbaiūlyTemplate:Efn (Template:OldStyleDateTemplate:SndTemplate:OldStyleDate) was a Kazakh poet, composer and Hanafi Maturidi theologian philosopher.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He was also a cultural reformer toward European and Russian cultures on the basis of enlightened Islam.
Early life and education
[edit]Abai was born in Karauyl village in Chingiz volost of Semipalatinsk uyezd of the Russian Empire (this is now in Abay District of Abai Region, Kazakhstan). He was the son of Qunanbai and Uljan, his father's second wife. They named him Ibrahim, as the family was Muslim, and he stuck with the name for the first few years of his life.
Ibrahim first studied at a local madrasah under Mullah Ahmed Ryza. During his early childhood years in Ryza's tutelage, he received the nickname "Abai" (which means "careful"), a nickname that stayed with him for the rest of his life. His father was wealthy enough to send Abai to a Russian secondary school in Semipalatinsk. There he read the writings of Mikhail Lermontov and Alexander Pushkin, which were influential to his own development as a writer. Moreover, he was fond of reading eastern poetry, including the Shahnameh and One Thousand and One Nights.Template:Citation needed
Contributions
[edit]Abai's main contribution to Kazakh culture and folklore lies in his poetry, which expresses great nationalism and grew out of Kazakh folk culture. Before him, most Kazakh poetry was oral, echoing the nomadic habits of the people of the Kazakh steppes. During Abai's lifetime, however, a number of important socio-political and socio-economic changes occurred. influence continued to grow in Kazakhstan, resulting in greater educational possibilities as well as exposure to a number of different philosophies, whether Russian, Western or Asian. Abai Qunanbaiuly steeped himself in the cultural and philosophical history of these newly opened geographies. In this sense, Abai's creative poetry affected the philosophical theological thinking of educated Kazakhs.
Legacy
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The leaders of the Alash Orda movement saw him as their inspiration and spiritual predecessor.
Contemporary Kazakh images of Abai generally depict him in full traditional dress holding a dombra (the Kazakh national instrument). Today, Kazakhs revere Abai as one of the first folk heroes to enter into the national consciousness of his people. Kazakh National Pedagogical University is named after Abai, so is one of the main avenues in the city of Almaty. There are also public schools with his name. Abai is featured on postal stamps of Kazakhstan, Soviet Union, and India. The Kazakh city of Abay and the Abai Region are named after him. Among Abai's students was his nephew, a historian, philosopher, and poet Shakarim Qudayberdiuli (1858–1931).
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Statues of him have been erected in many cities of Kazakhstan, as well as Ashgabat,<ref>В столице Туркменистана открыли памятник Абаю Кунанбайулы</ref> Beijing, Moscow, New Delhi, Tehran, Berlin, Cairo, Istanbul, Antalya, Kyiv, Tashkent, Sarajevo, Bucharest and Budapest.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Abai is featured on the Kazakhstani Tenge,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a subway station in Almaty is named after him,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> along with a street, a square, a theater, and many schools.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1995, the 150th anniversary of Abai's birth, UNESCO celebrated it with the "Year of Abai" event. A film on the life of Abai was made by Kazakhfilm in 1995, titled Abai. He is also the subject of two novels and an opera by Mukhtar Auezov, another Kazakhstani writer.Template:Citation needed Another film describing his father's life was made in December 2015, titled "Qunanbai".<ref>Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> In 2016, Qunanbai film has been selected for the 12th Kazan International Muslim Film Festival.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Only 60 of 700 applied films from countries passed the official selection.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2016, Abai Qunanbaiuly was chosen as one of the nominees in the "proposed candidates" category of the national project «El Tulgasy» (Name of the Motherland) The idea of the project was to select the most significant and famous citizens of Kazakhstan whose names are now associated with the achievements of the country. More than 350,000 people voted in this project, and Abai was voted into fifth place in his category.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1995, Şair Abay Konanbay (English: Poet Abay Konanbay) Anatolian High School was opened in Sultangazi, Istanbul.
In 2020, the government of Kazakhstan announced plans to celebrate the 175th anniversary of his birthday throughout the year.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The same year, the Park and memorial plaque in honor of Abai opened in Antalya, Turkey.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2021, Abay Kunanbayoğlu Square was opened in Zeytinburnu, Istanbul.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The same year, a monument to Abai opened in Seoul, South Korea, and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took part in the opening ceremony.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A monument dedicated to Abai was unveiled in Berlin, Germany.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Another monument was unveiled in Paris, France, as part of a celebration of the 30th anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as in Atyrau in front of the center of Abai.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2022, a monument was opened in Tbilisi; the avenue next to the square where the monument was erected will also bear the name of Abay Kunanbayev.<ref>Monument to Abai unveiled in Georgia's capital</ref> The same year, a monument dedicated to the friendly relations between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan was unveiled in Bishkek.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A bust of Abai was installed in San Martin Square in New Delhi.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On 21 March 2023, a monument to Abai Kunanbayev was unveiled in Taldykorgan. The architects of the monument is Akmyrza Rustembekov and Manarbek Dzhakipbayev. The sculptor is Mirlan Azmaganbetov.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Works
[edit]Abai also translated into Kazakh the works of Russian and European authors, mostly for the first time. Translations made by him include poems by Mikhail Lermontov, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lord Byron, Ivan Krylov's Fables and Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin.
Abai's major work is The Book of Words (Template:Lang, Template:Lang), a theological philosophic treatise and collection of poems where he encourages his fellow Kazakhs to embrace education, literacy, and good moral character in order to escape poverty, enslavement and corruption. In Word Twenty Five, he discusses the importance of Russian culture, as a way for Kazakhs to be exposed to the world's cultural treasures.Template:Fact
Moscow protests in May 2012
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On 9 May 2012, after two days of protests in Moscow following Vladimir Putin's inauguration as President of the Russian Federation for the third term, protesters set up camp near the monument to Abai Qunanbaiuly on the Chistoprudny Boulevard in central Moscow, close to the embassy of Kazakhstan. The statue quickly became a reference point for the protest's participants.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> OccupyAbai was among the top ranking hashtags on Twitter for several days thanks to Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny who set up a meeting with his followers next to Abai Qunanbaiuly's monument in Moscow that he called "a monument to some unknown Kazakh". This spurred a wave of indignation among ethnic Kazakhs, who highly esteem Abai. This also brought Abai's poetry into the top 10 AppStore downloads.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]External links
[edit]- Pages with broken file links
- 1845 births
- 1904 deaths
- Kazakh people from the Russian Empire
- People from Abay District, East Kazakhstan
- Kazakh-language poets
- Kazakh-language writers
- Kazakhstani Muslims
- Kazakhstani translators
- Russian–Kazakh translators
- Kazakhstani composers
- Male composers
- 19th-century poets
- 19th-century translators
- 19th-century male musicians
- Translators of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Hanafis
- Maturidis
- Kazakhstani male writers
- Muslims from the Russian Empire