Description

Paperback. Roy. 8vo. (23 x 16 cm). In Chagatai with Uzbek dialect. [vi], [2], [110] p. 1-100 pp. facsimile in Chagatai with Uzbek dialect; 6 p. text in Turkish. Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur (Uzbek: Abulg'ozi Bahodirxon aka Abulgazi, Ebulgazi, Abu-l-Ghazi, August 24, 1603 - 1663) was a khan of the Khanate of Khiva from 1643 to 1663. He spent ten years in Persia before becoming khan, and was very well educated, writing two historical works in the Khiva dialect of the Chagatai language. Abu al-Ghazi is known as the author of two historical works: "Genealogy of the Turkmen" Shajare-i Tarakime finished in 1661 and "Genealogy of the Türks" Shajare-i Türk finished in 1665. These are important sources for modern knowledge of Central Asian history. The Shajare-i Türk history of the Türkic people was Abu al-Ghazi opus magnum, its title was variously translated as "Genealogy of the Türks" and "Genealogy of the Tatars", the "Shajare" being Türkic for "genealogy". According to Abu al-Ghazi, in Shajare-i Türk he used the work of Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi, and other writers, totaling 18 historical sources, and corrected them in accordance with Turkic oral traditions which he was taught as a Prince. A manuscript of the Shajare-i Türk was purchased in Tobolsk from a Bukhara merchant by Swedish officers detained in Russian captivity in Siberia; using the local literate Tatars, the Swedish officers first translated the book into Russian, and then they retranslated it into various other languages. The French translation of the Shajare-i Türk was first published in Leiden in 1726, the French translation served as an original for a Russian translation published in 1768-1774, in 1780 it was published separately in German and English, and during the 18th century was widely read in Europe. In the 19th and 20th centuries were published numerous critical translations of the Shajare-i Türk, which serve as historical sources for modern scholars. The first critical translation, performed by professional scholars, was published in Kazan in 1825. The Turkish translation of the text published in Kazan was done by philologist Vefik Ahmed Pasha and initially published in 1864. The most influential Western publication was Historie des Mogols et des Tatares par Aboul-Ghazi Behadour Khan, publiee, traduite et annotee par le baron Desmaisons, St.-Petersbourg 1871-1874.