# Mahmud al-Kashgari
**Mahmud al-Kashgari** (محمود كاشغري), full name Mahmud ibn al-Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Kashgari, was an eleventh-century scholar and lexicographer of the [Turkic languages](https://www.edgepedia.org/turkic-languages) of the Karakhanid Khaganate, the Muslim Turkic dynasty that ruled Central Asia in that century.[1](https://muslimheritage.com/people/scholars/al-kashgari/) • [2](https://eslam.de/begriffe/m/mahmud_kaschghari.htm) • [3](https://portal.dnb.de/opacPresentation?cqlMode=true&query=idn%3D119543257&referrerPosition=0&referrerResultId=nid%3D4485806-1%26any&reset=true) He is known for the *Diwan Lughat al-Turk* (Compendium of the Languages of the Turks), a comparative lexicon of Turkic dialects with Arabic equivalents that he began in [Baghdad](https://www.edgepedia.org/baghdad) in AH 464 (1072) and completed there in AH 466 (1074), presenting it to the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadi bi-Amr Allah.[4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud) • [5](https://www.linearhistory.com/en/figure/alim-ka-sgarli-mahmud)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Identity | Eleventh-century Karakhanid scholar and lexicographer of the Turkic languages[1](https://muslimheritage.com/people/scholars/al-kashgari/) • [3](https://portal.dnb.de/opacPresentation?cqlMode=true&query=idn%3D119543257&referrerPosition=0&referrerResultId=nid%3D4485806-1%26any&reset=true) |
| Family | Son of the emir of Barsgan, on Lake Issyk-Kul; descendant of the Karakhanid ruling dynasty[6](https://doi.org/10.59849/2313-5204.2024.1.23) • [7](https://tsj.enu.kz/index.php/new/article/view/808) |
| Flight from Kashgar | 1057, after a palace assassination killed his father and family members[8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud) • [5](https://www.linearhistory.com/en/figure/alim-ka-sgarli-mahmud) |
| Principal work | *Diwan Lughat al-Turk*, written in Baghdad 1072–1074 and presented to Caliph al-Muqtadi[4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud) • [8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud) |
| Manuscript | Sole surviving copy in the Millet Manuscript Library, Istanbul; copied in Damascus, completed 27 Shawwal 664 (1 August 1266)[4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud) • [5](https://www.linearhistory.com/en/figure/alim-ka-sgarli-mahmud) |
| Return home | 1080, to Opal near Kashgar, where he founded the Mahmudiyya madrasa and taught until his death[4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud) • [8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud) |
| Death | At age 97; dated 1090 in one tradition, with other accounts giving 1105 or 1126[8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud) • [9](https://dergipark.anas.az/index.php/turkology/article/download/1436/1391/1593) |
## Origins and family
Mahmud was born into the ruling family of the Karakhanid Khaganate.[7](https://tsj.enu.kz/index.php/new/article/view/808) • [6](https://doi.org/10.59849/2313-5204.2024.1.23) Accounts of his paternal line differ: one account states that his father, Husayn ibn Muhammad, was the emir of Barsgan, a town on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul, and a grandson of Bughra Khan, the Karakhanid ruler who invaded [Transoxiana](https://www.edgepedia.org/transoxiana),[6](https://doi.org/10.59849/2313-5204.2024.1.23) while another account gives his father as Huseyin Chaghri Tigin, emir of [Taraz](https://www.edgepedia.org/taraz) and Isbicab, and his grandfather as Muhammed Bughra Han, son of the Karakhanid ruler Yusuf Kadir Han.[4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud) In the Diwan's dedication Mahmud describes himself as deeply rooted in the Turkic people by lineage, and says his family was known in the country as emirs, naming an ancestor as a conqueror of places under Samanid rule.[8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud)
His birthplace and birth year are disputed. The TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi records that although his kunya points to Kashgar, his birthplace was Barsgan, where his father was emir; earlier estimates placed his birth between 1029 and 1038, but later information gives it as 1008.[8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud) A Turkish reference work on Islamic literatures states he was born in AH 398 (1008) in the village of Opal, 45 km west of Kashgar.[4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud) A Kyrgyz tradition confirms Barsgan as the birthplace, while a Uyghur-source tradition places it in Opal.[8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud)
His mother was Bubi Rabia, daughter of Hoca Seyfeddin Buzurgvar, one of the leading ulama of the Karakhanid realm, and she had great influence on his education.[8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud) • [4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud) He studied first in Opal and then at the Hamidiyye and Saciyye madrasas in Kashgar, learning the classical sciences along with Arabic and Persian.[8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud) • [4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud)
## Career
In 1057 Mahmud's father and family members were killed in a palace assassination, and he was forced to leave Kashgar; in the same year Ibrahim became khagan of the Western Karakhanids after a palace coup, and Mahmud fled the lands of that state.[8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud) • [5](https://www.linearhistory.com/en/figure/alim-ka-sgarli-mahmud) He then traveled for years through the Turkic lands collecting material for his lexicon, arriving in Baghdad in 1072.[8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud)
In Baghdad he began the *Diwan Lughat al-Turk* in AH 464 (1072) and completed it in AH 466 (1074), presenting it to the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadi bi-Amr Allah.[4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud) • [8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud) A journal study dates the work's writing between 464 and AH 469 (1072–1077).[7](https://tsj.enu.kz/index.php/new/article/view/808)
The Diwan is the first encyclopedic dictionary of the Turkic language.[4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud) • [10](https://www.transanatolie.com/english/turkey/Turks/Turkish%20Philosophers/kasgarli-mahmut.htm) Its sole surviving manuscript, held at the Fatih Millet Library in Istanbul (Arabic MSS 4189), was copied in Damascus by Muhammed bin Ebu Bekr ibn Ebu'l-Feth es-Savi ed-Dimashki and completed on 27 Shawwal 664 (1 August 1266); the 638-page text explains about 9,000 Turkic words and phrases with their Arabic equivalents.[4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud)
In AH 472 (1080) he returned to his homeland, settling in Opal, where he founded a madrasa and served as its mudarris (teacher) until his death.[4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud) • [8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud)
## Political influence
Mahmud's influence on public life ran through scholarship and teaching rather than office. By presenting the Diwan to the Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadi in Baghdad, he placed the study of the Turkic languages before the court of the caliphate, at a time when Baghdad itself was under the political control of the Turkic-speaking Seljuk sultans.[8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud) • [7](https://tsj.enu.kz/index.php/new/article/view/808) In Baghdad he engaged in scientific and educational work and mentored numerous students.[9](https://dergipark.anas.az/index.php/turkology/article/download/1436/1391/1593) The institution he founded on his return, the Mahmudiyya madrasa in Opal, was named after him, and he taught there until his death.[5](https://www.linearhistory.com/en/figure/alim-ka-sgarli-mahmud) • [4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud)
## Death and successors
One tradition gives his age at death as ninety-seven, though this is incompatible with the reported birth year of 1008 and a death in 1090; the dates proposed for his death differ: the TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi gives 1090 in Opal, where he taught, while other accounts give 1105 or 1126.[8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud) The Turk Dil Kurumu gives his death in AH 477 (1084/1085).[11](https://tdk.gov.tr/divanu-lugatit-turk/kasgarli-mahmud/) A journal study states that the year and place of his death remain unknown.[7](https://tsj.enu.kz/index.php/new/article/view/808) His tomb is in the garden of the madrasa where he taught, at Azak village near Opal.[4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud)
## Historians' assessment
Scholars treat Mahmud as more than a traditional lexicographer: through the Diwan he established the first systematic and scholarly framework for the study and analysis of the Turkic languages, and he is assessed as a pioneering figure in field linguistics, comparative language studies, and the documentation of oral cultures in the Islamic world.[12](https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/irtad/article/1938913) His methodology was field-based, grounded in the collection of oral data, and included a classification of Turkic dialects.[12](https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/irtad/article/1938913) Orientalists Gotthelf Bergstrasser and Anas Khalidov showed that his method was derived from the work of the Central Asian linguist Abu Ibrahim Ishaq al-Farabi (died AH 350/961–962), a native of Farab; Kashgari even used the title of al-Farabi's work as a template.[7](https://tsj.enu.kz/index.php/new/article/view/808)
The dates of his life remain unsettled among serious sources. Birth years proposed include 1008, between 1029 and 1038, and 1029 or 1030; death years proposed include 1084/1085, 1090, 1105, and 1126 or 1127.[8](https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud) • [11](https://tdk.gov.tr/divanu-lugatit-turk/kasgarli-mahmud/) • [13](https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/7656) The completion date of the Diwan is likewise given as AH 466 (1074), as January 1077, or as a range of AH 464–469 (1072–1077).[4](https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud) • [5](https://www.linearhistory.com/en/figure/alim-ka-sgarli-mahmud) • [7](https://tsj.enu.kz/index.php/new/article/view/808)
## Legacy
The Diwan serves as a primary source for the ethnographic study of [Turkic peoples](https://www.edgepedia.org/turkic-peoples). A systematic analysis identified 1,842 ethnographically relevant lexical items from a corpus of more than 7,500 entries, 24.6 percent of the total lexical stock, and found 62.2 percent lexical-cultural continuity between the text and living Uzbek, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz ethnographic traditions.[14](http://ifsmrc.org/index.php/aijrm/article/view/295) Modern scholarship on Kashgari is organized around the ethno-cultural history of the Turkic peoples between the ninth and twelfth centuries and the study of the Diwan itself, across Turkish, European, and Russo-Soviet Oriental studies.[15](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19699763)
## References
1. Al-Kashgari, Mahmud – Muslim Heritage. https://muslimheritage.com/people/scholars/al-kashgari/
2. Mahmud Kaschghari, eslam.de. https://eslam.de/begriffe/m/mahmud_kaschghari.htm
3. DNB, Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek. https://portal.dnb.de/opacPresentation?cqlMode=true&query=idn%3D119543257&referrerPosition=0&referrerResultId=nid%3D4485806-1%26any&reset=true
4. KÂŞGARLI MAHMÛD – TEİS. https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/kasgarli-mahmud
5. Mahmud al-Kashgari, The father of Turkology, Linear History. https://www.linearhistory.com/en/figure/alim-ka-sgarli-mahmud
6. The personality of Mahmud Kashgari and the period when "Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk" was composed. https://doi.org/10.59849/2313-5204.2024.1.23
7. The place, time and method of writing the 'Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk' by Mahmud Kashgari Barskani, Turkic Studies Journal. https://tsj.enu.kz/index.php/new/article/view/808
8. KÂŞGARLI MAHMUD – TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/kasgarli-mahmud
9. The personality of Mahmud Kashgari and the period when "Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk" was composed, Turkology (ANAS). https://dergipark.anas.az/index.php/turkology/article/download/1436/1391/1593
10. Kâşgarlı, Transanatolie. https://www.transanatolie.com/english/turkey/Turks/Turkish%20Philosophers/kasgarli-mahmut.htm
11. Kâşgarlı Mahmud – Türk Dil Kurumu. https://tdk.gov.tr/divanu-lugatit-turk/kasgarli-mahmud/
12. Mahmud al-Kashgari and his famous work Diwan Lughat al-Turk, İran ve Turan Tarihi Araştırmaları Dergisi. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/irtad/article/1938913
13. "Diwan Lughat al-Turk" of Mahmoud Kashgari, e-history.kz. https://e-history.kz/en/news/show/7656
14. Mahmud Kashgari's 'Diwan Lughat al-Turk' as a primary source for the ethnographic study of Turkic peoples, IFSMRC AIJRM. http://ifsmrc.org/index.php/aijrm/article/view/295
15. Historiography of the study of Mahmud al-Kashghari's legacy. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19699763
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Other history › Middle East and North Africa › Seljuk and Khwarazmian period (1037 to 1308) › Scholars, writers, and works*
*Initially written Sep 23, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*
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