Turkmen literature

Turkmen literature consists of works written by the Turkmen people of Central Asia and, for the most part, in the Turkmen language. The Turkmen people are located mainly in modern-day Turkmenistan. However, the Turkmen people and Turkmen literature have a complex history because of conflict, migration, and social changes.

Turkmen literature first developed in the 1700s, though other works helped lay the groundwork for it. Although the most famous examples of Turkmen literature date from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, writers continue to contribute to the field in contemporary times.

Background

The Turkmen people live in Turkmenistan and other parts of Central Asia and Eurasia. Some modern Turkmen maintain a nomadic lifestyle, but many also are now stationary. Although most Turkmen live in Turkmenistan, significant populations also live in Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, and several other countries.

The first Indigenous groups of Turkmen were nomadic sheep herders who started living in Central Asia at least as early as 900 Common Era (CE). They were surrounded by speakers of Turkic languages, a family of more than thirty languages that developed in Asia and Eurasia. The Turkmen groups developed their own unique tongue that belonged to the West Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages. Other West Oghuz languages include Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Uzbek. Turkmen, Turkish, and Uzbek are so similar that some scholars consider them mutually intelligible.

Turkmen living in Turkmenistan—where Turkmen is the official language—speak in several different dialects, including Teke, Chowdur, Yomut, Nerezim, Salyr, Arsari, and Saryk. Turkmen living in other countries also speak different dialects (e.g., Arsari is spoken in Afghanistan, and Yomut is spoken in Iran).

In contemporary times, Turkmen is the official language of Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan was annexed by the Russian Empire in the late nineteenth century. Under Soviet occupation during the middle and latter twentieth century, Russian was the language used in universities, but in contemporary times, Turkmen is the language used for instruction in schools. Most media outlets in Turkmenistan broadcast in Turkmen, though some programs are still broadcast in Russian, in part because the country has a Russian-speaking minority.

The first known examples of written Turkmen date from the nineteenth century. The earliest examples of the written language use a form of Arabic. However, like many other languages from Central Asia and Eurasia, Turkmen has been written with different alphabets at different times. In the early 1900s, Turkmen speakers adopted a Latin alphabet. However, during Soviet rule in mid-to-late-1900s, the language used a Cyrillic alphabet. After Turkmenistan regained its independence in 1991, the country adopted a revised Latin alphabet. However, Turkmen living in Afghanistan and some other places continue to use an Arabic script.

Overview

Although scholars point to the 1800s and the development of a written Turkmen script as the starting point of Turkmen literature, this body of literature has roots in poetry that dates to the medieval period. For example, the poet Imād al-Dīn Nesīmī (sometimes called Nesimi) lived in the late 1300s and early 1400s. He wrote poetry in Azerbaijani and Persian, but his form and style helped inspire later Turkmen poetry. Other inspirations for Turkmen literature include Persian poets Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (Firdawsi) and Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (Rumi).

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, other famous poets helped to establish the Turkmen literary tradition. ʿAndalīb, a Turkmen poet of the late 1600s and early 1700s, wrote in Chagatai, another Turkic language. ʿAndalīb wrote a Turkmen style of epic poetry in which he told stories about the history of the Turkmen people. ʿAndalīb also wrote imitations of poems by famous Turkish poet ʿAlī Shīr Navāʾī, who lived in the 1400s. Dövletmemmed Āzādī (Dovletmammet Azadi) was another important Turkmen poet who wrote in the Chagatai language.

Starting in the 1800s, other dominant powers in Central Asia, such as the Khanate of Khiva and Persia, became weaker. This allowed the Turkmen people to develop a national literature. Unlike many other Turkic languages in the region, the writing did not emulate the Persian literary tradition for the most part. Instead, the literature was based on Turkmen oral storytelling and poetry. Makhtumquli Fïrāghī (Maghdïmgïlï) is considered the founder of Turkmen literature and is one of the most significant figures in the field. He wrote poems in the Turkmen language and set a course for the future of Turkmen literature. Makhtumquli Fïrāghī may have written as many as eight hundred poems, though scholars believe some of those works may be apocryphal. None of the poet’s surviving works are very long. Although his poems were written, people also circulated them through spoken performances. In part because of that, his works were popular among many different groups—not just the Turkmen people. Makhtumquli Fïrāghī wrote poems that were often melancholy and despairing about rampant injustice and the state of the world. He also wrote poems that taught moral lessons.

This period of Turkmen literature is best known for its classic Turkmen poetry, much of which was written in traditional Turkmen poetic forms. Among the most famous of these forms was the destan. These epic poems developed in written Turkmen language in the 1800s and focused on folk legends, myths, heroes, and romance. The Turkmen destan was unique from other, similar forms of epic poetry common in other literary traditions. For example, the Turkmen destan combines poetry and prose—though most similar writing forms used only one or the other.

Makhtumquli Fïrāghī helped inspire numerous other Turkmen poets who became famous for their work in the 1800s. Mämmetweli Kemine was known for his satirical work, which often criticized the powerful. One of his poems became the Turkmen folk song “Akmeňli.” Magrupi was a poet who was known for writing destans. Shabende was a musician and poet. He often used themes that were common in Persian literature. Mollanepes was a poet who was most famous for his destan Zöhre-Tahir.

Although the mythology and folklore of the destans was common in Turkmen poetry in the 1800s, realism became more common in the early 1900s. This movement also brought about more prose writing than had been common in the Turkmen literature of the 1800s.

Turkmen literature changed dramatically when the Soviets overtook the region in the twentieth century. The Soviets approved of and encouraged the reading of traditional poets such as Makhtumquli Fïrāghī, because the Soviets framed these writers as heroes. Yet, the Soviets also viewed the Turkmen people and other people of Central Asia as having backward cultures that needed changing. The result was an attempt to erase parts of the traditional Turkmen culture.

Soviets tried to spread Russian culture, including Russian literature and language. The Soviet efforts did influence some Turkmen literature. For example, Berdi Kerbabayev was a Turkmen living under Soviet control. He studied Russian literature and began writing prose stories. In the 1930s, he wrote the novel The Decisive Step (1940), which is about Turkmen people and Russians developing a new culture together. Kerbabayev was one of the most important Turkmen authors during the Soviet occupation.

Soviet occupation also changed Turkmen literature because it changed the region’s education system. The Jadids were Muslim reformists living in the Soviet Union in the mid-1900s. These reformers believed that many Muslim cultures in Central Asia needed changing and were suffering without the technological advances that industrialized nations had. Education reform was important to the Jadids because they believed educating the Turkmen people and other Muslims in the region would help them adopt more modern customs and ways of life. Some Turkmen people were inspired by the Jadids, and they developed new education systems that introduced subjects such as geography, history, and hygiene. This revolution in education had an important impact on Turkmen literature because it increased literacy rates, which became close to 100 percent after the education reforms were enacted.

Turkmenistan independence in the late twentieth century brought huge geopolitical changes that influenced culture and literature dramatically. However, the legacy of Soviet systems and beliefs continued to influence Turkmen literature for years. In 1990, Saparmurat Niyazov became the president of a free Turkmenistan. He wrote the book Rukhnama (or Ruhnama; 2001) about the founding of the Turkmen nation. Niyazov envisioned the book as a work of spiritual guidance for the Turkmen people, and Turkmen schoolchildren were required to read it. It remains an important post-Soviet work of Turkmen literature.

In the twenty-first century, Turkmen literature continued to find inspiration in national identity and cultural heritage, but there was also an increased focus on personal narratives and expression. Although government restrictions on free expression were limiting, contemporary Turkmen authors discussed modern social challenges in their works. Although Turkmen literature had limited exposure outside the country in the twenty-first century, Turkmen authors who gained international attention included Orazguly Annayev, Gurbannazar Orazgulyev, and Gurbaniaz Dashgynov.

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