Qul Ghali (

Volga Türki The Old Tatar language was a literary language used by some ethnic groups of the Idel-Ural region (Tatars and Bashkirs) from the Middle Ages until the early 20th century. Old Tatar is a member of the Kipchak (or Northwestern) group of Turkic l ...

: قل علی; , ; ; ; – 1236) was a famous

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Volga Bulgarian poet. His most famous poem is ''Qissa-i Yusuf'' (قصه یوسف; ''Tale of

Yusuf Yusuf ( ') is a male name meaning " God increases" (in piety, power and influence).From the Hebrew יהוה להוסיף ''YHWH Lhosif'' meaning " YHWH will increase/add". It is the Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew name Yosef and the English na ...

''), written in the Volga Turki language, which is mutually intelligible with the modern Tatar, Bashkir and Chuvash languages.

Biography

According to historian Ravil Bukharaev, Ghali was likely born into a cleric family in Volga Bulgaria. He studied in the

Khwarezm Khwarazm (; ; , ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the east by the Kyzylkum Desert, on the south by ...

ean

madrassah Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary education or higher learning. ...

. Ghali also resided or studied in various areas around Volga Bulgaria and possibly traveled to Iran, Syria and other parts of the Middle East. He wrote his immortal poem in 1233. It is theorized that Ghali spent his last years at Bilyar. He was probably killed in 1236 during the

Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria The Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria lasted from 1223 to 1236. The Bulgar state, centered in lower Volga and Kama, was the center of the fur trade in Eurasia throughout most of its history. Before the Mongol conquest, Russians of Novgoro ...

Works

''Qissa-i Yusuf'' (قصه یوسف, also transliterated ''Qïssa-yï Yusuf''), also known as the ''Yosïfnamä'', was inspired by

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

ic stories of

Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

. The poem is devoted to the struggle against evil and for human happiness. The poem played a major role in the Muslim Volga Bulgarian culture and later the Bashkir and Tatar culture. More than 200 manuscripts have been found among the

Bashkirs The Bashkirs ( , ) or Bashkorts (, ; , ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group indigenous to Russia. They are concentrated in Bashkortostan, a Republics of Russia, republic of the Russian Federation and in the broader historical region of B ...

and

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

. According to textual analysis, the poem contains many Persian and Arabic loanwords. The poem shows familiarity with Egyptian and other Middle Eastern customs but also contains detailed descriptions of the culture and customs of the inhabitants of Volga Bulgaria.

Legacy

His poems are celebrated by the

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

and the Chuvash. ''Qissa-i Yusuf'' was often used as a textbook to teach or improve the reading skills of children and adults for centuries. The poem greatly influenced later poets in the region. According to Agnès Kefeli, "from its publication to the end of the nineteenth century, this epic remained a 'best seller' on the Silk Road from Russia to China"; among nineteenth-century Tatar Muslim women, "when a girl got married, the custom was to wrap Qul ‘Ali’s book of Joseph in an embroidered towel and place it at the bottom of her wedding chest". The poem was prepared for publishing for the first time by the poet Utız İmäni and printed in 1839 by Räxmätulla Ämirxanov. Since then it has been republished 80 times and translated into English.Kol Gali, ''The Story of Joseph/Kissa'i Yusuf'', trans. by Fred Beake and Ravil Bukharaev (Folkestone: Global Oriental, 2010/Boston: Brill, 2010), , , , .

Qul Ghali award

The ''Qul Ghali International Award'' is named after Qul Ghali. It is awarded to recognize excellence in literature and poetry. The award was established in 1992.

References

{{authority control Volga Bulgaria Tatar poets Chuvash-language poets