HOW MANY “BLACK WORD” DOES ABAI HAVE?

Abstract

One of the leading names of modern Kazakh literature and Kazakh written language, Abai Kunanbaev's thoughts, in which he expresses his determinations, ideas and views on social life, are often called "Black Word". Abai is an observer who observes the society he belongs to very well, expresses the deficiencies in it and proposes solutions to eliminate these deficiencies. In the 21st century, studies in Cyrillic letters, in which Black Words and poems belonging to Abai are compiled, the total of the aforementioned ideas is shown as 45. There is disagreement in the total number of Black Words belonging to Abai. Also, it is seen that the numbers given in the total number of poems attributed to him do not match each other. In fact, it is a fact that new poems belonging to Abai have come to the surface as the studies on Arabic scripts increased. It is not yet clear whether there is a work written directly by Abai. However, the most important source on Abai and his works is the copies written in Arabic letters by Murseit Bikeuly. It is known that Murseit Bikeuly is one of the people closest to Abai. One of these copies in Arabic letters is the manuscript dated March 25, 1907. Some of the texts numbered as Black Word in Cyrillic prints were named with different titles in the aforementioned manuscript. In this article, the total number of "Black Words" by Abai has been focused on and a new reading attempt has been made on his thoughts on the origin of the Kazakhs.