“Abushqa” — The Key to Understanding Navoi’s Works

“Abushqa” — A “Turki-Chagatai” Dictionary for Alisher Navoi’s Works
St. Petersburg, National Library of Russia, Dorn 594
1560, Istanbul.

Compiling dictionaries for Alisher Navoi’s works was carried out during various dynasties. In particular, many dictionaries were created during the Safavid, Ustunid, Baburid, and other periods to facilitate understanding of Navoi’s writings. One such dictionary, compiled in 1560 in Istanbul during the Ottoman era, is conventionally known as “Abushqa”. The book begins by explaining the Chagatai Turkic word “abushqa,” hence the name. Although the introduction of the work is written in Old Uzbek, it provides thousands of Old Uzbek words with their Ottoman Turkish equivalents.

Currently, this manuscript is preserved in the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg, within the Dorn Collection under the number 594. Notably, the preface of this work is written in the style of Navoi, in Old Uzbek.

“Abushqa” — The Key to Understanding Navoi’s Works

The Abushqa dictionary, a significant source for those seeking a deeper understanding of Alisher Navoi’s works, is one of the annotated dictionaries compiled in the 16th century in Turkey. Although the author remains unknown, this work holds an important place in Uzbek literature and linguistics.

The dictionary is named Abushqa because it begins with the word of the same name, which in Old Uzbek means “elder”, “aged”, or “venerable”. The dictionary reflects not only Navoi’s distinctive literary style but also the language and spiritual context of the era in which he lived.

Interestingly, the dictionary includes examples not only from Navoi’s writings but also from the works of his contemporaries. This shows that Abushqa served not merely one poet or a single language, but the entire literary environment of that time.

The compilation of Abushqa extensively drew from the 15th-century Uzbek-Persian dictionary “Bada’ al-Lughat” created by Toli Imani from Herat. This indicates that the work was built on solid scholarly foundations and was particularly helpful for those aiming to understand Navoi’s works through Persian.

Abushqa was first published in 1862 in Budapest by the Hungarian orientalist Armin Vambery. Later, Russian orientalist V. Velyaminov-Zernov republished it in Russia under the title Al-Lughat an-Navoi wa’l-Istishhadat al-Chaghataiyya — “The Navoi Dictionary with Chagatai Citations”. This edition helped bring the dictionary into the broader international academic field.

Today, Abushqa remains an invaluable source for understanding the richness of the Uzbek language, as well as Navoi’s linguistic and literary style. It serves not only linguists but also literary scholars, historians, and a wide audience of readers.

Durdona Rasulova

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