Bauyrzhan Bozhbanbayev

Almaty Academy of Economics and Statistics, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Aizhan Turgenbayeva

Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan

2008.1985@mail.ru

Arman Aubakir

Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan arman.aubakir@gmail.com

Kairat Zhanabayev

Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan ovlur1963@mail.ru

Abstract

The pathway has been the cause of the development and progress of nations, economic exchange of nations and civilizations throughout history has taken place through roads. Historical and archaeological surveys show that in the past, roads and important ways have been created to connect cities and centers of civilization to the Turkish plateau. The role of the Silk Road as one of the oldest means of communication in cultural communication and tourism development is undeniable. In this paper, attempted to briefly investigate the importance of the Silk Road on the development of its peripheral areas, especially on the Iranian plateau.

Keywords: Ancient Turks, Great Silk Road, Art and Crafts, Contact and Typological Relations.

Recibido: 10-01-2018 Aceptado: 09-03-2018

523 Aubakir .et al.

Opción, Año 34, No. 85 (2018): 522-550

El papel del medio ambiente: La ruta de la seda en la historia del pueblo turco

Resumen

El camino ha sido la causa del desarrollo y el progreso de las naciones; el intercambio económico de naciones y civilizaciones a lo largo de la historia ha tenido lugar a través de las carreteras. Los estudios históricos y arqueológicos muestran que, en el pasado, se han creado caminos y vías importantes para conectar ciudades y centros de civilización con la meseta turca. El papel de la Ruta de la Seda como uno de los medios de comunicación más antiguos en la comunicación cultural y el desarrollo del turismo es innegable. En este artículo, intentamos investigar brevemente la importancia de la Ruta de la Seda en el desarrollo de sus áreas periféricas, especialmente en la meseta iraní.

Palabras clave: Turcos Antiguos, Gran Ruta de la Seda, Arte y

Artesanía, Contacto y Relaciones Tipológicas.

INTRODUCTION

Roads and settlements among the Turkic, both in ancient times and subsequent periods, have always been regarded as an inevitable necessity. Accordingly, the causes of the tendency of the Turks to develop and, consequently, their development and skill development in this section are largely due to the conditions and characteristics of the ruling land of Iran. Caravansaries are a commemoration of Iran's several thousand years’ history of road construction. In the distant days, humans could not care for the road that was hard, unsafe and uneven. They were passing through hard deserts and walking in harsh mountains, but they were overcome all these problems to survive. Iran is a semi-arid country with very few rainfall. Villages and cities on the Turkish plateau are far from each other. The article tells about the beneficial role of the Silk Road in the history of

The role of the environment: Silk road in the history of turkic people 524

the Turkic nomadic and middle-aged urban Turkic cultures. The great Silk Road was the first experience of world globalization, the source of flourishing of many civilizations. The value and humanistic aspects of the Turkic poetic culture of the antiquity and classical medieval Islam are comparatively considered in the article. It is shown that due to contacts with the richest cultures of the silk road, the time of its classical flourishing, the whole formally contented nature of the Turkic text, originally possessing traditional and ritual-and-ceremonial nature, was changed, but under the Arab-Persian poetics powerful influence, acquired the forms of high classics, with new ideological and thematic content, corresponding to own time. The object-value world of the silk road was reflected in the turkic runic texts of the 8th century and in the Turkic- speaking poems of urban culture during the flourishing of Islamic classics, as well as in dastans of the north caucasus, middle and central asia and south Siberia, in the lyric and epic heritage of nomadic nogai and Kazakh zhyrau and akyns of the 15-18th centuries. Humanistic, peacemaking, creative role of outstanding figures of the Turkic culture during the period of Islamic flourishing is revealed on the great Silk Road. The idea of the beneficial role of outstanding representatives of the Turkic history of culture in formation of the intellectual and spiritual and moral environment of the Silk Road runs like a golden thread.

2. THE ROLE OF THE ENVIRONMENT: SILK ROAD IN THE HISTORY OF TURKIC PEOPLE

This article became the answer to many stereotypes that were formed in modern science and culture regarding the role of Turks in

building of the human culture. In order to explore the role of Turks in the great Silk Road objectively, it is important to reveal their cultural and historical specifics, nature of change of their historical, spiritual and economical life in the context of unique historical flourishing of classical culture of the Silk Road. None civilization of the world avoided this pattern. We talk about contact and typological relations that shaped the specifics and dynamics of the Silk Road, a special environment. The content of the environment can be different. It can be an almost ideal environment of the musical and singing culture of Kazakh nomads, which

survived almost to the 20th century and has preserved its compositional

and performing regional schools up to our day.

This can be an absolutely military environment of the nomadic sakas. This can be a peaceful global trade and economic environment, which most vividly characterizes the specifics of the Silk Road or, for example, the spiritual and religious environment of tibet and nepal, etc.

Analyzing the structure and semantics of the old turkic poetic text, we note the indissoluble connection of the turkic oral and poetic musical tradition with folklore, ceremony, ritual, with the oral folk environment, with the warrior epos, etc., what we call as the environment, or - and the initial foundations of the culture. Certainly, “analysis of the structure and semantics of oral samples of the zhyrau poetry, that created before the era of runic writing, and up to the 19th century, sheds the light on the close connection of the creativity of ritual mediators with both runes and the ancient solar myth and ceremony”(Zhanabayev and Akberdykizi, 2015).We observe the similar processes due to the flourishing of the Kushan Empire, which included such outstanding

civilizations as sogdiana, Parthia, north India, Bactria. They pushed

kushans to the rapid growth of the economy and culture. We also see the same processes due to the classical flourishing of the culture of the Arab middle ages, when the Arabs not only brought the various tribes into a uniform social and religious and cultural communication, but also greatly enriched, highly grew in the process of international contacts and mutual influence, and took one of the first places in world culture.

The Silk Road appeared as an environment of global trade and economic interaction, as a critical need for the coexistence of different peoples in the process of centuries-old contacts between them. Its main spiritual and content component in the middle ages - literary arabic language and arabic classical culture - were also the result of useful contacts in the field of science, art and economics. On the one hand, the arabs dominated as the militarily new power that ruled on the silk road and, on the other hand, because of the inevitable contacts with the more culturally rich traditions of the caucasus, north india, iran, middle east, desht-i-kipchak, they came to unprecedented flourishing in their history. The focus of advanced sciences, cultures and arts in the field of arab spirituality and intellectual space of the great silk road became the result of a meaningful need for joint cultural and economic coexistence.The topicality is caused not only by the underestimation in science of the turkic humanistic creative start(STARR, 2015). Today in the 21st century, when we see a complete misunderstanding between the christian west and muslim east, when there is no constructive dialogue between them, a new actual content is given to the idea of universal spiritualization and tolerance, so vividly characterized the environment of the silk road.And when in the medieval Europe the inquisition burned the books of scientists and the humanists themselves, those, who saved the immortal classical

legacy of antiquity with their translations and comments of scientific and literary works, were poets, enlighteners, encyclopedists of the great silk road. That is the peacekeeping bridge, the actual dialogue of cultures of the west and east, which is necessary for all of us today (Starr, 2013).

3. METHODOLOGY

The main objective of this article is to find out the role and place of the Silk Road as a symbol of intercultural dialogue, the integration of ethnicities, and the strengthening of the cultural and economic context in realizing the idea of the Islamic people in the era of Globalization, as well as introducing the historical, cultural and geographic capabilities of its revival. The main material to cover the topic, in addition to historical ones, was the literary texts of ancient Turks of the Turkickhanate period, classical examples of Turkic poetry of the kara-khanid period, as well as studies and monographs of various Kazakh and foreign scientists: philosophers, culture experts, and medieval literary scholars.

The role of the environment is shown: due to contacts with various cultures of the Silk Road, and under the powerful influence of Arab- Persian poetics, the Turkic poetry was greatly enriched with new genre forms, acquired the features and pathos of high classics, genuine world poetic art. All the poetic, formally contented nature of the Turkic text, which originally had only a traditional and ritual-ceremonial aspect, changed. It acquired new, classical, forms and new ideological and thematic content. The environment of the Silk Road is marked with a brilliant group of outstanding Turkic scientists, poets, humanists, who

worked in accordance with new requests, ideological and aesthetic demands of the time. New social and economic, religious, cultural- linguistic and other factors, certainly, formed a new Turkic literary language, and, accordingly, a new thinking of Turks of the classical medieval era.In order to analyze the contacts of ancient Turks with the culture of the Silk Road, we used materials on culture of ancient and medieval cities, as well as on literature and art, philosophy and aesthetics.

So, according to Nurzhanov, the famous Kazakh philosopher, the great Silk Road was the first experience of the world globalization. Therefore, the value humanistic aspects of the Turkic poetic culture, as an epoch of antiquity and the time of the classical middle ages are comparatively considered, the nature of their changes is shown, their object world is presented in detail in the article. The comparative and typological method gave us an objective idea of the initial specifics, functions and national peculiarities of the Turkic ancient and medieval culture. The system and analytical method helped to study the object- value content of the spiritual and intellectual world of the silk road more

deeply both in the Turkic runic texts of the 18th century, and in the Turkic-

speaking monuments of urban culture of flourishing of Islamic classics, as well as in all lyric and lyrical and epic dastans of the north caucasus, middle and central asia and southern Siberia, in the epic heritage of kazakh nomadic zhyrau and akyns of the 15-18th centuries. In this research, using the historical method and examining the existing documents, the strategic functions of the Silk Road have been evaluated and evaluated. In this review, valid documents have been used and document breaks have been addressed using a comparison of evidence and logical analysis. Also, all resources used in this research are of a kind of

written sources and due to the importance of discussing less oral sources.

4. DISCUSSIONS

From the point of view of the research methods presented above, it is quite obvious that the comparative method is coming to the fore. It helped to present not only the specifics of the pre-islamic nomadic culture of the turks in its comparison with the urban classical culture of the middle ages(Stebleva, 1982), but also to see its positive role in formation of the culture of islamic classics, reveal its unique features in comparison with the persian and arab traditions. Historical and functional approach helped to take a fresh look at the essence of the Turkic archaic culture, the poetic text, its original connection not only with myth, ceremony and ritual, but also with specific social functions. In the classical period, the Turkic poetic text acquired new public functions in connection with the new religious and ideological content. This is the mystical preaching poetry of kh.a. Yassawi, or an enlightening poem of Yu. Balasaguni. According to our opinion, the complex and concentric method, developed by Ye.d. Tursunov, well-known turkologist-folklorist, is the most valuable in the general framework of methodological studies. The essence of the method is as follows. The whole ancient culture of nomads of pre-islamic times is one dense, but at the same time mobile, rapidly changing form, a homogeneous environment, beginning with the tribes of south Siberia and ending with the countries of the caucasus and crimea, in its original indivisibility, primordiality, continuity and syncretism(Jerusalimskaya,

2003). This is particularly true when, for example, attempts related to studying of one or another kind of nomadic art, which is not only syncretic, that is, verbally musical, but sacred, connected with myth,

ceremony and ritual, are made. It is the same when there are disputes about statehood of the nomads. The statehood always existed; it was modified, transformed in its various specific military and nomadic forms, but it never disappeared. The same can be said about the kazakh (turkic) language, which has not been changed practically since the days of sumerians and reached the twentieth century, retaining its own main base, which allowed some scientists to draw unreasonable conclusions about the underdevelopment of kazakh language, which is one of the richest languages of the world today. The essence of the complex and concentric method is precisely that the object of research is the general “contracting” core, around which all the structural elements of a single whole are grouped, which must also be subject to analysis in their unity and system.

The great Silk Road appeared naturally, as a trade and economic need. Its contours were outlined in ancient times, when there was no even the Silk Road itself, but there were already contacts between steppe nomadic and settled peoples.One of the objective reasons of occurrence of the silk road and its passage along the territory of middle and central asia and the north caucasus is revealed by A.A. Jerusalimskaya in her article, “everyone was interested in direct contacts with each other and, naturally, they tried to avoid sasanian iran (which, as it is known, controlled over the spread of silk and imposed a high duty on them). The only possible way (except for the sea route, which, upon the level of development of navigation, could not become determinative in commercial traffic) was the way through the north caucasus. Caravans from samarkand needed to go north - along the aral sea, cross the volga, follow the territory of various north caucasian tribes, then passing through the

north caucasus ridge - to the black sea trade factories. From here it was already easy to get the borders of byzantium, in the mediterranean, to the west”(Jerusalimskaya, 2003). Historically, by the middle of the second half of the 6th century,the situation was as follows:“on the vast expanses of the eurasian continent, an already tense political situation was complicated by the competition of three great powers - the byzantine empire, sasanian iran and the great turkic khaganate . One of the reasons of struggle between them was silk, which is considered equivalent to gold and precious stones”(Nowicki, 2000). But the cultural landmarks of the future silk road were already outlined in ancient times. And in these contacts the proto-turkic tribes played a crucial role.So, (Antokol’Skii, et al., 1955)and other famous kazakh and foreign researchers of ancient turkic culture wrote about connections of sumerians with nomadic civilizations before the great silk road. More materials about connections of ancient china with the great steppe were written, starting with the works of also wrote about connections and influence of the turks on the culture and writing of ancient greece and rome.

From the works of M. Boyce (Boyce, 2001), the most famous Iranian, we learn not only about iran's contacts with the nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes of the aral and caspian sea, but also about the direct influence of nomadic culture on the spiritual structure of the zoroastrians. So, for example, we can say about the prophet Zoroaster, who came from the Volga steppes. He brought to Iran elements of the ancient solar religion, which had flourished under the name of Zoroastrianism. Many elements of the ritual and burial culture of the Turks can also be seen in the Zoroastrian ritual system (Boyce, 2001).Of course, there was always the need in trade. The richest Middle East, North Africa, western Asia,

ancient Greece, Rome quite naturally flourished and traded thanks to the sea route, Mediterranean trade.Over time, due to various historical and geopolitical circumstances, in the world community there was a need for land trade. There were many reasons for this, but the idea of arrangement and functioning of land trade belongs to china and the Huns. However, Sengupta and Rakhimov (2015), the author of the monograph the great Silk Road and central Asia, accurately notes the following: “the peoples, historically living in central Asia, played a major role in the occurrence and use of the great silk road. Sogdians were the creators of this road, the turks also made a great contribution to the use and provision of the great silk road with goods, vehicles and maintenance personnel”.

The idea of peaceful cooperation and mutually advantageous trade belongs to china, during the rule of emperor wudi (ii century bc). This idea was developed by china from centuries-old relations with Huns, its northern neighbors: once zhang qiang, his wise dignitary, offered the emperor to export silk, fruits, wine, other products abroad, exchanging them for the best horses that he saw at the huns. Thus the Silk Road was born. A.m. Petrov, the well-known Russian researcher, quotes the following historical commentary: “zhang qian told about the goods, various necessary things that china does not have, but which can purchase. One very important addition was also made: the peoples, that he met, did not know the culture of the silkworm and did not know how to make silk. In general, zhang qian's stories are amazing in their volume, diversity and color of information. This explains why emperor was keen on them and forced him to make an unequivocal decision about establishing contacts. True, it was affected by another private circumstance, but it turned out to be an important. Unusually tall and

incredibly beautiful horses were mentioned in the story about fergana. Somehow earlier such horse was caught ... Near dunhuang and transferred to the emperor. The animal made a huge impression on the ruler of the tianxia” (petrov, 1995: 35).The process of forming the infrastructure of the ancient silk road at the territory of central asia was not without contacts with such powerful civilizations as india in the south, china in the east and the state of kushan in the south-west, but its outlines were revealed in an even earlier (archaic) period. It is reported by the first ancient greek historians and geographers.

The majestic, though still mythological image of the nomadic asia- tartary is already presented in the works of Herodotus, ctesias, Strabo and other famous historians and geographers of ancient antiquity. But the ancestral features of the militant nomads (tomiris, zarina), as well as winged speeches, full of wise steppe aesthetics, nobility and dignity, are observed in the words of the sages anacharsis and toxaris. Historical content, cultural specificity, genre and stylistic and functional originality distinguish literature and culture of the turks on the silk road from the legendary and mythological descriptions. So, I.V. Stebleva, researcher, writes that “in the period, preceding to uighurs, the literature developed in another turkic literary language, the runic writing of which goes back, undoubtedly, to oral folk art. This is evidenced by folklore motifs and linguistic means of a wide range of orkhon-yenisei (runic) inscriptions: various kinds of poetic, oratorical, legal, everyday formulas and poetically colored vocabulary”(Stebleva, 1982).The great Silk Road covered three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. The result of their economic interaction was cultural interaction. In the history of the turks, persians, arabs, chinese, indians, caucasian peoples, it was the first and

genuine demonstration not of strength but of a cultural and harmonious human community, respect for languages and religions, interest in the arts, sciences, and the economics of different countries.

Turks on the Silk Road in the 2nd-12th centuries, the vast territory of the central Asia was inhabited by various turkic-speaking tribes. In the middle of the 6th century, the Turkickhanate emerged, which “begins to play a major role in political life of the central and middle Asia”(Stebleva,

1982). The formation of the culture of the Turkickhanate, as well as the two subsequent ones, was formed in difficult social and economic and geopolitical conditions, in the interaction and mutual influence of various neighboring cultures. The main role was played by china, and even earlier by the Kushan Empire. What was, for example, the role of china in the upbringing and education of the turkic kagans?

In the “eternal stone”, the mengu-tash, known to us as the small inscription in honor of the ruler kul-tegin, the nephew of the reigning house, prince yollig-tegin, leaves the following inscription:

To the ambassadors of the kagan of tabgaches, Who became famous for carving?

I ordered to cut out the word

Correctly written,

Because kagan of tabgaches

Sent true masters.

Two important circumstances are notable here: a) the author's understanding not only of the chinese letter (art of calligraphy and subtleties of language), its fluency, but also of chinese art of carving. The author notes that the tabgach masters are “famous for carving” on the stone, that they “correctly written”. Hence it is clear that the author understands the content, style, genre and purpose of the letter inscribed on the stone, as well as the structure and semantics of the text inscribed by the tabgach carvers (orientality, its connection with the ritual and myth); b) the author compares what was written in chinese with the original, composed by him, ancient turkic text: one of four sides of the stone must be inscribed in chinese, and the other - in ancient turkic - and therefore the author comes to the following conclusion: the kagan of tabgaches sent “true masters”.According to this fragment it also becomes clear that the author of the inscription in honor of kul-tigin not only knows chinese and is educated in chinese, but also positions himself as the bearer of this refined culture, mastered the aesthetics and advanced arts of own time. More detailed information on the classical education and upbringing of

the future turkic rulers and advisers of the 8th century we get from the

content of the inscription in honor of the adviser of tonyukuk:

I am, tonyukuk-bilge, was brought up in the country of tabgach, When all the turkic people were under the reign of the tabgach....

So tonyukuk, an adviser of four kagans of the time of the second east turkic khaganate, directly speaks about his chinese upbringing. Researcher g. Aidarov writes that tonyukuk “really belonged to the younger generation of the turkic elite, who accepted tabgach names following their fathers, got education in the capital of the empire”. And

further he refers to a valuable historical document: “the information, contained in the biography of the inspector se dan, includes the nature of education: “in the capital, many sons of barbarians of all four countries of the world lived as hostages. Among others there were canglin (tibetan military commander), ashide yuanzhen and sun wanyong (khitan military commander). During the stay at the court, they all studied chinese laws and regulations, and when they returned back, they caused damage to our borderland.” After joining kutlugu, yuanzhen took the turkic name tonyukuk”. Based on observations on the content of the bugut inscription

(the 6th century), the first monument of the turkic national history (written

in sogdian), we see that the sogdian letter, which was a high indicator of literariness at that time on the entire silk road until the time of the arab conquests, had a great influence on the process of formation of the written culture of ancient turks. Buddhism, which came from india, played an important role in the formation of spiritual and religious consciousness. Thus, in the bugut inscription there is a direct reference to the fact that the kagan and his adviser establish a sangha (buddhist community), perform buddhist rituals and say prayers (klyashtorny, livshits, 1971, 121-146), and that the first missionary of this teaching was chinagupta, the buddhist monk. (the 5th century). So, according to early ancient literary materials, we have an idea that the great Silk Road, like a magnet, has drawn different countries into a single trade, economic, cultural and spiritual field. On the caravan routes there was not only an active trade between the west and east, but for the first time in the history of mankind there was a mighty progressive process of universal international and spiritual cultural interaction, which b.g. Nurzhanov, kazakh philosopher, noted as “the first image of globalization”. In addition to silk, which was the most popular commodity, porcelains and works of art, rice, tea, various spices were

exported from china to Europe and desht-i-kipchak (polovetskaya land). The Turks also delivered the best horses, weapon, gold, silver, precious jewelry, leather, wool, cotton, fruits and vegetables to china along the caravan roads of middle and central Asia.Beautiful and tall horses of the turkic nomads in china were considered as the highest commodity(Suleimenova, et al., 2011). Sengupta, researcher, emphasizing the merits of the Turkic peoples in development of the silk road, gives an example of how important the horses were for china: “in the north, turkic peoples lived - the main source of horses for china. And the turkic horses were so important, that the proud chinese had to suffer various small humiliations to get these animals”(Sengupta and Rakhimov, 2015).The objective world of the Silk Road economy was vividly reflected in the ancient Turkic epic tradition:

Silver, silk, and gold, Alcohol with no measure, With sweet words and gifts Infusing weakness in Turks,

Strongly attracting by tabgaches

At the same time, from the content of the small inscription, we also learn that unmeasurable wealth gave rise to pride, laziness, greed, gluttony at common soldiers, military commanders, tuduns, tarkhans and beks, weakening their vigilance and relaxing their healthy forces and will. The author, the witness of the emerging spiritual drama, foreseeing the disintegration of the Turkic unity, laments:

Tempted by their sweet talks, Glitter and wealth,

Turks allowed destroying Themselves without a count! The wise ones said:

“Now we must settle

Not only in the chugai,

But also in the tyun plain”.

The fool ones expounded:

“Why should we run from the wealth? Fartherget less, closer get more ...”

The conclusion to which he comes is simple and wise: if earlier the trade in the silk road was run by the sogdians who were the first to master its economy, if the chinese were strong in the administrative matter, but now, thinking of the nomad turks who quickly lose real power on the silk road, the author of the small inscription calls the congeners to study the economy, independently manage and trade on the silk road:

Oh, the Turkic people, remember: Merging with the tabgaches is doomed,

But the caravan from the tabgaches

Will not bring us grief.

The following comment of Rtvelidze, researcher, may serve as a confirmation: “turkic kagans took possession of the greater part of the eastern section of the great silk road and the huge reserves of silk. However, the turks did not have the trade skills, they were brave warriors, excellent hunters, pastoralists, and they often treated trade with contempt”(Stančo, 2011). Therefore, the author of the runic inscription concludes that only due to the ability to trade and negotiate, in economic knowledge, and not only in military force and threat the Turks can preserve their independence and security of their khaganat. The image of the Silk Road in the ancient epic poetry of the Turks is reflected not only from the point of view of their economic and social and historical development, but also from the point of view of their cultural and historical contacts with many other peoples. It is represented in the big inscription as follows:

For participation in the burial ceremony [and] mourning

In front, on the [side] of the sunrise,

The tribal union of the bekli steppe, [and] the tabgach, the

Tibetans,

The avars, Rome, the Kyrgyz, uch-kurykans, Otuz-tatars, khitan, tatabians

-the nations have come [to]

Mourn [and] participate in the burial.

Such famous khagans they were! (Stebleva, 1982).

Due to the cultural and historical influence of China, north India, Tibet, central Asia and southern Siberia, the buddhism and numerous religious works were introduced. It was reflected in all Turkic monuments, starting, as we have shown, from the bugut inscription and up to the 10th century, “books of fortune-telling”.

Classical period of the Silk Road.

When we conclude that the Silk Road was both a benefit and the cause of destruction of the Turkic khaganate, we certainly proceed from the following signs:

1. Increasing enrichment, coming from the Silk Road, corrupted both ordinary Turkic community members, as well as tarkhans and beks, weakening their fighting spirit.

2. In the aristocratic elite, the fierce struggle for power and control over the trade routes and regional centers of the Silk Road did not stop;

3. The governors, tarkhans, having established in the cities of the Silk Road, gradually ceased to obey the khaganian orda and could already counter the center by united forces. And in 744 the east Turkic khaganate itself fell under the blows of the Uighurs. Thus,

the great Silk Road was certainly a source of enrichment, and due to its mobility and intensity, it dragged all the surrounding regions into its trade and economic system. This force was like a magnet, and became one of the main and logical reasons for the fall of the khaganate.

“talking about the "silk road"- this engine of world civilization - writes K.M. Baipakov, a famous researcher of the middle ages, - characterizing the roads that went from europe to asia and vice versa, crossing the boundless expanses of the steppes, climbing the high mountains, descending into fertile valleys, as well as describing outlandish goods, ancient art and religions, multifacetedness of the historical and spiritual life of the middle ages should be emphasized. Wherever the west and east, europe and asia met, a fertile ground for the mutual enrichment of cultures was created. Sedentary townspeople and nomadic tribes of kazakhstan, as a result of interaction with neighboring and distant countries and peoples, were able to create an amazing culture that sparkles as a bright pearl in the necklace of the ancient cultures of mankind”. Under the influence of the young and blossoming arab-persian culture, the entire spiritual structure, the will and interests of the turks of urban settlements had been changing rapidly. This period of cultural development of medieval turks was completely different from the previous one, the ancient turkic, both in general stylistics, and in ideological and aesthetic content. But the turks, nevertheless, did not lose their national characteristics, although they joined a new global cultural and economic process, unprecedented in history. This is confirmed by the opinion of i.v. Stebleva, turkologist: “with the transfer of power to the turkic dynasty nothing has changed in the cultural life of central asia

which is partly explained by conversion of the turks into islam (a process that began in the middle of the tenth century)” (Stebleva, 1982).And here we must reveal the key role that the first turks played in the history of formation and start of islam and arab culture.

In the new urban intellectual environment, of course, the consciousness of yesterday's turk, which was included in other value paradigms, also changed. It is significant that the kipchak, al-farabi, in the “treatise on the views of the residents of the virtuous city”, and the kashgarian, yusuf balasaguni, in “beneficialknowledge”, presented in their writings the idea of rational government and happy state based on mind and justice, love to the world and man. These humanistic ideas stemmed entirely from the general atmosphere of the cities of the silk road, from the spiritualization of faith and presence of the power and grace of knowledge that reigned throughout the entire silk road, an awareness of the happiness and joy of human life, combined with its short durationand fragile nature.

Such universal spiritualization also touched the masters of urban culture of the silk road time. They were called as “usto” - master, teacher. The medieval architecture of the silk road is a unique page of mankind of the period of its highest flourishing. Such rulers as satuq bughra khanor seif-at-daul were interested in architectural design of their cities in order to attract more caravans and develop the trade. To establish their name and the name of their city in the world, the turkic rulers invited poets, musicians, artists, scientists, etc. In the cities of the silk road the first scientific centers were created. For example, at the courts of the karakhanids, the turkic rulers, persian poets and musicians (rudaki) were

patronized, and under seife-at-daul, the damascus ruler, a large academic council functioned, where kipchak al-farabi was renowned for his unlimited knowledge and talented translation and commentary work. Love of science, selfless work, high spirituality, striving for truth and inexhaustible humanism set this first turkic scholar and poet, a descendant of the great steppe, among the most outstanding figures in world science.

The classical culture of the arabs throughout the silk road was so high that the turkic rulers themselves not only had scientific councils at their courts, engaged in arts and sciences, played musical instruments, but understood architecture, gardening, and wrote poetry in Persian. In cities of the Silk Road there was respect for different religions, cultures and languages. A high indicator of universal culture and education was the knowledge of both native, Turkic and Arabic - the language of the dominant culture - and especially the Persian language, which, in the words of al-farabi, “was the language of graceful sciences and arts”. With the arrival of the Turks, by the 10th century (the era of karakhanids), the turkic language became the literary language of the cities of central and middle asia of the silk road. Monuments of east and world literature were created there: linguistic works of m. Kashgari, philosophical and edifying poems “science of happiness” by Yu. Balasaguni and “gift of truths” by a. Yugnaki, as well as sufi works of kh.a. Yassawi. All these authors wrote both in turkic and arabic literary language.

But the turkic literary language itself, which received the value of high classics, was formed under the influence of two dominant literary traditions - arabic and persian (sogdian). The new arab-persian poetics dictated its canons, and, preserving all of its most important national principles, the turkic literary language received a new genre design and

new religious and ideological content. Researchers write: “the surviving monuments of the early period of classical poetry show how the development and assimilation of the basic principles of a new worldview, related to the adoption of islam - a complex combination of philosophy, religion and law, took place. The arab-persian poetics, which later became one of the main components of classical poetry in the turkic language, is gaining leading positions here. At the same time, there is a strong balance between the natural properties of turkic languages and norms of poem, originally worked out with reference to foreign-language poetic models. All this determined the conditions that allowed the arab- persian poetics to establish themselves in the turkic-speaking environment, which subsequently caused the appearance of outstanding original artistic works” (Stebleva, 1982).

Such polylingual and multicultural consciousness, undoubtedly, led to the emergence of individualities of encyclopedic level, where each was not only a polyglot scientist, but also a poet, musician and art theorist. Such people were al-farabi, who spoke more than seventy languages, knew various sciences and art, played musical instruments or a blind poet and musician, ahmad yughnaki under the ruler of dad-sipahsalar bek. Thus, the universal spirituality of the Silk Road contributed to the openness of the peoples included in one cultural system. This openness was also the result of realization that there were human values on the first place - guarantee for long and lasting economic interchange. Therefore, the rulers of cities encouraged manufacturers of goods and merchants from different countries, creating the best conditions for them. Muslim mosques and Nestorian churches, Buddhist temples and Jewish synagogues, as well as ancient zoroastrian sanctuaries were built and

peacefully coexisted in the cities of the great Silk Road. The great merit of al-farabi was that he propagated in the east the scientific ideas of the best scientists and philosophers of ancient Greece. Exploring and commenting the ancient Greek mathematicians, logicians, art theorists, he explained these sciences in detail to his Arab students. Deeply and creatively interpreting the philosophical ideas of the famous greeks, possessing extensive encyclopaedic knowledge, he expanded the boundaries of the scientific ideas of arab contemporaries, enriched the arab scientific world with the ideas of western thinkers, i.e. He became the most important figure in the highest peak of the heyday of the classical arab culture, today named as muslim renaissance. Thanks to the heroic role of the first intellectual enlighteners, translators of different sciences and from different languages, he was enriched by a new range of concepts, different ideas about the world, ancient knowledge of other peoples. The works of ancient and medieval authors on mathematics, astronomy, medicine, ethics and philosophy were translated into Arabic. For example, al-farabi prescribed valuable comments on his translations of the works of aristotle and porphyry and to the musicological studies of al-kindi. Scientists write that, having spoken a significant number of languages fluently, he left over 100 works on various sciences to the world: poetics, rhetoric, music, physics, aesthetics, politics, mathematics, etc. On the other hand, the researchers note that, having submitted to the beneficial influence of classical islamic culture, “the turks preserved their language and did not completely break with the ancient traditions, as can be judged from the surviving monuments of this era” (Stebleva, 1982).In such a special environment intellectual generation of poets and scientists was formed: Turkic, Persian, Arabic, etc. The silk road formed a special type of a man of culture, a medieval encyclopedist and humanist, such teachers of the

east as ibn sino (avicenna), omar khayyam, firdausi, saadi, saikhali, fizuli, nizami ganjevi, alisher navoi, rumi, rudaki, a large generation of arab and turkic thinkers. The history of classical Turkic poetry is opened by yusuf balasaguni with his multi-faceted work, who wrote the poem “beneficialknowledge” which is the first classic example of a new Turkic worldview. At the beginning of the poem, the author reveals his significance in promoting the values of Turkic culture:

The word of the turks was raised by the mountain deer, But i tamed it, and made it obedient.

Yu. Balasaguni, like many poets-followers, managed to maintain the national Turk speech form, the natural features of his native language, like a master he combed them with arabic-persian norms of poetics. Subsequently, original works of Turkic classical poetry appeared: a. Yugnaki, kh.a. Yassawi, seif-saray-i, dyurbek, Ali and many others, who formed the base of medieval Turkic poetry, religion and philosophy. During this period, we already have examples of love lyrics, to which attention was not paid in the heroic aesthetics of nomadism because of the influence of Persian and arab poets on the genre-style turk system. Such a sophisticated aesthetics was completely unacceptable for the former military and nomadic perception, but in the classical period we can hear what Mahmud Kashgari, the great poet and scholar, was saying:

Uzum mannik budursin

Uti anik zaklanur!

My soul is like a quail,

In rush over the flames of love!

Changes occurred so quickly in poetics and stylistics of yesterday's turk, who found himself in a different cultural environment, ideology, his attitudeto the world, time and woman. Sufi lyrics, which was highly represented by kh.a. Yassawi, is appeared to be multiple. By the following definition: “sufism is a mystical and ascetic branch of islam founded in the 8th century, denying muslim ceremonies and preaching asceticism”. This sufi tradition gave rise to a rich and at the same time simple and clear poetry, understood by common people. The basic principles of the sufi teaching in such poetry have been simplified; poetics and stylistics are not so sophisticated and refined. Sufi poetry is oriented toward the fast learning and memorizing; that’s why sufi teaching was so popular throughout the silk road. Its special feature was a high tolerance to all other spiritual systems. It absorbed all experience and methods of comprehending the truth of many spiritual teachings and practices.

5. CONCLUSIONS

Historical research in this study shows that the Silk Road is the most important historical communication pathway between ancient civilizations of the past world, which is a factor in the harmonization of the diversity of human beings in shaping various civilizations of history. Because throughout history, nations and tribes exchanged over this road of material goods and on their cultural fabric in this longest possible way, and as a result, they created the largest and most extensive cultural dissemination programs. The great Silk Road appeared as a result of trade

and economic interaction, and as a critical need for the coexistence of different nations in the process of cultural contacts between themfor centuries. Its main spiritual content in the middle ages - literary Arabic language and Arabic classical culture also became the result of useful contacts in the field of science, art and the economy. The focus of advanced sciences, cultures and arts in the field of a single spirituality arose in the intellectual space of the great Silk Road as a historical pattern and as a meaningful need for mutual cultural coexistence. Due to contacts with various cultures of the great Silk Road, and mainly under the mighty influence of arab-persian poetics, the Turkic poetry was greatly enriched with new genre forms, acquired features and pathos of high classics, reached the level of the world poetic art. The poetic and formally meaningful nature of the Turkic text has changed, which originally had only a traditional and ritual andceremonial aspect. Under the influence of the arab-persian classics, it acquired new, classical forms and received new, ideological and thematic content. The love and Sufi lyrics, to which attention is not paid in heroic nomad aesthetics, flourish along with the didactic poem. This is due to the influence of Persian-Arabian poetics on the genre-style system of the Turks and their medievalism. The Silk Road has been the origin of many of the most prosperous cities that were built around this strategic and commercial road. With the boom of this road, massive masses of space were flooding and decayed and decayed. The ancient civilizations in the global communications network on the silk roads have taken many of the cultural elements that today's indigenous Turkish elements are from other tribes, with whom they have had cultural and commercial ties along the road. The ancient Silk Road, linking the Mediterranean through Iran to China, was not only the route of merchant

traders, but also the only way to exchange ambassadors of states and messages of peace and friendship between neighbors.

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