Since the second half of the 19th century, in addition to the knowledge of the various misfortunes facing the Turkish world, many topics related to the culture and history of the Turkish nation, which were unknown to the world until then, have come to light. This led to greater interest and respect for the land from the outside world. Among them, the contents and affiliation have been unknown for a long time, and the stone texts, which were first discovered in the Orhun-Yenisei Valley and later known as "Turkic-Runic script", were read by the Danish Turkicologist Wilhelm Thomson in 1893 . Thus, the secrets of the glorious history of the Turkish nation, written in its own script and in its own language, have been revealed. Another universal good news in this regard is the successive discovery, research and publication of works in various languages and languages, as well as in various fields of science. Inspired by these interests and innovations, all the world's powerful countries were busy developing plans for research and exploration in the Uyghur region at the beginning of the 20th century. In the same year, the British Aurel Stein (Aurel Stein) in the southern edges of Teklimakan ancient villages, the French Paul Pelliot (Paul Pelliot) in Maralbesh, the Russian Alexei Fedchenko (Alexei Fedchenko) in the Pamir Highlands started their work with enthusiasm .
It was during this period that Albert Grünwedel and Robert Huth, two German orientalists who were studying Tungus and Mongols in the Siberian valley, temporarily gave up on this field and hurried to the Uyghur region. However, due to the rejection of their applications for the necessary funds, they were able to leave for Turpan through Russia on August 11, 1902, after a year's delay. But at this time, another well-known German researcher had already arrived in Kashgar and started research. He was Martin Hartmann , who was one of the most famous orientalists and Islamic theologians in the Arab and Islamic worlds .
Martin Hartmann of German origin was born in 1851 in Breslau, Poland. Martin Hartmann, who first studied theology in his native country, later studied Oriental languages at the University of Leipzig in Germany. After his doctorate in 1875, he worked as a Turkish, Arabic and Persian translator for German diplomats in Edirne and Istanbul of the Ottoman Empire. Since 1876, he worked as a clerk at the German Consulate in Beirut for more than 10 years. Since the opening of the Department of Oriental Languages at the University of Berlin in 1886, he worked as a professor in the department until the end of his life .
Martin Hartmann's interest in Uyghurs and the Uyghur land began long before he went to the Uyghur land. During his work trip to Istanbul, he met some Uyghurs living in Istanbul at that time and began to learn the Uyghur language, the "Turkish language" of that time. With the help of a Uyghur intellectual named Aksuluk Arif, who was his mentor, he prepared a work called "Chagatai Language: The Grammar of Muhammad Sadiq's ``Ussi Lisani Turki''" and published it in Germany in 1902. This book is another important guide to the Uighur language written in Europe in 1867 after the "Chagatai (Language) Manual" written by the Hungarian Hermann Vambery and the "East Turkish Language Manual" by the Englishman Robert Shaw . The difference between this book and the first two works is that Robert Shaw only wrote about the Turkish language used in his time in Kashgar and Yarkan; Hermann Vambery analyzed the language of written works based on the materials he obtained. This work by Martin Hartmann compares the 1895 book written by Muhammad Sadiq and still based on the written literature to various dialects and dialects of the Uyghur language. Another important feature of the book is that Ili "Taranchi" dialect, which has been described as a separate language by some western linguists until then, is given a place among the compared dialects, proving that this dialect is also a dialect of the Uyghur language. At the end of the book, examples from Alashir Nawai's ghazals and their translations are given, which gives an opportunity to make a preliminary understanding of the differences between oral and written language .
Martin Hartman is also known to Uygur studies scholars for his "Hartman Collection" consisting of Chagatai manuscripts collected in 1902-1903 from Kashgar and Jerkan and in 1904 from Uzbekistan. Sold by Martin Hartmann to the Berlin State Library in 1905, the collection, which is still kept in this library, contains 131 Chagatai manuscripts, as well as a small number of Persian, Arabic, and Chinese manuscripts. Martin Hartmann has compiled a systematic catalog of the works in his collection, sharing information about each manuscript's page count, size, and synopsis, making these manuscripts easy to find and research. This collection includes works such as "Mahbub ul-Qulub" and "Saqinameh" by Alashir Navai, several copies of "Satiq Bugrakhan Tazkiris", works such as "Tazkirai Azizan" written by Mohammad Sadiq Kashighari, "Sadidarchij Risali" and "Farmer's Risali" etc. Contains works of art. After the "Gunnar Yarring Collection" in Europe, the works in this collection, which includes the Chagatai works in the second place, complement each other with the works in the collection that came to Europe from the same part of the Uyghur region almost 30 years later .
Among the fruitful works completed by Martin Hartmann, one of the innovations that has surprised the Turkish world so far is that he quoted the work of our famous scholar Mahmud Kashighari in his special article titled "Several Discussions About the Divan of Turkish Languages" published in 1912. In fact, this is a year before Mr. Ali Emiri first discovered this famous dictionary in 1913 in Istanbul's booksellers' street .
Martin Hartman summarizes the results obtained during scientific research in cities and villages around Kashgar in his book "Chinese Turkistan" published in 1908. In this book, Martin Hartmann gives concise but very important information about the important events in the recent history of the places he personally visited, the administrative work, the economic situation, the daily life of the people there, especially the religious beliefs and local education. When he talked about the religious beliefs of the people of Kashgar, he briefly summarized the contents of his long article entitled "A Holy City of Islam" published in the first issue of "Islamic Orientalism" in 1905, and wrote about the end of the Hoji era and the establishment of the "Kashgaria state". In this book, he published the actual research results related to the religious beliefs of Kashmir before and after 1900. In the work, the number of madrassas in Kashmir, the teaching situation, the nature of the madrassas teaching in these madrassas, and the level of science, etc., are very valuable observations .
In addition to Kashgar, he also went to Jerken, Jenisar and other places to personally inspect the famous tombs there; Conducted scientific research on the role and significance of these tombs in people's lives. At the same time, he continued his research on stories and storytellers that he had started in Kashmir, searching for storytellers known as "ghazal" wherever he went and recording the stories they told. Later, after returning to Germany, based on his notes, he deeply researched and translated the stories of "Abdurahman Khan Gujam" and "Mashrap" which were popular among the Hotan and Jerkan peoples, translated them into German, and published them in well-known magazines .
After Martin Hartman arrived in Kashgar, the first thing he noticed was the political situation in Kashgar. Although at this time the uprisings of Chinese nationalists and veterans against foreigners in the Chinese provinces for several years had been suppressed by the eight-nation coalition army, and the violence and massacres that had begun with Zhu Zongtang in the late 1870s had subsided, but the ongoing conflict between Russia and Britain centered on the Pamir Heights The fighting was still going on. Although Martin Hartmann did not write clearly about the influence of these two forces in Kashmir in his book, it was described in detail in his letters to the relevant positions in Berlin during the year. In one of the letters, it was stated that in 1892, a large number of people died due to plague in Sarikol region, and Russia sent 130 Cossack soldiers to Kashgar under the pretext of helping .
In addition to Martin Hartman's books on Islamic beliefs and Uyghur language, another contribution to European Uyghur studies is that he was the first to teach Uyghur language at a European university. One of the students he trained was Albert von Le Coq , who participated in the "Turpan-Expedition" four times from 1902 to 1914 in the Uyghur region of Germany, starting from the 2nd, and even leading the 2nd and 4th expeditions. has undertaken the task of doing. Martin Hartmann, who passed away in 1918, continued his research on the Uighurs until the end of his life, and supported researchers and research institutes related to the Uighurs. He was one of the founding members of the "Turpan Committee" which was established specifically for the purpose of supporting the Turpan expedition .
Considering the fact that since 2017, the Chinese government has carried out ethnic and cultural massacres in the Uyghur region, it is impossible not only to conduct research on cultural and religious beliefs in the Uyghur region, but also to talk about topics related to these fields. Volunteers and scholars like Martin Hartman We have more respect for the honorable work done by the beloved scientists at that time. From these works, which have been the source of more research topics in recent years, and which have enabled the development of dozens of professional researchers, we can more clearly feel the enlightened, hardworking and loyal qualities of the Uyghur people at that time .
A very descriptive read.
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