High Middle Ages · Central Asia · Culture

1073

Mahmud of Kashgar writes Diwan Lughat al-Turk

1073

The Qarakhanid scholar at Baghdad compiled the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkish dialects, illustrated with a colored world map centered on Central Asia rather than the Mediterranean. It remains the most important document for early Turkic philology and a window into the steppe imagination of its compiler. His map, placing the Turkic lands at the center of the world, was a bold assertion of cultural pride.