[A COSACK NATIONALIST POET FROM ORENBURG] Uyan Kazak! Preface by Tahir Çagatay. [i.e., Wake up Cosack!]

DEVLET, MIR YAKUB [MIRJAKIB DULATULI] (1885-1935)

Yas Türkistan Yayini, Istanbul, 1971.

Original wrappers. Large demy 8vo. (21,5 x 16 cm). In Kazak with Arabic letters and the preface in Turkish with Latin letters. [viii], 120 p. Occasional age toning on wrappers and pages. Otherwise, a very good copy.

Offset lithograph. First Istanbul edition of Dulatoglu’s first poetry book titled “Oyan, Qazak!” printed in 1909 in Ufa and St. Petersburg. This collection of poems was published after Dulatoglu’s political formation of the Cossack nationalism was greatly maturated in 1909, and the book was immediately confiscated by the Russian government because his poems publicly reflected his anti-Tsarist Russia and anti-absolutist views. He republished it in 1911 and returned to the Turgay Oblast after the publication of the book. In his famous and nationalist poem in the book of the same name with the title "Wake up Cossack!", he argues that Kazakhs should return to their national identity.

This edition is published for “Yas Türkistan” as its 20^th book of the publishing house from a manuscript copied by a Cossack who lived in Istanbul first and then continued another one in Ankara (not given their names in the preface). The preface is written by Tahir [Sakir] Çagatay (1902-1984).

Mir Yakub Dulatoglu (or Dulatov, Devlet, Dulatuli] was a Kazakh poet, writer, and one of the leaders of the Kazakh nationalist Alash Orda government. He also is known to have used the pen names Madiyar and Arghyn.

Dulatoglu was born on November 25, 1885, to a Muslim family in the village of Sarikopa, Kostanay Province. He was from the Middle jüz, Argin tribe. He lost his mother, Demesh, at the age of two and his father, Dulat, at the age of 12. He received early education in the traditional village school. In 1897, Dulatoglu enrolled in a Kazakh-Russian high school and graduated in 1902 as a village teacher. In 1904, he met Ahmet Baitursynuly and Älihan Bökeihan in Karkaraly. Under the influence of these two leaders of the emerging Kazakh reformist nationalist movement, he developed an anti-colonial, anti-Russian view. He moved to St. Petersburg in 1907 and became a delegate of the Constitutional Democratic Party. In St. Petersburg, he published his first poem in the Kazakh journal "Serke", which ran only one issue. The poem was entitled Jastarğa ("To the Youth").

As of January 2024, the OCLC shows more than nine copies worldwide, three North American libraries have this copy (918390097): New York Public Library System, Princeton University Library, and LoC.