[KAZAKH ALPHABET / ARABIC SCRIPT] Usûl-i Sotiyye tertîbinde Kazakça alfabe. [i.e. Kazakh alphabet in Sotiyya style]

Prep. by MEHMED URAZ KIZILCÂRI, Elektro-Typographia "Vostochnaya Pechat'" / Serif Matbaasi, Ufa [Ofa] - Orenburg, 1910.

Modern burgundy cloth with Arabic lettered gilt on front board, original wrappers saved inside, modern end-papers. Roy. 8vo. (23,5 x 16,5 cm). In Kazakh and Tatar with Arabic letters. 31 p. Chipped on extremities of covers and some pages, slightly faded on pages. Overall a good copy.

First and only edition of this first alphabet book of the Kazakh language in the 20th century, prepared for Kazakh students studying in Istanbul and other Islamic cities, according to the author's foreword. Kazakhstan would begin to use the Latin script two years after this book was printed.

The written culture of the peoples living on the territory of Central Asia and Kazakhstan appeared in the early Middle Ages. Ancient Turks, who are also the ancestors of modern Kazakhs, played an important role in Eurasian history. Their language from the 5th to the 15th century served as a means of communication between representatives of different nationalities. Even in the territory of Mongolia during the rule of Batu and Munke, various documents and correspondence in the Golden Horde were conducted except Mongolian - in the Turkic language.

Arabic script was distributed in Central Asia and Kazakhstan in secular schools and madrasah, as well as in official correspondence. With its elegant design columns, roofs, and domes of various designs were covered. Scientists and representatives of creative intelligentsia created their works in Arabic, on which they left drawings, often executed with great artistic skill. Famous thinkers of the East wrote in Arabic and Farsi (Persian), as these languages ​​served the functions of international languages.

The Kazakhs used the Arabic alphabet for about 900 years from the 10th to the 20th centuries. In 1912, Akhmet Baytursynov (1873-1937) reformed the Kazakh script on the basis of Arabic script, giving a large number of Kazakhs living abroad the opportunity to join their native letters. He removed all the specific Arabic letters not used in the Kazakh language and added letters specific to the Kazakh language. The alphabet "Zhana emle" ("New spelling"), and in our time is used by Kazakhs living in China, Afghanistan, and Iran.

Since 1917, the idea of Romanization has started to gain popularity in Kazakhstan. Arabic script played an important role not only in the culture and education of the Kazakh population but also in maintaining spiritual and historical ties with other eastern countries. But at the beginning of the XX century, this script began to seem to the Kazakh society as an obstacle to historical progress and people's self-identification. The movement for the transition to the Latin script was particularly active in 1923. After a thorough discussion in 1929, the Kazakh language switched to the Latin alphabet. Publicist publications were printed in the Latin alphabet; it was introduced in schools so that children would be accustomed to it in the early stages. (History of Kazakhstan online).

Not in Özege.; Not in OCLC.