Филологические науки

THE HISTORY OF THE WORKS BY MASHKHUR-ZHUSIP

Zhusipov Nartai Kuandykuly

Professor, Ph.D. Doctor of Philology.

Pavlodar state University named after S. Toraighyrov. Kazakhstan.

Baratova Mahabbat

Ph.D. Pavlodar state University named after S. Toraighyrov. Kazakhstan.

Shapauov Alibi

Ph.D. Kokshetau state University named after Sh. Ualikhanov.Kazakhstan.

The beginnings of typography or book printing caused the rapid development of the folklore collection works. In other words, it went forward at a steady gait. But after the October revolution of during 1920-1956 the situation and attitude towards the folklore compositions, the samples of folk poetry quite changed. If in the beginning the original language of the compositions was preserved and could be understood, of course with some difficulties, by the next generations, later it was changed drastically, the artificial started to dominate the natural and all those facts had a devastating impact on the objective truth and unique identity of the folklore works. All things considered have influenced the efforts of modern scientists to find the original sources and language of the old works.

Before describing the contribution of Mashkhur- Zhusip it is necessary to find out the volume of his work. Though, as we said above, the author’s compositions were not thoroughly investigated and had a meager amount of printed issues, we based on the copies kept in the manuscript fund under the Scientific Academy and on our own investigations.

All material collected by Mashkhur-Zhusip was gathered in three places: among the manuscripts of the author himself, some part of the information we have is kept now in the library under the Scientific Academy, another one is preserved in the “royal archive”; at the disposal of Zholmurat Zhusipuly – some manuscripts of the author and those that were copied by Zholmurat; the manuscripts kept by Phazyl, Mashkhur-Zhusip’s youngest son.

Now let’s dwell on the manuscripts kept in the Central Fund of Manuscripts under the Scientific Academy and written by the author himself. [1]

D. Abilev, a noted poet, wrote that after the death of Mashkhur-Zhusip he managed to take two volumes of his manuscripts from his son Sharafi and bring them to the capital. The only book he did not take was “Qara mes”. [2] If we base on the recollections of Sharafi’s son Toleubai (1917 – 1996), it becomes clear that in the early thirties Sharafi travelled to Almaty. So we can suppose that the manuscript “Mes”, which is now kept in the Central Fund of Manuscripts, was donated there on a voluntary basis. The following people brought the compositions by Mashkhur-Zhusip at different times: S. Sharipov, Zholmurat Zhusipuly, Omar Imanbayev. This accounts for the diversity of copies and their dimensions.

For example, if some folders consisted of 200, 400, or even 700 sheets, some works were gathered in small 7 or 10 page copybooks.

As nobody regulated that process, the process of gathering the compositions, there were cases when some material was duplicated and donated several times. The manuscripts by Mashkhur-Zhusip embraced 400 topics which contained in 5000 pages. The copies were written on 150 topics and had approximately 2000 pages.

From our point of view, there must be 30 volumes of works by Mashkhur all in all [3]. We can distribute them in a following way: the author’s own creations – 3 volumes, epic poems – 3 volumes, aitys – 2 volumes, translations – 3 volumes, some other literary works – 3 volumes, some notes on Kazakh history, ethnography, religion, pedagogy, philosophy, etc – 6 volumes, folklore samples -10 volumes.

As it has been a century since the works were written, some pages became old and shabby; some were read to tatters and smudges. Those pages that could be reused underwent the restoration, and those that were irreparable were photographed on microfilm.

The quantity of such pages was small. There were different causes of damage such as spilt water, etc.

But in general it can be pointed out that the heritage left by the author is in a good condition. His handwriting is highly legible.

The red, black, blue ink the author used did not come off either, only some areas became pale and some sentences broken.

In the manuscripts the titles were started from a new line and were underlined with a red pen. All pages were paginated from the right to the left with Arabic numbers. Moreover, he was prudent enough to write down the word that starts next page at the end of each previous page, so even if the papers were mixed up, he could put them in a right order easily. Such method was the distinctive feature of a medieval written language. This fact proves that Mashkhur-Zhusip was conversant enough with the medieval literature and adopted some methods of writing.

His style of writing also had some peculiarities and characteristic features such as dividing one page into two columns while writing the poem. Sometimes he numbered every verse of the poem in order not to mix them up. Every page consisted of 27 – 32 lines. At the end of each manuscript the author gave a table of contents according to his own numbering.

We have already pointed out the fact that the author underlined every title to distinguish it from the text, but sometimes he put in front of it the Roman figure or the triangle. There is also a special book devoted to religious words and the Koran solely [4]. The books kept in the “royal archive” also have the same features. The cover of the book is handmade. The pages connected by means of threads.

The texts are given in the right order. For example, the manuscript begins with legends (Alasha khan, Asan Qaigy, Zhirenshe sheshen, pg 1-38). Then they give way to the genre of the fairytale (“Az Zhanibek pen Usta”, pages 38- 40), then come the stories about Abylaikhan (pg 40-86). These stories also are not given at random; they are divided systematically regarding the age of Abylaikhan, his feats, his glorious deeds, etc. At the beginning of the story Abylai is depicted as a youth who is 20 years of age (there are some poems by Bukhar Zhyrau in the middle), while at the end we find and old man who is going to besiege Bukhara, but after a prophetic dream changes his decision and dies on his way home. Thus, the stories have autobiographic features.