Translated by H. B. Paksoy (owner of all the rights to this work) Part 4 I was learning valuable lessons from the above mentioned three seyhs. For instance, during 1906, Zeynullah Isan had treated me very kindly. Despite my young age, he asked me various questions, listening attentively to the answers I provided and favored me with words of an explanatory nature. Possibly he was testing me. One morning, during the tea gathering, he again asked me questions, and I answered them to the best of my knowledge. Then, in front of everybody, saying: "Son, take this, you may buy something," presented me with a gold ten lira. I purchased with this money, from the Tatar bookshop a book named "Hizmet," by Gazali on theological criticism, publications pertaining to Islamic social and philosophical matters printed in Egypt and Istanbul, books on astronomy and physics, Arabic translations of Tolstoy's "Kreuserovo Sonato" and some Russian novels, "Mulkaleme-i Franseviye" in Turkish, to learn French; and also, from a Russian bookstore, Tolstoy's work "Years of Hunger," which chronicles the hunger reigning in our country in 1891, when I was born. A few days later, the seyh inquired how I spent my money. I detailed what I had purchased one by one. He approved, telling me that since I knew Russian, it would now be very good for me to learn French. He was also pleased with my choice of books on astronomy and physics. Especially when I told him of Tolstoy's book on the years of hunger, he told me that I had bought a good book. It transpired that the seyh had given me the money to try me. During later assemblies, he again asked me which ones I had read and what they contained. When I related that I had purchased Gazali's "al-Munqidh an al-dalal," meaning "Prevention from taking the wrong paths," he said "you cannot understand that yet." I responded "I bought these type of books to read after I further improved my Arabic," upon which he patted me on the back and gave me more money. Reportedly the seyh had mentioned in other gatherings, that though I was only fifteen years of age I had acted with prudence in my selection of books. When I heard that, I was certainly puffed up. As he was held in very high esteem among our circles, his positive words had greatly encouraged me. If it had not been for such encouragement, my life could have turned to directions other than scholarship. As the poet Tokay of Kazan had pointed out "What has not happened to this humble servant, except my people had patted me on the head, giving me the desire to rise." (*) If it had not been for the patting of this seyh, I could have become an employee (prikazchik) in a commercial enterprise at the age of fifteen. Our Contacts With The Kazakhs and The Siberian (Tumen) Tatars --These trips were providing us with contacts not only in the Middle and Eastern Bashkurt domains, but even with the Kazakhs. This had great advantages later, during the organization of the 1917-1918 Baskurdistan National Movement. The tsarist government, with the aim of inserting a Russian province between Baskurdistan and the Kazakhs, vilolently seized millions of hectares of Kazakh lands, driving away the Kazakh Turks from there. But in 1904-1905, they, especially the Kipchak tribe, were still living contiguous to the Bashkurt lands and continuing to raise cattle. Among them, we had visited two very wealthy families who were friends of my father, that of Nayza and Nurpey Haci, and had become their guests. Reportedly this Nurpey Haci was of my father's age, and later two of them went to pilgrimage together. They were closer to the aforementioned Er-Karagay region, further to the East of Troitsk. These Kipchak, during the 18th century rebellion, had protected the Bashkurt refugees. Nurpey Haci knew many dastans and was a great poet. I had taken down many poems from him. The Soviets mention an aged Kazakh poet named Nurfeyz Bayganin, propagandizing on their behalf. They even published some of his works. Later I learned by chance that this Bayganin was our Nurpey Haci. This person was very nationalistic and religious. The most complete version of the great dastan "Koblandi" is the one he recited. During these trips, I had met the sons of Musa Haci of Tipter Ahun village, Isa Ahun of the Tungatar Bashkurts and Abdullatif Hazret of Saqmaqus village in Tamyan. These were all educated individuals, and undertook important duties in government during the 1917-1918 national movement. Musa, son of Murtaza of Tamyan became the Commander of our Second Division. In 1907, my father and my maternal uncle Habibneccar together took the train to Troitsk, travelling via Ufa and Cheliabinsk. I took them to the Devleken station, and saw the railroad for the first time at the age of fifteen. In the dark, the lanterns of the train appeared in the distance, growing brighter. Our horses were shying. Especially when the intense noise of the locomotive was heard, it was no longer possible to hold back the horses; the carriage was slammed against a wall. Only after we had left the houses behind, with the greatest difficulty, we were able to stop the horses. Since my father and my maternal uncle were in the carriage, we had a very narrow escape. This time, on the way back from Troitsk, my father went to Nimetullah Haci at the Siberian town of Mancil, and had brought back two political books of Yadrintsev, the discoverer of the old Turk monuments of Orkhon, entitled "Siberia as a Colony," and "Condition of non-Russian Nationalities in Siberia." When my father indicated that his son (meaning, I) knew Russian, Nimetullah Haci had presented him with these two works. This was a grand gift. I was translating articles, those I could understand, from these two books, to my father and maternal uncle. In these, the theories suggesting that the elements of non-Russian nationalities are condemned to extinction were being refuted, defending their life and equal rights. Both of these works had an enormous influence on my political maturation. Reportedly, before my father, my great maternal uncle Veli Molla had also visited this Mancil village. Apparently, our ancestors had contacts with the Tumen Tatars of Western Siberia. Mysticism of My Father --My father, as soon as he returned from his trip, said "Let us go to Fazkan." What we called Fazkan was one of the Kackinbay at the Alagoyanbasi village. "Fazkan" possibly means Fazlullah or "Fazil Han." He had the temperament of a sufi, and was an unconventional, generous, stouthearted man. Reportedly, he used to say "If 'Ahmetsah' were to receive 'isanlik' (meaning, attain the rank of 'seyh') from his seyh, I will be his first disciple." Now, this year, Seyh Zeynullah had given my father the rank of seyh, as well as the written certificate. But my father said "the {present} times are no longer the time of mysticism, those days are gone; when Isan (meaning seyh) made {elevated} me, I agreed, but I shall not accept anyone as 'disciple,' and will not allow anyone to address me as 'isan' but will accept Fazkan {as a disciple} because I had promised." Fazkan was a peasant with some wealth. He was a student of Mollakay Hazret. He knew Persian and some Arabic. He was perhaps one hundred kilometers from us. We arrived at his place, I approached my father to help him dismount from his horse. There were sounds, even noises in the house but nobody came out. Finally somebody appeared. It was Fazkan himself, certainly drunk. He kissed my father's stirrup. He helped my father dismount, took him to the house. Inside of the house smelled of "bitter honey," in fact terribly so. My father said "Swines, you drank." In reality, they were merrymaking that day. Fazkan responded with: "When they heard of your arrival, the kurege (meaning, honey barrels) ran under urunduk (the sofa), and the guests out from the windows." A little later, we performed the afternoon namaz. Fazkan cried much. My father and Fazkan together recited aloud a verse of the Yesevis: "You appear to be a sufi, but you are yet to become a Muslim" and a poem of Mollagul's, becoming exuberant. The meaning of these {latter} verses, causing one to lose his wits, the origins of which go back to Sems Tebrizi - Mevlana as I once mentioned above, was as follows: "A drunk man is saluting you; the soul of this man, whose heart you stole, is serving you from afar. You know how to create out of nothing and to cause what exists not to be, listen to the greetings of this drunkard; he is a drunkard who has both of his hands caught in your trap. You are the taste of every lip, altar of every sect, the moon in the sky is standing guard around your house every night. (This beloved), at a glance, is giving you wings and you take flight; at another glance, it is the anchor of your ship, you are unable to move; one instant it is your morning, another, your evening. He is causing you to shiver one instant, at another, causing you to laugh heartily; at one glance you are enchanted, at another you become like lifeless glass, like a stone. It matters not, if I cannot become a body, then I shall become a soul, if not a jewel, than the blood of gems; dear heart, never fear that you shall acquire notoriety, you will attain good renown in this regard." I was disraught that they had forgotten the world by falling into such a fanatically enraptured state. In order to prevent my father from further foolishness, I said "Father, shall I water the horses?" He responded with "Do so," and praised me on this occasion "Now, Ahmet Zeki has awakened us, being sober-minded. It is not proper to fall into ecstasy. I like mysticism and its poetry but not fanaticism. Let us rise." However, that night, it is said that my father had accepted Fazkan as a disciple and vowed never to be a seyh {beyond that}. The second day Fazkan had a mare skinned, invited the mollas of all neighboring villages and gave an excellent banquet. This feast was given to immortalize the boundless friendship the Kackinbayogullari had towards us, continuing for many generations. I spent the night with Ibrahim Kackinbay, and we passed the time drinking honey. My father knew that, but did not come near us in order not to see. Kackinbay had very close relations with the Kipchak urug of the Kazakhs. As before, Ibrahim again at length recited to me the poems of Kazakh poet Seydali, and the "Kizcibek" dastan. Because, his late father was close friends with the family of the Kazakh author Saydalin (Saeydalioglu), living in Troitsk. Ibrahim knew well his translations from Puskin's poetry. Ibrahim showed me such friendship on that occasion, I never forgot the occasion in my life, as well as "Fazkan's discipleship festivities." On his part, reportedly, Fazkan would proudly say "Molla became a seyh, did not accept anyone as disciple except me." He was a strange person like Mollagul. He was a good conversationalist. He knew many poems and dastans. Though he occasionally drank to the extreme, he never gave up namaz. Towards the God whom he dearly loved, he was as fearless as the Anatolian dervish, who, addressing his God with "O Lord, are you drunk?" upon spilling his carafe of wine. One day, my father had gone to visit a friend at another village. I stayed with Fazkan perhaps for a week. One hot August [day] in late afternoon, Fazkan returned home exhausted from pitching cut grass. I asked him if he had not forgotten the afternoon namaz. He responded with: "The afternoon namaz does not matter; if you have other business, you slam it against the 'kerte' (wall) and go on. God will wait, but the dried grass will not. You can make it up to God, but not to the grass. I know that better than God." My father, who had accepted Fazkan as his only disciple, knew of his curses of this nature. He said: "Fazkan had lost his front teeth in the war with the 'zemlamer' (Russian agricultural engineers). He only does good to the Muslims. God will forgive his occasional curses. He is the most sincere Muslim among my contemporaries. He is one of the most loved servants of God." Thus, this was my fathers's understanding of sufism and Islam. Nevertheless, it is reported that Fazkan did not drink after that date. My father said: "The only benefit of my becoming a seyh appears to be preventing Fazkan from drinking," laughing heartily. What strength and power my father's laughter possessed. Our Life During The Fall --During the fall, I would be busy not only in the bee fields at the village, but also at the "suluk" hives at the mountains, collecting honey. We used to perform that task accompanied by my friend Mehmet Kafi of Qulgun village and at Burcen with Ibrahim Kackinbay. During the fall, at home, I also would work on physics. I had acquired physics apparatus during Troitsk trips. A room in my father's medrese ostensibly served as my "laboratory." An elder friend, Aziz, from the Makar village, whose name mentioned earlier, was helping me. I was working on electricity generation and telegraph. I was operating Morse between our house and the medrese. During spring of 1907 I had ordered a globus by post, collect on delivery, from Ufa or Troitsk. It became necessary to go to Isterlitamak post office to take possession, thirty five kilometers from us. I had saddled a horse and undertook the trip without my father's knowledge. I was instructing the medrese students in astronomy. I had written those lessons in the form of questions and answers, taking place between two individuals named Ahmed {Togan's first given name} and Said. I had benefited from Flamarion and also from the work of a Syrian scholar named Huseyin al-Cisr. These were new topics in our country, and were of interest to the students. This was my first scholarly work. My father disliked these lessons, because, as I had mentioned, he did not believe in the movement of the earth. I had constructed a larger globus. I was showing the students the rotation of the earth around the sun, using a lamp in the dark. When constructing this sphere, I had used dough instead of glue. Because of that, mice had eaten it during the summer, as I had left it in my room at the medrese, causing my labors to be wasted. My father was pleased with that {outcome}, quietly laughing, stated that even the mice did not believe in the rotation of the earth. In addition to the Russian books on physics, I also had their Turkish versions printed in Istanbul. I had purchased them in Troitsk. I had mentioned several times that I enjoyed apiculture. I used to apply to our bees whatever I learned from books on the topic, and a Russian language periodical entitled "pchelovodstvo" (beekeeping). Upon the arrival of fall, I would personally place the hives in their winter sheds. These bees would never touch {sting} me, regarding me their friend. One of the occupations of the fall was to take to Isterlitamak those animals I raised for sale within our herds, and to prepare winter meats at home. Probably the most pleasant task of the fall was this meat butchering and preparation for the winter. This was called "sogum." Plenty of sausage (qazi) would be made. In connection with this occasion, many reciprocal banquets would be held. Much honey wine would be made in the village from the honey produced. Some Bashkurt imam would also drink this wine, supposedly in conformance to Islam. I had earlier spoke of an imam among our relatives, Ehil Molla. He would collect honey as "osur" {tithe} from the population, drinking all. The congregation performing namaz in his leadership was just like him, and they liked Ehil Molla better than my father. The behavior of our imam was in conformity with the views held by Alishir Navai and the Kazakh poet Abay. In his time, it is said that much wine was consumed during "sogum" days. Alishir states: "you must add splendor to your gathering with wine, from sunset until yellow dawn. Forget neither God, nor forsake wine; for God is great, he shall forgive you in the morrow." (*) Summing up, in the fall, I would not return to the medrese before collecting the "suluk" honey with my own hands, placing the beehives into their winter quarters, going hunting with rifle and falcon during the early snows, hunting ruffled grouse, pheasant (qirgavul), and rabbit with my friends. Our animals would never return to the village and their pens before the snow cover deepened. They liked "tebin," meaning digging the snow with their hooves to {get at, and} eat the grass. Upon spotting us from afar, they would run away. In order to find these rebellious animals in the forest during deepening snow, skis would be used. In any case, when the snow cover thickened, they would go to the grass piles {prepared for them in summer} called "keben" in the forest. But, those among them keeping to the tebin tradition ardently, perhaps left from the times when our ancestors were living in the East of the Urals, would attempt to run away when we wished to round them up at the grass piles. Nonetheless, we would catch them, and bring them to their senses by administering an appropriate beating. Just like our Bashkurts beating the women they love, to bring them to reason. THOUGHT OF GOING AWAY FOR EDUCATIONInfluences On Me Of Arif Bey Of Turkey, An American, Murad Remzi And The Arab Philosopher Maarri --Owing to the special care of my maternal uncle, I had learned quite a bit at Utek by the time I reached eighteen years of age. My maternal uncle was a scholar who loved history, having read one of the primary sources of the Islamic history, Ibn-ul-Esir, from beginning to end, had translated portions of it into Turkish and published. He had also read from the Turkish the Cevdet Pasa Tarihi, and almost memorized it. He knew the Russo-Turkish war of 1877 with al of its details. In fact, he had obtained a work pertinent to that war by a Russian by the name of Griaznov and would have me read it occasionally. Among those Turks, whose names mentioned before, he had me repeatedly read Mehmet Akif Bey's "Basimiza Gelenler," concerning this conflict. I had read this work while we were under the impressions caused by the defeat of Russians by the Japanese. I treated the words contained in a letter appended at the end of this work, written by an American addressing the Khedive of Egypt, containing the words "How can you, a population of seven million people, tolerate the yoke of two-three thousand English? You do not possess patriotism. You are logs clad with clothes" as an admonition to all Russian Moslems. On one hand, the works of the aforementioned Iadrintsev, and on the other, the book by Mehmet Arif Bey had greatly influenced me. A scholar of our country, by the name of Murad Remzi, was living in Hejaz. This person was a friend of my father and that of my maternal uncle. He had been a guest of ours during the summer months. He had written a two volume work on the history of the Kazan Turks and Russian Moslems. My maternal uncle had read many portions of this work while still in draft stage. It was published in Orenburg during the winter of 1907-1908. That winter my father had gone to pilgrimage, and, despite the fact that I had not yet completed my seventeenth year, had left his medrese to me and to a halife of his. I spent the entire winter reading this work, one thousand three hundred pages long, relating its contents to those students able to comprehend and especially to Ibrahim Kackinbay. It recounted the past of the Turks with great pride, and the Russian cruelties with great sorrow. I had opened a library in a corner of my father's medrese, under the name of "People's Library." I collected money to buy books for it. I arranged for newspapers to be brought in. Some newspapers, as I had informed them, were sending their publications for free. In this manner, from Petersburg "Ulfet," and in Arabic "Et-Telmiz;" from Kazan "Beyan ul-Haq" and "Yulduz;" From Orenburg "Vaqit;" from Astrakhan "Edil;" from Baku "Irsad," and the journal "Fuyuzat" were arriving. My father was taking "Tercuman" from Crimea for some time. In addition, in Russian "Berjevie Vedemosti" newspaper and the "Niva" journal was coming. In our village, I and my paternal uncle Alikerrar Molla were reading those {latter?}. Since he had been a teacher among the Kazakhs for many years, he even used to mix Kazakh into his speech. He was raising my interest in Kazakh language and literature. Under his influence, I had ordered all of the Kazakh books and pamphlets printed in Kazan for our library. Essentially, my father had an affinity towards Kazakh due to old familial traditions. Though he himself had not lived among the Kazakhs, he had friends among them such as Nurfeyiz Haci and Nayza Bay. He had gone to pilgrimage with them. For the purpose of obtaining books for our library, I established contacts with booksellers named "Sark" in Ors, and "Sredniaia Aziia" in Tashkent. The owner of "Sark" was an educated person named Ahmet Ishaki. His father Ishak Hazret was my father's friend. Possibly he had studied in Turkey. He would obtain and sell the "modern" publications printed in Turkey and Egypt. He was procuring even the Russian publications on Islam. This person aided me greatly. He was circulating regular catalogs and informing me of new items by letter. Through him, I had brought in the journal "Malumat" from Istanbul. Among the books I acquired from Tashkent were the Russian biographies of Kazak Sultan Kine Sari and his son Siddik Sultan, who had rebelled against Russia, the memoires of the Afghan Emir Abdurrahman Han, and the Kashgar Travelogue of general Kuropatkin. There were Persian originals and the Russian translations of the Abdurrahman Han's memoires. Kuropatkin, while he was the Russian ambassador to Yakub Bey in Kasgar, had a Bashkurt officer in his entourage by the name of Suyergulov, from a rominent family we also knew. From this aspect, it was of interest to me. This book also included some writings by Suyergulov. Through this means, I had become familiar with Kasghar environs. The memoires of Emir Abdurrahman Han contained a lively history of his struggles for the independence of his people; but since I read this work while comparing it to its Russian translation, it was useful in learning both languages. I knew the "Kine Sari" and "Nevruzbay" dastans printed in Kazan. Murad Remzi also had included in his history the undulating life story of Siddik Sultan, son of Kine Sari, which had also become a dastan topic. Because, as Murad Remzi had served as a teacher for years next to Siddik Sultan and his brother Ahmet Sultan, he had written of them with high praises in his book. When Murad Efendi was our guest, he had also provided me with information not included in his book. Kine Sari and Siddik Tore were brave men who had struggled for the independence of our people. My paternal uncle Alikerrar, whose name had been mentioned, had taught me poems about them. For example, I would never forget the following piece: "We attacked the enemy like a storming snow/ With the cries of Abilay, Abilay! (asking help from his spirit) we let our horses run, encircled them {the enemy}, crushing/ If God is not in your heart, where could your soul rest?/ If you do not have a State you can behold with your eyes, how could your mind be at peace?" (*) |
