Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Sept. 7 / Trend H.Hasanov /
Ashgabat will host an international scientific conference on "Khoja Ahmed Yasawi and Sufi Literature of the East" on Sept. 22-23, the Miras national television channel reported.
The forum will be attended by some 60 eminent scientists from 21 countries and about 100 Turkmen linguists, historians and literary critics.
"Studying and promoting the rich literary and spiritual heritage of the Turkmen people is an important public policy," Turkmen President Gurbangulu Berdimuhammedov said at a recent governmental meeting.
Yasawi was a Turkic poet and a Sufi (Muslim mystic), an early mystic who exerted a powerful influence on the development of mystical orders throughout the Turkic-speaking world. He is currently the earliest known Turkic poet to compose poetry in a Turkic dialect. His work "Divan-i-Hikmat" ("Book of Wisdom") is thought to be a masterpiece of the ancient world.
The conference will hold lectures on Yasawi manuscript sources, Yasawi's era and the Sufi order of Yasaviye, Turkmen classical literature, Yasawi and Turkic-language literature during the Seljuk era, and Yasawi literary heritage and the Turkmen language.
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