Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Sept. 22 / Trend H.Hasanov /
Ashgabat hosts a two-day international forum "Khoja Ahmed Yasawi and Sufi Literature of the East" with participation of 60 eminent scholars from 21 world countries and about 100 Turkmen linguists, historians and literary critics.
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.