MILESIAN SCHOOL

 *  It was in Western Turkey that man first began his process of intellectual discovery that was to take him out of the darkness of ignorance into the light of critical thought. The science based on a determination of natural laws sprang from observations of natural phenomenon in Miletus in the sixth century B.C.

*  Mankind passed from the darkness of dogmas to the sunshine of science with the aid of critical thinking far the first time in western Anatolia. The Milesian pioneers of science recognized that Nature had its own laws and they thus liberated the interpretation of natural phenomena from religious straight jackets and began to reevaluate it with a free and critical contemplation, thus laying the foundations of the natural science that form the basis of the present human civilization. History knows these first Ionian scientists as the Milesian School The light created by the Milesians led to the blooming of an Ionian school during the pre-Socratic period and other Ionian cities also produced thinkers, who have illuminated mankind like the rising sun.   Anatolia, “the place where the sun rises,” indeed earned this appellation for the first time with its Ionian pioneers of science.

*   The pioneer of the Milesian scientists, Thales, who was both a mathematician and a natural scientist, is famous because the tradition ascribes to him the prediction of the eclipse o n28th May 585 B.C. (Herodotus, I 74). He was among the first to observe the attraction exercised on iron by certain ores in Magnesia, in ancient Lydia. Certain theorems of elementary geometry carry his name. Tradition also has celebrated him as an able engineer far his alleged feat of diverting the course of the river Halys to carry the army of the Lydia king Croesus across it. The foundations of western civilization, whose dominant component is the natural sciences, and especially of the most important source of this civilization, the Greek philosophy, were laid in western Anatolia, in lonia and especially in the home of science, Miletus.

*   With the first rational criticism he made, the first rational cosmology he developed, the first world map (pinax) he drew, the first theory of organic evolution he conceived, and the first prose book he wrote on natural sciences, Anaximander, who the tradition says was some fifteen years younger than Thales, appears not only as the rule founder of natural sciences, but as the greatest architect of the civilization of free-thinking humans, who are ready to question everything and everybody, including themselves. Ascription to him of the invention of the gnomon was probably a result of his interest in astronomy. This modest Anatolian, who created a monumental tradition of thought that changed the destiny of mankind, was also the first person who stated that the earth is suspended in void.   That this conclusion, which was not based on any observation but was purely a deduction from a local analysis of his friend Thales’ hypothesis, later appeared in the Book of Job (XXVI, 7) in the Bible, testifies to the range of the rays of the sun that had risen in Miletus.

*   Anatolia, which means “the place where the sun rises” also gained significance as the place where science was fırst born thanks to early Ionic scientists, Thales, Anaximander, and Heraclitus.

Turkey and Human Geography

We are at the start of the 3000s. The first lights of the period, when the ideas and information were more valuable as dawn brightened, began to appear with the 21st century. Thoughts of land that first sprouted Geography of Turkey is one of the fertile geography where four of the top ten thinkers from the world. The continents (Europe, Asia, Africa) at the transition point in Eastern Mediterranean as a result of the diversity and richness of the gene pool is located in the same way as the idea of ​​the richness and diversity.

The first essay on the Encyclopedia of Universal Thinkers begins with the accumulation of 2650 years, starting with Thales of Miletus, the first known philosopher born in 624 BC. The first great philosopher first 10 3, a total of 5 of them from Turkey’s geography. Philosophy,  began in Turkey geography.

5 of the top 10 thinkers from thinkers born in Turkey.

• Thales, Milet
• Anaximander, Milet
• Pythagoras, Samos island
• Laozi
• Confucius
• Sun Tzu
• Heraclitus, Ephesus
• Parmenides
• Anaxagoras, Klazomenai, Urla
• Protagoras

Source: Xue Xiaoyuan, Dr. The Charisma of 100 Philosophers. 2018. China Pictorial Press.

It is extremely important that European philosophy from the continents surrounding the Mediterranean cannot be understood without the development process that takes place elsewhere and passes to Europe. The beginnings of the development called Garp philosophy lie in what the Hellenes call the Orient (Anatole). The first center here was Miletos. Thales, Anaximandros and Anaximenes were the first philosophers of the history of philosophy with the intellectual activity they showed and the problems they addressed.

The second and main center was in Europe: Athens. However, the third center, Alexandreia (Alexandria), is also outside the European borders in Egypt, followed by Baghdad, a little deeper in the Orient. Source: Elmar Holenstein, Atlas of Philosophy, Places and Ways of Thinking, 2015 June, Istanbul, Küre Publishing

Cyprus, located in the middle of the triangle of Miletus-Alexandria-Baghdad; It is in a position to reproduce the intellectual legacy of Asia Minor-Greater Asia-Africa.

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LAO TZU and SHAMANISM

How and with what thoughts did a shamanic sage who lived 2500 years before the world I was brought up to influence me? And has it been affecting since then? There are three main reasons for this: Tao teaching is not an imposing, tyrannical teaching. The Tao Te Ching advises people to live in harmony with nature, but it does not force it.

Tonyukuk and Lao Tzu are the same school of philosophy. Inner Asian philosophy. Both are against Confucius. Confucius is the Chinese enlightenment, he is rational. Lao Tzu is Inner Asian mysticism; going west he returned to his intellectual roots.

We live in a world where one seventh lives on the edge of hunger. Today we cannot even imagine the poor and primitive, possibly shaman, world of Lao Tzu. The work presents the ideal of a person who is hostile to violence, who does not carry weapons, is humble and does not want to own property.

Lao Tzu (means “Old Master”), original name is Li Er/ 李耳, is an ancient Chinese Philosopher who founded the Philosophical Taoism/ Daoism. Daoism differs from Confucianism with the “effortless action” which refers the naturalness, simplicity. With this understanding they had their particular school in Chinese history.

In the work of SU-MA-CHİEN (1st century BC), which is regarded as the first Chinese History, Lao Tzu has an epic past. Master Lao worked as a clerk in the state of Zhu, one day came to one of the gates of the Great Wall, wrote his little book of 5000 signs at the request of the gate guard who knew him and housed him, and continued on his westward path.

A myth has naturally formed around the life of the wise Lao.

In this myth, there is the intersection of the Chinese philosopher’s paths with the Great Wall of China and the discussion of Master Lao with Confucius.

It is worth noting that the life story of Lao-Tzû given in Ssü Ma Ç’ien’s Book of History shows Lao-Tzû as born in the state of ÇU. Lao Tzu 604 BC, Henan, China

All of this may well be a myth. It seems very meaningful to me that this myth establishes a connection between the writer of Tao Te Qing and the state of ÇU. It cannot be just a coincidence that Lao-Tzû is linked to this state of ÇU in the south. Because Tao Te Ching is observed to be the ruler of “a joke peculiar to the state of ÇU” from beginning to end. By “a joke peculiar to the state of O” I mean the shamanist tendency of the mind or the shamanist way of thinking.

ÇU was a vast state of wild rivers, forests and mountains inhabited by many people of different and strange customs and traditions, rich in natural beauty but poor in culture and not of Chinese origin, located on the southern edge of the civilized Middle Kingdom of China. Here, all kinds of false beliefs about supernatural beings and jinn were common, and shamanist customs and traditions were also very popular.

However, as witnessed by the elegies written by ÇU Yüan, one of the greatest shamanist poets of the state of ÇU, it is possible that this primitive and “uncivilized”-looking environment is an ideal foundation that feeds an imaginary power and a poetic inspiration. The same environment can produce an extraordinarily different kind of metaphysical thought.

This is also possible, because, although it may seem like a raw insight, it has a nature that can be refined and evolved to a high spiritual level by refining the state of ecstasy and forgiveness experienced in Shamanism.

This process of philosophical evolution is manifested most vividly by Chuang-Tzû himself. Lao-Tzû, on the other hand, presents the result in a more final and static form. But in any case, I believe that the spiritual depth in Lao-Tzû’s thought can be best judged only by being understood as a philosophical witness of the ancient shamanic tradition in ancient China.

Maspero believes that Taoism is a “personal” religion that dates back to ancient times, unlike the State religion, which is unique to the agricultural community and has nothing to do with the salvation of the person, and Lao-Tzû and the Chuang-Tzû school are a distinct spiritual-philosophical argues that it has a special branch that is in contact with the trend.

Can it ever be imagined that such a metaphysical maturity of shamanism could have arisen as a result of its natural development without the actual intervention and contribution of a thinker endowed with an extraordinary philosophical genius? I think, for my own account, that this cannot be the case.

Shamanism would have continued to remain in its primitive immaturity as an ordinary expression of religious feelings if it had not been referenced to a higher level by the power of thought of a genius, and probably produced nothing but cosmogonic myths to explain the emergence of the Universe and the deities and demons. would be.

It is very meaningful for the purpose of our study to note that the essence of a philosophically advanced shamanism that conforms to this kind of description is permissible throughout the Tao Te Qing.

Whether it is an idea about the metaphysical structure of the world, the nature of man, the art of ruling the people, or the practical ideal of life, there is a living personal “center” where all the basic ideas we come across in the book are in an all-round order (if permissible).

And such an organic unity-integrity can only be explained by the claim that the Tao Te Ching is never a composition of incoherent fragments of ideas randomly collected here and there, but by accepting that the book is the work of a single author in its entirety.

He briefly mentioned that there may be a strong correlation between Shamanism and the philosophy of Taoism and, if we have to accept the intellectual or conception of the realm of Lao-Tzû and Chuang-Tz t, if we have to accept them as a historical insight, they are the shamanist spiritual-background tradition in ancient China. I have tried to summarize the idea that it should be examined by taking into consideration.

Throughout the long history of Chinese thought, traces of an attitude that can be called “shamanist way of thinking” can be easily seen. It is seen that this special attitude of thought appears in various forms and figures in accordance with special times and places, sometimes intellectually elegant and logically elaborated. We also observe that such a way of thinking is diametrically opposed to the realist and rational way of thinking represented by the strict moral worldview of Confucius and his followers.

I take Lao-Tzû’s Taoist vision of the realm as a philosophical crystallization or witness of this shamanist way of thinking. In other words, this Taoist realm-imagination is nothing more than a specific form of philosophy that results from the realization of the realm of being through a personal experience peculiar to those endowed with the ability to perceive things at the level of trans-sense consciousness.

Taoist philosophers, who have produced works such as the Book of Tao Te Ching, behave like “shamans” in terms of their personal experiences on which their world-views are based on the one hand, but on the other hand, to reach a higher level of cognition because remaining at the primitive level of common shamanism does not satisfy them. These were people who were engaged in an intellectual activity that evolved these original views within the framework of a system of metaphysical concepts designed to explain the real structure of the realm of Being.

It is evident from its historical attribute of origin that there is no link between Sufism and Taoism. In terms of history, Sufism depends on the form of Islamic monotheism known as Islam; Taoism, on the other hand, is a product of the philosophical cultivation and development of the Far-Eastern type of Shamanism, if the assumption I put forward at the beginning of this study is correct.

Despite the great historical and cultural distance that separates these two movements from each other, it is extremely meaningful that they share the same ground at the philosophical level. Both are in complete harmony with each other in basing their philosophical thoughts on a very special concept of Being that is actually identical, although they may differ from each other in details or in subordinate matters.

Either way, they agree that the ultimate origin of the philosophy of each system is not reasoning about Being but living Being. Moreover, to “live” Being in this special state consists of living it not with ordinary perceptions of emotion, but at the level (or levels) of super-emotional intuition.

Source: Prof. Toşihiko İzutsu, Taoculuk’daki Anahtar-Kavramlar

LAO TZU; A WISE SHAMAN

When we read Tao Te Qing, we can feel the breath of an extraordinary person who has perpetuated the whole book, and an extraordinarily wise person whose spirit is beating zong zong in every word of the book.

Indeed, the Tao Te Ching as a whole is a unique and unique work that has become distinctly colored by the personality of one extraordinary person, a wise shaman.

This person also draws his own portrait:

“Most people are cheerful and enthusiastic, just as if they were invited to a lavish feast or climbing high in the spring.

Only I, like a baby who has not yet begun to smile, remain silent and calm without showing any signs of activity. Only I will look at me’yûs and without purpose, like someone who has no place or place to go.

I am empty and poor while others are overflowing (with hopes and expectations). Mine is the mind of a stupid person. How heavy, how confused it is! All the others are smart and bright, but I am dim and dull. The misfortunes of other people are high, and I am slow and withdrawn, like a constantly rippling deep ocean, like an endless wind.

Like a peasant, I am incompetent while everyone else has a job to do. I am different from everyone else; because I value me on Ana’s nourishment ”.

In another passage (LXVII) he likewise makes the following about himself:

“Whoever is under the sky also describes me and says that I am great but I seem uninterested.

Yes, I am apathetic-looking, but because I am large, I look irrelevant. If I were someone involved, interested in everything, I would have already shrunk “.

Also in the LXX we read:

“My words are very easy to understand, very easy to follow. But under heaven nobody understands them and no one is following them. My words are based on a principle, my verbs derive from a prevailing rule. But the people (this principle) do not understand. Because of that I am out of the public’s grasp.

The rarity of those who comprehend me [my identity] is undoubtedly a measure of the greatness of my worth. That is why the “Holy Man” has coarse garments, but carries a precious jade inside “.

These passages describe a very peculiar state of mind, a person who seems to be disinterested and incompetent, who keeps himself away from “intelligent” people who spend their time with the ordinary pleasures of life. This person has the consciousness that he is completely different from an ordinary person and behaves in this manner. The important question we should ask here is:

When does this difference occur? Tao Te Ching himself and also Chuang-Tzû give a definite answer to this: The reason why this person sees himself different from other people is because he is conscious that he alone has the true meaning of Being. And this person knows this through his deep metaphysical consciousness [view, being a witness], which Chuang-Tzû calls tso wang, or “to take the nian for himself,” that is, his association with Tao in the state of mirage (istigrâk.)

From this point of view, the person who is beyond the statements we have declared above is a wise shamanist person; Or, in other words, it is a shaman who has risen to the level of wise and has a view that is manifested in the state of the yakaza. Yakaza means being vigilant, being careful, being conscious. Some are asleep while awake, while others are actually awake while sleeping. Therefore, sleeping and being awake depends on the person.

LAO TZU and WATER

In the Tao teaching, if a person lives according to the law of nature, his life will pass in peace, balance and harmony with the environment. This is the life principle of the Tao teaching. The most striking metaphor of Tao teaching is “water”. Alan Watts emphasized this metaphor by calling his book on the subject “Stream Road” (Watts, 1975). Everything should be like a stream.

Water does not neglect the slightest height or pit. It swells over one, jumps over a rock, fills a pit. These are his nature, character, or features of his existence. Lao Tzu brings examples from the daily life of man to illustrate the Tao way. The stream is the symbol of Tao. It is like a woman. It is like a child. It looks weak, but it is water that carves the rock.

The water metaphor teaches humility. Everything seems to happen spontaneously in nature. A good master is the easiest to do his job without difficulty. For him, simplicity is the biggest feature. A person with a clean heart is not cunning. He does not think about the profit of his work. It is not egoistic. He has not lost his balance because of his ambitions.

The people do not even know of the existence of a ruler living according to Tao teachings. It is the opposite of the power image in world history. Emptying the highest success does not prevent it from being a success. The Void implies the existence of a potential in Tao teaching, that a potential is not finished. The full one has no other opportunity left.

Tao Te Ching

Chapter Eight

• A person of great virtue is like the flowing water.
• Water benefits all things and contends not with them.
• It puts itself in a place that no one wishes to be and thus is closest to Tao.
• A virtuous person is like water which adapts itself to the perfect place.
• His mind is like the deep water that is calm and peaceful.
• His heart is kind like water that benefits all.
• His words are sincere like the constant flow of water.
• His governing is natural without desire which is like the softness of water that penetrates through
• hard rocks.
• His work is of talent like the free flow of water.
• His movement is of right timing like water that flows smoothly.
• A virtuous person never forces his way and hence will not make faults. 

Chapter Nine

• Those who overly pride wealth is like the overflowing water which shall cause damages. It is
• better to restrain early.
• Those who are not content with fame is like polishing the edge of a knife.
• The sharper it gets, the easier it is to break.
• Wealth and treasures are but illusions that one cannot possess.
• Those who are arrogant of their wealth and fame shall invite blame upon oneself.
• The nature Tao teaches one to retreat after one’s success and not to hold on to the credit.

Chapter Fifteen

• The ancient Tao cultivators were subtle and mysterious.
• They were of immeasurable profundity.
• Because they were too subtle to be known, so reluctantly they were being described as follow:
• Harmonized, like the turbid water.
• How can one turn the turbid water into clarity?

Chapter Thirty-six

• This is known as the enlightened nature that is subtle yet profound.
• Gentleness overcomes strength, and the weak overcomes the strong.
• Just as fish live in deep water and cannot survive after being taken out of the depths.
• And the powerful weapons of a country should not be displayed,
• Just like one’s true nature cannot be revealed to be seen.

Chapter Seventy-eight

• There is nothing in this world that is softer and weaker than water.
• Even those that can conquer the strong and hard,
• Are still not superior than water.
• Nothing can substitute it.
• Hence, what is soft can overcome the strong.
• What is gentle can overcome the strength.
• This is known by the world.
• However, people cannot put it into practice.
• Therefore, the saint said as follow:
• He who can take the disgrace of a nation,
• Is said to be the master of the nation.
• He who can bear the misfortune of a nation,
• Is said to be the ruler of the world.
• Truthful words may seem to be the reverse of worldly practices.

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The highest type of this theoretical knowledge, for Farabi, is wisdom (hikmah), which is ‘the knowledge of the ultimate causes of all existing entities, as well as the proximate causes, of everything caused’, by which he appears to mean ‘first philosophy’ or metaphysics and ‘second philosophy’ or physics, respectively. This double type of knowledge consists ‘in knowing that entities exist, what they are, how they are and, if many, how they culminate in an orderly fashion, in a Single Being, who is the cause of those ultimate entities, as well as the lower proximate entities’.2 Such a Being is the True One, whose subsistence (qiwa¯m) does not depend on anything else, being thoroughly self-sufficient. He is, in addition, incorporeal and His being is entirely different from the being of other entities, which do not resemble Him except in name.

Farabi gives, along Aristotelian lines, a parallel list of intellectual virtues, which includes: 1) wisdom, or the knowledge of the ultimate principles and causes; 2) practical reason, which corresponds to Aristotle’s prudence ( phronesis), already discussed; 3) reflection ( fikr), or the ability to ‘judge rightly and to discern those things which are best and most suited for what we are out to perform’, as a means of attaining happiness or something else conducive to happiness; 4) acumen (kays) or the power to discover what is best and most suitable for attaining certain subordinate goods; 5) cunning (daha¯’) or the ability to determine what is most suited for attaining a supposed good, such as wealth, pleasure or noble social standing; and 6) duplicity or deceitfulness, as the ability to discover the most effective means to achieve a base goal, deemed to be good, such as easy gain or base pleasure.10 All these virtues, which are really subdivisions of practical reason, are simply means of attaining the goal, but are different from the ultimate goal which, for Farabi, is nothing other than happiness.

The perfect state, which Farabi calls the virtuous city (al-Madı¯nah al-Fa¯dilah), is represented as the one in which humans are able to achieve the double goal of knowledge and happiness to the highest degree.

The structure of language and its relationship with thought has been considered as a problem by philosophers and logicians as well as by linguists. Farabi (d. 950), who is famous with the title of second instructor, as a system philosopher, especially in his works in the disciplines of philosophy and logic, gave a wide place to the relationship between them, starting from the nature of language and thought.

According to him, the structure of language consists of four factors: the abilities in the human soul, the vocal organs, the relation of language with nature and society, signification (sign) and compositions (compounds). One of these factors; human is the thinking / talking creature (animal-natik) which is; it is one of the faculties of the soul.

In this ability, there is a union of speaking and thinking. At the same time, Farabi evaluates this ability in terms of internal speech (internal speech), external speech (external speech) and discrimination (power of appeal). Accordingly, a relationship is established between language and thought.

In the modern period, German philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (d. 1835) analyzes the relationship between language and thought by using the expression “inner form”, which evokes Farabi’s “animal-natik”. According to him, the inner movements in the soul differ and are expressed by going out with the sound. When the internal form of the language and physical sounds combine, a composition is formed whose structure is not clearly known.

On the other hand, language has a relationship with thought, and language affects and shapes thought. Language is essential in order to think, that is, language is the necessary requirement of thought. In this paper, the relationship between language and thought will be investigated by focusing on Farabi’s “animal’s-natik” and Humboldt’s “inner form / inner language sense”. Keywords: Farabi, Humboldt, Thinker / Speaking Alive, Inner Language Sense

“Man differs from all animals with different characteristics; because in him there is a spirit that reveals power, that moves through the bodies of matter, and apart from that, a force that acts without matter bodies; this power is mind. The aforementioned powers include the power of nutrition, growth and reproduction, which is the task force for each of them.

Cognitive powers include external forces and inner emotion, especially imagination, predictive power, memory power, thought power and motive forces that stimulate the body, passion and hatred. Each of these forces we have mentioned acts with the help of a certain organ, otherwise there will be no work. Even one of these forces does not occur separately from matter ”. Source: Farabi, es-Siyasetü’l-Medeniyye, Translation: Commission, Ministry of Culture Pub., Istanbul, 1980, p. 2-3

Then a completely different force arises in man, thanks to him, man preserves in his soul the impressions of sensory things that he acquired with the senses in the past but are no longer given. This is the power of imagination. With this strength, man connects or separates these senses with different combinations and separations. Some of these combinations and separations are wrong (qâzib), some are true. A desire [or will] associated with these imagined objects also comes to this force and is added.

Later, the power of thought emerges in the human being, with it, the human gains the opportunity to know the mental objects, and again separates the beauty and the ugly, and creates the arts and sciences. A desire for mental things is also added to this strength. Farabi, Ideal State. ss. 65-66

Knowledge of something can be obtained by the power of the mind, the imagination, or the power of five senses. When it is desired to know something that has the property of being comprehended by mental power, the act that ensures the achievement of the desired thing arises from another power in the mental power. This is also intellectual power.

Intellectual power is the force that brings about thinking, measuring, scrutinizing, and making inferences. The mind in man is a material capability prepared to accept the imaginations of the rational.

Mind is knowing force and material mind, and at the same time knowing is powerful and mental. Knowing mind becomes actual mind when the rational arises in itself. The wise and minds become de facto rational when they are actually considered by the mind. Active Reason is the reason that makes the intellectuals the de facto rational, the know force mind, the actual mind.

Mental power is in two parts. Theoretical mind and functional mind. The function of the theoretical mind performs the verbs related to the particulars and exists to serve the theological mind. The function of the theoretical mind is to grasp the rational who are not the subject of human action. As for the mental ones; they are the first rational to be common to all humans in the sense that the whole is greater than the part and that two things belonging to one and the same thing are equal to each other.

When these intellectuals exist in a person, deep reflection, reflection, practical thinking, and the desire to explore occur in his nature. If the tendency towards what is generally perceived in human beings is the result of sense or imagination, it is called will, if it is the result of thinking and thinking and mental thinking, it is called choice (old man).

With the power of human mind, in other words, with the power of thinking, he acquires science and arts. Distinguish between good and bad acts and moral behavior. Again, with him, he understands what to do and what not to do. It also grasps the injured and the harmful, and the things that taste or pain.

We divided the power of thinking into two as theoretical and deeds above. Working power is also twofold, related to the arts and practical thinking. With good power, man knows what he will do willingly. Arts and professions are gained with the power of art. With the power of practical thinking, the things that should and should not be done are considered separately. Fârâbî, Siyasetü l -Medeniyye, Dairetü l Maarif, Hyderabad- (H) s (Translated by. Mehmet Aydın, Abdulkadir Şener, Rami Ayas. İstanbul 1980.) Medinetü l -Fazıla, p.117. (Translated by., Ahmet Arslan, Ankara-1990) Zübeyir Kars. Human – State Relationship in Fârâbî http://docplayer.biz.tr/46790432-Farabi-de-insan-devlet-iliskisi.html

ISTANBUL TRAVEL GUIDE 2025: EXPLORING ISTANBUL'S TIMELESS CHARMS

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Yusuf Has Hacib (1017-1077). (Kyrgyzstan) Balasagun and Kashgar 11th century. Poet and educator (ethics and medicine in the tradition of Ibn Sina), owner of the oldest work of Turkish-Islamic literature. (Celebrating Bilgi, Kutadgu Bilig) He is the author of Kutadgu Bilig, which gives advice to the rulers and is written on morality. Thanks to Yusuf Has Hacip’s book, Turkish found its place in the center of Mediterranean civilization and thought for the first time. 11th century. Poet and educator (ethics and medicine in the tradition of Ibn Sina), owner of the oldest work of Turkish-Islamic literature. (Celebrating Knowledge, Kutadgu Bilig). The work, written in the Turkish dialect, put the Turkish language in the middle of Mediterranean civilization and thought for the first time. In 1069 he published Kutadgu Bilig, a guide for rulers and a work on ethics. The work, written in the Turkish dialect, put the Turkish language in the middle of Mediterranean civilization and thought for the first time. The author, who was from the city of Balasagun in what is now Kyrgyzstan, died in Xinjiang, near Kashgar.

Balasaguni started to work on the Kutadgu Bilig (Middle Turkic: Wisdom of Royal Glory) in Balasagun and was about 50 years old when he completed it in Kashgar

Now we are looking at Bilge Tonyukuk, Kutadgu Bilig and Hagia Sophia. I later discovered the meaning of Hagia Sophia. Same thing with Kutadgu Bilig. Aya saint, holy, wisdom in sofia, wise.

How is this happening now? An architectural work is being done in 550 in Istanbul. Justinyanus who got this done, means legal in Turkish, and the title of Sultan Süleyman, who made Süleymaniye, is legal. What a job. Here is this Hagia Sophia, Kutadgu Bilig, which I have personally deduced from here, to have the same meanings, Justaniyus, Kanuni, the wisdom that I personally inferred is in the east. The main message emanating from Kutadgu Bilig: this is a sad message, this is a very sad message.

Here, what is the message I receive about Kutadgu Bilig is kut domination, it makes you dominate the world. This is a very, very important piece of information captured by the Turks. Bilge Tonyukuk starts with wisdom. It is a very, very important point, but when we come back from 1017 to 2017, we see that we do not remember or know any lines.

Various  opinions  are  expressed  on  the  literal meaning of the title. ACCORDING to some RESEARCHERS, wisdom of happiness and ACCORDING to some others, wisdom  that  brings  happiness  makes  people  REACH happiness  in  both  Earth  and  Heaven. This  wisdom provides  human  beings  with  the  mentality,  knowledge and virtues required for ideally organizing the lives of the individual, COMMUNITY and State WHICH are  CLOSELY  related  to  EACH  other.  “With this work Yusuf CREATED a system of philosophy of life WHICH analyzes the meaning of human life and determines the task of human beings within the COMMUNITY and within the State”.

We used in this study the SECOND edition of the translation of Arat and the English translation of Robert Dankoff published under the title of Wisdom of Royal Glory (Kutadgu Bilig) A TURCO ISLAMIC mir ror for PRINCES. Our further studies will also be on these version.

Wisdom: In general wisdom is the PRODUCT of the relationship between OBJECT and SUBJECT,  resulting from the intentional TENDENCY of the SUBJECT. It CAN be defined as being aware or CONSCIOUS of something as well as a CLEAR PERCEPTION of something regarded as ACCURACY or a task.

WISDOM IN KUTADGU BILIG

Kutadgu   Bilig   INCLUDES   numerous   GONCEPTS besides the four BASIC CONCEPTS we mentined at the beginning of this study.

SUCH  GONCEPTS  INCLUDED  in  Kutadgu  Bilig  as Biliglik  (being  wise),  Kutluluk  (happiness),  Könilik (rightness, JUSTICE), Erdem (virtue), Edgü (kindness, doing favor), Asıglıg (helpfulness), love, loyalty, generosity, bravery, PATIENCE and modesty are CLASSIFIED as  ETHICALLY  positive  GONCEPTS  whereas  lying,  hastiness, IGNORANCE, meanness and greed are listed under the title of negative ETHICAL CONCEPTS.

Yusuf Khass Hajib believes that our primary task for ourselves is seeking  wisdom.  Kutadgu  Bilig INCLUDES the following statements on this CONSIDERATION:

• “Learn wisdom and earn the seat of honor.” (K.B.line.6605)
• “Wisdom is a nighty fortress. The heart and Tongue are fitting for notting with- out wisdom; with wisdom they fit everything, like water.”(K.B.line.6606)
• “However  MUCH  wisdom  you  posses, still seek to gain more; for the wise man attains  his  desire  by  inquiry.”  (K.B. Line. 6607)
• “Learn wisdom, and BECOME a man by rising  your  soul  aloft;  otherwise  be CALLED  “beast”  and  remove  yourself from mankind.” (K.B.Line.6611)

Yusuf Khass Hajib’s abovementioned statements are of great IMPORTANCE SINCE they reveal the significance of wisdom and wise men.

SINCE  virtue  is  defined  as  the  TENDENCY  to  be always ETHICALLY good and engage in right ACTIONS, it is inevitable to regard virtue as a CHARACTERISTIC specific to human beings.

The statements in Kutadgu Bilig CLEARLY express that wisdom makes individuals CLOSER to PERFECTION and guides the souls to make BENEFICIAL. This idea is parallel to SOCRATES expression: “Virtue is wisdom”.

SOCRATES believes that EACH virtue is wisdom. An individual who is able to know what is good and right is virtuous, just and brave. The wisdom WHICH makes an individual virtuous is the wisdom of the good. SOCRATES also employs good as synonymous with beau- tiful and useful. The ACTS that render life favorable and painless are beautiful, and every beautiful ACT is good and useful. SOCRATES believes that any ACT WHICH does not serve for REACHING a target is useless. Anything is beautiful and good BECAUSE it is useful. People who are aware that there are better ACTS than the ones they do will never refrain from engaging in better  ACTS. Philosophers have defined wisdom  in  various  ways throughout the history of philosophy.

Wisdom is defined as follows in Kutadgu Bilig:

• “INTELLECT is like a lamp in a dark night, while wisdom is light itself that  has made you bright. (K.B. line. 288)
• Wisdom is like ALCHEMY: It ACCUMULATES wealth WHICH is stored in its PLACE, the INTELLECT. (K.B. line. 310)
• Musk and Wisdom are of the same sort: Neither CAN be kept hidden  (K.B.  line. 311)
• If you try to hide musk its SCENT gives it away , and if you CONCEAL wisdom,it nevertheless  CONTINIOUS  to  regulate  your tongue (K.B. line. 312)
• “Wisdom is a type of wealth that CAN not turn to poverty and CAN not fall pray to theft or fraud  (K.B.line 313)

Besides these definitions, the following statements are also INCLUDED in Kutadgu Bilig:

• “There are numerous differences among men, but the main source of in  quality is the degree if wisdom.” (K.B.line.201)
• “SINCE the time that Adam DESCENDED to the world it has been men  of  INTELLECT who instituted law, and in every age the highest position have always gone to the wise.” (K.B.line.220)

As a CRITERION, value always distinguishes between what is and what should be, and is always regarded as something positive or negative.  In this expression from Kutadgu Bilig (KB. Line 201) wisdom is certainly regarded as a value.

The following statements on wisdom quoted from Kutadgu Bilig REFLECT ANCIENT Turkish tradition and the value ATTACHED to wisdom:

• “Man’s heart is like a bottomless sea and wisdom is the pearl that lies at the bottom.”(K.b:line.211)
• “If fails to bring the pearl up out of the sea it COULD just as well be a pebble as a pearl.”(K.B.line.212)
• Turkish people used to COMPARE the mind of wise people with huge seas. It was a CUSTOM to say “his mind is like an OCEAN” while talking about a wise and WELL-EDUCATED person (12).
• “As long as the wise man does not bring out wisdom upon his tongue, his wisdom may lie hidden for years and shed light.”(K.B.line.214)

A wise person is EXPECTED to use his wisdom for the benefit of the SOCIETY. The formation of a healthy SOCIETY is also important in the human model and CONCEPTS presented in Kutadgu Bilig. This is merely one of the universal values presented to all humanity by Kutadgu Bilig.

The below-mentioned statements are an EVIDENCE of the relationship between wisdom and the benefit provided by wisdom:

• “The profit of wisdom is all good things with wisdom, as the proverb goes “he found the road to heaven”. (K.B. line. 208)
• “Then speak all your words wisely, and know that wisdom alone makes men great.” (K.B.line.209)

As the following statement suggests, IGNORANCE is DESCRIBED as an illness:

• “Wisdom  proclaims  its  own  meaning this: When a man knows wisdom, the illness    is    not    treated    the    patient dies.”(K.B.line.156)
• “An ignorant person is always ill. If the illness is not cured, the patient will die soon.”K.B.line.157)

This statement also reveals the CONCERN stemming from IGNORANCE.

• “Go  then,  fool,  seek  remedy  for  your ills,  and  you,  glorious  sage,  prescribe the foll’s remedy!”(K.B.line.158)

SOCRATES suggests that wisdom orientates people to right Actions whereas IGNORANCE orientates them to the wrong. Thus a person who knows himself will engage in ACTS WHICH are BENEFICIAL for him while a person  who  does  not  know  himself  will  engage  in harmful  ACTS  (13,14). Wisdom  is  the  SOURCE  of  our ETHICAL  ACTIONS  and  IGNORANCE  is  at  the  basis  of  all wrong ACTIONS (15). Wisdom is CONSIDERED the SOURCE of ETHICAL ACTIONS in Kutadgu Bilig, as well.

The  following  SELECTION  from  Kutadgu  Bilig shows the similarity between the thought of SOCRATES and Yusuf Khass Hajib on wisdom:

• “Know  that  wisdom  and  INTELLECT  are noble things and they ennoble the CHOsen servant (i.e.) man.”(K.B.line .152)
• “INTELLECT is leading rein : If a man leads by  it,  he  ACHIVES  his  goal  and  enjoys COUNTLESS desires.” (K.B.line.160)
• “Through INTELLECT a man rises in esteem and  “wisdom  he  grows  grest”.  (K.B. line. 289)

SOCRATES draws an analogy between leading an ethICAL and happy life and various arts and CRAFTS in order to express more CLEARLY the relationship between happiness and wisdom. As mentioned in many RESOURCES, SOCRATES believes that living is also an art. If we want to lead a good and right life, we have to regard life as an art whose final OBJECTIVE is happiness. The ways suggested for REACHING happiness -WHICH is the OBJECtive  of  life-  are  virtues  defined  as  PERFECTION  WHICH makes up the personality of human beings.

Virtue is a value or a QUALIFICATION WHICH guides human beings to REACH eudemonia where they fully realize their own nature, apply all their potentials to life and REACH their PERFECTION. SOCRATES believes that virtue – with its abovementioned definition – is equal to wisdom.  “Virtue  is  wisdom”  is  an  expression WHICH he never gave up repeating.

If virtue is wisdom, what kind of wisdom is it?

It is CLEAR that SOCRATES does not regard all wisdom as virtue. The wisdom WHICH is a virtue leads people to self-realization and happiness. Wisdom WHICH is virtue should be good, render us good and CHANGE our life into a good one.

ACCORDING to SOCRATES, wisdom WHICH makes people realize their own nature and help them REACH happiness is the wisdom related to the good and the evil, and what is good and what is evil.

Wisdom WHICH is virtue belongs to a person himself. The SECOND way of defining virtue is equalizing it to knowledge or knowing.

YUSUF HAS HACIP

Since June 2015, my personal agenda for contemplation has been with our thinkers. Let’s say the starting point of these thinkers Oğuz Kağan. Since 200 BC. In this line, when we bring the issue to the political agenda for example, we do not have the concept of ten years in Turkish. There are Westerners, they say dec at in English, they calculate like this for ten years. When we look at the basis of years, we want to evaluate the thousand years.

Kutadgu Bilig Yusuf Has Hacib was born in 1017. He finished his thousandth year in 2017. There are a thousand years before that, when we look at that thousand years, I will try to convey that line to you, as I know it, from my point of view. Time, ground, line of mind. I was in Cairo last night. I got on the plane at half past 3 at night. This is my 5th going. There is also Kutadgu Bilig in Cairo. That ground line continues. I will mention that too.

When we go back a thousand years from 1017, we see Oğuz Kağan. What we see in Oğuz Kağan, a sage is mentioned there. Then, when we go forward, Bilge Tonyukuk was born in 646. He died in 724, and Bilge Tonyukuk thinks that I have been working on it specifically, he is our first thinker to write. The first person who wrote the article deserved the stone. The term deserve is used. He had it dictated on stone.

There are magnificent thoughts on the 56-line stone. There is a wonderful language. When we look at this now, how did this language develop, where did it come from? Then this shows this. Here in Kutadgu Bilig it is already, as I understand it, sacred knowledge is blessed knowledge, not happiness, kut.

Because we have lost contact with our quota texts. The message here is alienation, we are alienated. Why did I bring those with me? When I was told two days ago, I started thinking about it. Our Kutadgu Bilig is a work of over 1000 pages. During the Karakhanids period, Karakhanids started to write Yusuf. After he wrote it, he became private. He wrote for the Karakhanid ruler. The Ferdowsi Gazneli ruler asked him for the Şahname. He gave 40 thousand gold coins and dictated the Firdevsi Şahname.

However, what the Ghaznavids wanted was the same as the Ghaznavids and the Karakhanids, and what the Ghaznavids wanted was to produce a work that praised the Turks. But he made some expressions that did not praise and upset the Turks, and then gold was turned into silver or something. What happened after all, the Iranians know the Şahname by heart, by heart. You go, they read string by string in their coffee. How much we know Kutadgu Bilig, how much I know, let me look at myself personally.

Here I would like to emphasize this issue of alienation by underlining personally, we are foreigners. We are strangers to our own texts, our own values. When I look at it as a ground, we will see this alienation as follows.

There is an inscription of this in three places. It was the inscription of Bilge Tonyukuk, there are epics before the inscription, the epic of Oğuz Khan, and the manuscript Kutadg Bilig came after the inscription. Where are these manuscripts? Herat Afghanistan; Currently under American occupation, Cairo, Egypt, and a German there find him. We know very well how it is. I was there last night. I say democracy, democracy has nothing there. And the third point is Istanbul. We all know very well what Istanbul went through two years ago. Now then, this line starting from Afghanistan that we call Herat and continuing from Cairo is going through now, so there is an alienation on these three grounds.

SOCIETY AND STATE PHILOSOPHY IN KUTADGU BİLİG

Although the Turks, who established 16 states in 3 continents, formed a large literature on the subject starting from the era of the Inscriptions and continuing with the Manuscripts (Political Books), the said Scriptures and Manuscripts were unfortunately not examined within the scope of the State Philosophy discipline, and the Turkish Canon has not yet been revealed.

Kutadgu Bilig has so far been translated into today’s language as the Art of Happiness, Happening Knowledge. The main meaning of Kutadgu Bilig is State Management Knowledge. The most commonly used concepts in the Kutadgu Bilig text, which is shaped around four main concepts (Töre-Justice, Kut-State, Reason, Heart), clearly reveal that the focus of the work is the Philosophy of Society and the State.

• Ajun; world
• Beg, Begler: Bey, Gentlemen
• Wise: Scholar, Judge, Scholar
• Bilig: Knowledge, Wisdom
• Information, Information: Information
• Budun: People, Nation, Tribe
• World: Earth, World
• Edgü: Good
• Province: Province, country, country, people
• İlig: Ruler
• Work, Job, Iske: Work
• Kamuğ: All, all, one
• Person, Person, Person, Person: Person, Human, Man
• Köngül: Heart, Heart
• Expressiveness: Accuracy
• Kut: Kut, Happiness, State
• Self: Self, self, soul, soul, soul, heart
• Promise: Promise
• Töre: Custom, Law, Order
• Ukuş: Mind, Understanding

As a first attempt, Kutadgu Bilig’s work is analyzed in terms of State Philosophy. A wide index and dictionary were created and added to the work, presented to the use of our thinkers, and it was aimed to enrich the literature.

Sociologist Prof. Dr. Mahmut Arslan’s study of Kutadgu Bilig is unique in terms of his approach to the subject based on the references of western and eastern monumental thinkers and evaluates the work in terms of its universal position. In the work, a comparative method is taken as basis, with German, English, French, Ancient Greek, Chinese, Hindi, Ancient Turkish, Iranian and Islamic thinkers.

The most important feature of the work is that it is based on the criteria of universality. Kutadgu Bilig is the touchstone of objective science and has studied it in depth. Such a broad perspective approach to Kutadgu Bilig, which is an eastern classic, is in fact exactly the same with the Turkish perspective on the world and people.

Our teacher Mahmut Arslan continued the same line and continued the tradition of universalism after 2019, when the 950th anniversary of the writing of Kutadgu Bilig was celebrated and further deepened the line. As a requirement of this ideal, they themselves have increasingly accessed literature reviews, especially the Austrian and German libraries, which have not yet come to the agenda of our world of thought.

Thus, the review book about Kutadgu Bilig, our first written book, was published as the first book of Türk Evi Publishing, and constitutes a first step towards our goal of being ourselves.

Bilig’s enlightenment is a sacred journey.

The line of Turkish House Publications is that the richness of the grounds with our architectural works, memories and stamps are written in a book and the transfer of the Turkish Generation, which surrounds the world, to the next generations.

The line that started with Our Inscriptions in Greater Asia and Yusuf Has Hajib and reached Asia Minor with Yesevi and set a barrier to alienation mistakes, has an unshakable depth and scope.

Levent AĞAOĞLU, 4 December 2019. Atakoy, Istanbul

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