The 4-meter high sculpture is in its final stage and will be set up in the coming days, city mayor Mansur Taneh-Gonbadi said in a press release published on Tuesday.

Makhtum-Qoli is considered to be the founder of authentic Turkmen literature by the people who speak the language.  

The mausoleum of the poet is located in Aq-Tuqai village in Golestan Province.

May 18 marks the birth anniversary of Makhtum-Qoli Faraghi, and a series of programs are usually held annually to honor the poet during the month of May.

Makhtum-Qoli was educated in the cities of Bukhara and Khiva in Uzbekistan. He was fluent in the Arabic, Persian and Turkic languages, and particularly in Chagatai, the dominant Turkic language of Makhtum-Qoli’s region at the time.

But his best poetry was written in the Turkmen language, and he could be considered the father of the Turkmen language in many ways.

Turkmen was an underdeveloped language when Makhtum-Qoli was young. Writers and scholars were producing work in the two dominant languages, Persian and Chagatai, but Makhtum-Qoli would change that for his people.

Makhtum-Qoli not only wrote poetry in Turkmen, but also he developed and enriched the language through his works. His poetry is organically connected with folk poetry. 

Makhtum-Qoli’s civic poetry contains several strains, a condemnation of intertribal discord; a call to ponder the struggle for existence conducted by those who have been deprived of earthly blessings.

Youssef Azemoun is the author of “Songs from the Steppes of Central Asia: The Collected Poems of Makhtumkuli”, which not only includes translations of the Turkmen poems into English, but also provides some details of Makhtumkuli’s life, much of which remains unclear to this day.

Source:Tehran Times