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Azik village of Opal town is invariably on the elite list of must-see sights for travelers to Kashi (Kashgar), Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Located about 40 kilometers southwest of Kashi, the village draws a lot of visitors -- most of them Muslim pilgrims, who come to pay their respects to Mahmud Kashgari, a great Uygur scholar buried in the village. Some travelers have come from as far away as western Asia. Mahmud Kashgari commands respect some 10 centuries after his death because he was the author of the immortal work: The Turkic Dictionary (often referred to as Great Turkic Dictionary). The Chinese version of this landmark tome was published recently. Turbulent Life Like many great people in history, Mahmud Kashgari lived a life of trials and tribulations. His book remained in obscurity for about 800 years. Mahmud Kashgari was born in 1008. His grandfather and father were both khans of the Karakhanid Kingdom, which flourished in the 9th and 10th centuries. Mahmud Kashgari was well educated and was able to speak Arabian and Persian, then the orthodox language in academic and literary circles. He avidly studied all available subjects in school, especially Arabian literature. But royal society was unstable at that time and his peaceful study was often disturbed. He witnessed religious wars between the newly-converted Islamic Karakhanid Kingdom and Buddhist states in China's western regions during his teenage years. As an adult, he watched as a coup toppled his father's regime and most members of his family were slain. The young man fled Kashi and began an itinerant lifestyle. The aristocratic youth was poor but noble, deprived yet liberal-minded. He decided to use his profound learning to carry out a significant service for his homeland: to gather, study and record the language of the Turkic tribes in Central Asia. At that time, Arabian was regarded as a scientific and superior language in the Arabian-Islamic world. Mahmud Kashgari wanted to demonstrate using facts that the social function of Turkic language was not inferior to that of Arabian. In the dictionary he wrote: "Turkic and Arabian run shoulder by shoulder as two racing horses." He did this formidable task humbly and patiently. For as long as 15 years, he roamed the grazing lands, gravel deserts and wilderness of the western regions, where a great number of ethnic groups speaking Turkic lived, to investigate their language and collect materials. He later wrote in the preface of the Dictionary: "I have been to all the corners of their cities and villages, recorded the vocabularies of the tribes of Turki, Turkman, Oghuz, Qigil, Yaghma, Khirghiz, etc, and practiced them. Therefore, each language of these tribes has been masterfully arranged in my heart." He then traveled to Baghdad -- at that time the capital of the Abas Dynasty (750-1258). There he settled down to compose the landmark Turkic Dictionary. In the renowned city of Baghdad, and while listening to the melodies of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, he penned his brilliant masterpiece. Nobody knows how many years it took him to finish the dictionary. Walking out of his study, he saw the boundless golden sands. The emerald oasis of this foreign land aroused his unquenchable nostalgic feelings for his homeland. In about 1074, Mahmud presented the only manuscript of the Dictionary to the caliph of the Abas Dynasty, Abulkasim Abdulla, and then took to the road home. He must have trekked a very long distance; and he must have settled in Azik village, lived as a humble teacher perhaps and died there, according to modern scholars. Book's Rediscovery In the following tumultuous centuries when men and kingdoms in western and central Asia could not predict their future, the life of a book was fragile and its destination undecided. Mahmud Kashgari presented the only manuscript of his dictionary to Caliph Abulkasim Abdulla of Baghdad in the hope that the power of a caliph was strong enough to preserve his wisdom. However, war soon engulfed the whole of Arabia, and the palace of Caliph Abulkasim Abdulla was burnt to the ground. Legend has it that the descendants of Caliph Abulkasim Abdulla, though having lost their throne and living in a state of wretched suffering, did their best to preserve the manuscript of the Dictionary for 100 years. They presented the manuscript to the new caliph of Baghdad later, then it was soon lost in another war. Contemporary scholars believe that some transcripts of the Turkic Dictionary were made and circulated in intellectual circles shortly after Mahmud presented it to Caliph Abulkasim Abdulla. For about six centuries, it was mentioned randomly by a few historians. One copy of the transcript of the Turkic Dictionary, believed to have been made in the 13th century, finally re-surfaced in 1914 through a book-dealer to the famous collector Ali Amir of the renowned aristocratic family, Diyarbeg. Thus, after having disappeared from public view for several hundred years, the legendary Turkic Dictionary was finally brought back into the limelight. The rediscovery of the Turkic Dictionary was enthusiastically hailed by scholars from different countries. In 1928, the famous German scholar, Carl Brockelmann (1868-1956) compiled an index for the Turkic Dictionary using German letters. The work proved very valuable and paved a way for other scholars to conduct further studies. From 1939 to 1941, Turkish scholar Besim Atalay published his famous Turkish version of the Turkic Dictionary, and completed the Turkish version index two years later. The Turkish scholar's leading accomplishment drew the attention of many in the world. The Turkic Dictionary was subsequently translated into several languages, including English. In China, many Chinese scholars, of both Uygur and Han ethnicities, have made or are making great efforts to study the Turkic Dictionary from different perspectives varying from literary, historic, linguistic, to archaeological. The Uygur version and Chinese version of the Turkic Dictionary were published respectively in 1984 and 2002. The Turkic Dictionary is so interesting for academic circles largely because it sheds important light on the medieval history of central Asia. The preface alone is a very important introduction to essential social features of 11th century central Asia. And the main text of the Dictionary is a rich encyclopaedia of history, geography, products, and customs of ethnic groups speaking Turkic languages. In order to interpret each term, of which there are about 7,000, Mahmud Kashgari not only offered its literal meaning, but also collected a great amount of folk stories, poems, legends, and proverbs of Turkic ethnic groups for illustration. As a result, the significance of Turkic Dictionary is far more than that of a linguistic tool -- it is a veritable bounty for scholars to exploit historic facts about medieval central Asia. "The Dictionary has become an indispensable reference resource for all scholars dealing with the history of central Asia or the Turkic nationality," said Zhao Mingming, author of the first monograph on the Turkic Dictionary in China -- Language Research on Turkic Dictionary. Zhao, a leading Chinese expert on the Turkic Dictionary who works with the Nationality Institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: "The dictionary provides incontrovertible evidence that ancient rulers of the states in the western region regarded their kingdoms as a part of Chinese territory." The most convincing one, Zhao said, is the term "Tabghaq (Peach-Stone)." "Tabghaq" is a word that often appeared in the title of the Khans of Karakhanid Kingdom. What is the meaning of it? Mahmud Kashgari mentioned this term in the Dictionary many times and interpreted it unequivocally: "Tabghaq" is a nickname for China. So it is very obvious that by putting the restrictive noun "Tabghaq" in their title, the Khans of Karakhanid Kingdom regarded their state as a regional regime of China. The academic attitude of Mahmud Kashgari is also very impressive. A devotional Muslim, Mahmud shows unfeigned love and praise to Allah and Islam in his dictionary. On the other hand, as a dedicated scholar, he also insisted on a scientific and unbiased attitude towards cultures of different religious backgrounds. In an age when Islam began to prevail, such an attitude was very precious for intellectuals, Zhao said. Thanks to Mahmud Kashgari, a magnificent part of human history is recorded and remembered due to his effort and wisdom, which, in turn, makes him an important part of history.