Mashhur Jusip Kopeyev

Mashkhur-Zhusup Kopeev (1858 –1931) was a Kazakh poet, philosopher, historian, ethnographer, orientalist and collector of oral folklore of the Kazakh people.

Early biography Mashkhur-Zhusup Kopeev was born in 1858 in the territory of the modern Bayanaul District, Kyzyltau, which then was inside Siberian Governorate-General. He belonged to the Kulik sub-clan (Kazakh: Күлік) of the Suyndyk clan of the Argyn tribe of the Middle Zhuz. He began his education at a village school. At 7-8 years old, Zhusup already showed his interest in rewriting the fairy-tales, such as "Suyunduk: Olzhabay Batyr", which he heard from Sakyn-aqyn. In 1870, he studied at the Bukhara madrasa of Hazrat Kamara, becoming on of his three students. Under his mentorship, Zhusup delved into Kazakh epics, such as "Kozy Korpesh - Bayan Sulu", "Er Targyn", "Tort Zhigittin Oleni" and many more, which he recorded as well. There epics became popular on public stage. After the madrasa, he traveled through Northern and Central Kazakhstan, where he collected more diverse oral folk art and familiarized himself with the lifestyle of the clans and tribes inhabiting those areas. In 1872, Kopeev was enrolled in the Kukeldash madrasah in Bukhara. After graduating in 1875, he worked as a teacher in a village for several years. Alongside teaching, he was actively engaged in journalistic work, publishing in the newspaper "Dala Ualayaty" ("Kyrgyz Steppe Newspaper"), the magazine "Aykap", and publishing houses in Kazan. His knowledge and talent earned him great popularity and respect among the people, and as a result, he received the honorary title "Mashhur," which in Arabic means "famous, renowned, worthy."

Between 1887 and 1890, he conducted ethnographic expeditions to Samarkand, Bukhara, Tashkent, Turkestan, and other cities of Central Asia. His acquaintance with the Russian Turkologist and ethnographer Vasily Radlov influenced Mashhur Zhusup's interest in collecting Kazakh folklore. Throughout these expeditions, he learned to fluently speak Russian, Arabic, Farsi, Old Turkic, which helped him gather and publish many samples of Kazakh oral folk art. All of the these oral folk, poems and quotes, which was recorded by Kopeyev, are considered as his legacy.

Following the traditions of oral creativity, he wrote dastans (epic poems) such as "Trade of Devils," "The Hawk and the Nightingale," "The Old Man and Two Young Men," among others. His good grasp of Arabic and Persian allowed Mashhur Zhusup to deeply study Eastern poetry and also create dastans inspired by Eastern motifs, including "Gulshat-Sherizat," "Gibrat-nama," "Bayan-nama," and others. His publications of "To Whom Does Saryarka Belong,"The amazing phenomenon I saw in my long life", "Life" was a turning point - the tsarist regime accused Mashkhur Zhusup of freethinking, and seized all his books published in the same year in one of the printing houses of Kazan, fined 12,000 rubles with the withdrawal of printed publications.

Memory

On September 22, 1999, the name of Mashhur Zhusup was given to the Zhanazhol Secondary School in the Bayanaul District of Pavlodar Region. At the S. Toraygyrov Pavlodar State University in 2004, a scientific-practical center for the study of Mashhur Zhusup was opened. In 2019, one of the central streets in Pavlodar, 1 May Street, was renamed Mashkhur-Zhusup Street. In 2020, School Street in the village of Zhetekshi was renamed Mashhur Zhusup Street. The Mashhur Jusup Mosque, located in the center of Pavlodar, Kazakhstan, was completed in 2001 and is one of the largest mosques in the country.