Mahmud ibn Husayn ibn Muhammed al-Kashgari, was an 11th-century Kara-Khanid scholar and lexicographer of the Turkic languages from Kashgar.
Al-Kashgari studied the Turkic languages of his time and in Baghdad he compiled the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkic languages, the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk in 1072–74. It was intended for use by the Abbasid Caliphate, the new Arab allies of the Turks. Mahmud Kashgari’s comprehensive dictionary, later edited by the Turkish historian, Ali Amiri, contains specimens of old Turkic poetry in the typical form of quatrains, representing all the principal genres: epic, pastoral, didactic, lyric and elegiac. His book also included the first known map of the areas inhabited by Turkic peoples. This map is housed at the National Library in Istanbul.
