Magtymguly Firaki is a valuable asset, not only to Turkic but also to Oriental Literature—the Head of the Department of Foreign Literature at Magtymguly Turkmen State University, Ass. Prof. Romanguly Mustakov, who is a candidate in philological sciences, has shared his analysis of the uniqueness of the poet's poetry in his article published on Turkmen Metbugat.

The poetry of Magtymguly Pyragy, the great Turkmen poet and thinker of the 18th century became a new landmark in the development of Turkmen literature. The truthful description of the life of the Turkmen people and important problems of the Turkmen society of that time, humanistic ideas put forward, exposure of bad deeds, and praising in songs of good characteristic traits of people have become the magnetic force of Magtymguly’s poetry.

The versatile and rich poetry of Magtymguly is valuable not only for revealing the aesthetical, and moral problems of the 18th-century Turkmen society but also for its humanistic ideas are akin to the universal spiritual values of the world literature. Magtymguly is not only the national Turkmen poet, but he is also the poet of the whole humankind.

Yan Bzhehwa, a well-known poet and translator of the poems of Magtymguly into the Polish language underlining the popularity of the poetry of Magtymguly wrote: «The name of Magtymguly shines among the brilliant stars of the Eastern poetry as Firdousi, Hafiz, Saadi, Nizami and Nevai. His poems spread from the Caspian Sea till the banks of the Amu-Darya river, from the tops of the Kopetdag Mountains till the Aral Sea, educated people of Bukhara and Khiva read his poems and copied them out». (Machtumkuli. Wiersze. Warszawa,1954.str.III)

Since ancient times people have invented different units of measure to weigh some goods or to know distance, volume, etc. However, it has always been difficult to measure humanism or the quality of being human because it is difficult or there is no unit or instrument to measure human behavior, feelings, or attitude towards other people. That’s why every person brought up their generations on the example of their ancestors, through mythological-religious beliefs, mainly by their own culture, literature, lifestyle, and experience. It was the same with Turkmens, who had the century-old history and cultural heritage.

In the 18th century, Magtymguly’s poetry expressed national spiritual values and became the measure of being a true member of Turkmen society, revealing his ideas through the themes of family, children, society, and Motherland.

Today it is difficult to establish the history of the formation of the first Turkmen ethic-moral traditions but if we study carefully the Turkmen sayings and proverbs, fairy tales, folk songs, and ancient written literary manuscripts, inscriptions it is not difficult to see their development from century to century.

In the runic inscriptions found along the rivers Orkhon and Yenisei written approximately in the 5-8th centuries, Bilge Kaghan says: «I did not sleep at night, I did not know peace in the day-time, I united our tribes, I did not allow them to be hostile to each other». ( Кор-оглы Х.Г. Туркменская литература. Москва, 1972, стр. 99)

In these inscriptions we see the hero who is the leader of his people fighting against the enemies and making efforts to unite all the tribes, these elements are the characteristic traces of the literary tradition which had appeared in the previous centuries. Such ideas and motives can be seen in Magtymguly’s poetry too. In his poem called «Our tears make torrents…» the idea of uniting people and the formation of the Turkmen state became the main motif:

Turkmens united will form a great force
They will dry the Red Sea, change the Nile’s course
If Teke, Yomut, Goklen, Yazyr, Alili
Serving to one state our unity endorses.

«Divan lugat at-turk» («The dictionary of Turkic languages») by Mahmud Kashghari which is included in the golden treasury of the world's written literature heritage like Homer’s poems «Iliad» and «Odyssey», «The ancient Assyrian-Babylonian «Epic about Gilgamesh», the Indian epic «Mahabharata», «Shahname» (The poem about Kings) by Firdausi, is one of the valuable ancient written sources of the Turkmen literature which has preserved up to our times.

Side by side with the explanation entries of ordinary Turkic words the «Dictionary…» gives the sayings, proverbs, the specimens of folk songs and epics. About 300 poems and 300 proverbs and sayings were included in the «Dictionary…» by Mahmud Kashghary.

The proverbs and sayings given in the «Dictionary…» are closely connected with ancient traditions and spiritual values of the Turkmen people. The extracts from folk songs, and poems describing heroism, love, friendship, folk traditions, hospitality, nature, etc. show that the Turkmen literature of the 11th century had rather developed traditions of describing worldly themes and it had all the conditions for creating folk epics like Gorkut ata (The Book of my Grandfather Gorkut).

«Divan lugat at-Turk» by Mahmud Kashghary is also connected directly with the poem «Kut atgu bilik» (The Knowledge of Happiness) (1069-1070) by Has Hajyp from Balasagun. Balasagun and Kashghar were important cultural centers of the Karakhanid state at that time. The problems of education and science occupied an important place in the policy of the state. That’s why it is not by chance that we find in the «Dictionary…» the proverb «Kut bilgusi-bilik» («The symbol of happiness is education»)

For centuries the ancient Turkmen ethic-moral traditions, the Turkmen spirit was expressed in the books about Oghuzes or Oghuznama, in the epics «Gorkut ata», and «Gorogly» and Turkmen destans such as «Yusuf and Zuleyha», «Leyli and Mejnun». «Zohre and Tahyr», and «Shasenem and Garyp» acquiring stable normative demands.

These national Turkmen ethic-moral traditions found their highly artistic expression in Magtymguly’s poetry which oriented people in life telling them what is good and what is bad in different everyday life situations.

To understand the meaning of life, of surrounding nature, and to know what is good and what is bad in this world, Magtymguly was in search of world literature and deeply studied the popular poetry of the East. As it was noted by Professor G.O.Charyyev «If Magtymguly got his inspiration on the one hand from the sources creative work of Turkmen people, on the other hand, the roots of his poetry goes back to the history of the rich culture and literature of the peoples of the East». (Очерки истории философской и общественно-политической мысли в Туркменистане. Ашхабад: Ылым, 1970, стр.112.)

When we read the poems by Magtymguly we can see that his poetry is closely connected with the great epos «Shahnama» by Abulkasym Hasan ibn Ishak Firdausi (929/930-1025/26), one of the bright stars of the East.

Abulkasym Firdausi Tusi his real name Abulkasym Hasan ibn-Ishak was born about 929/30 in the village of Baz (also called Baj) located near the city Tus of the Taberan province of Iran.

Abulkasym Firdausi brought up in ancient traditions of the Iranian people loved the culture of his Fatherland, his people from the bottom of his life. All his life was devoted to literature to bring up Iranian people in the spirit of humanism and patriotism.

Keyumers, Jemshit, Feridun, Rustem, Hosrow Parviz, and other famous heroes of the great epos «Shahnama» can be seen in the poems by Magtymguly:

God sends the person to the straight way,
Starting the way to be hopeful and gay,
The dress of Sheys, Keyumers with joy
Rustem, Zal, and dervish wore I say.

As it is told in «Shahnama» Keyumers, one of the first heroes, was the first king. He ruled the country for thirty years. The image of Keyumers comes from the ancient cosmogonic myths. His clothes were made of the skin of animals which is why Magtymguly called his clothes «jinde», which were torn.

In his poems, Magtymguly alludes not only to the heroes of «Shahnama», but also to its events. One of them was the death of Jemshid, one of the ancient kings of Persia (Iran):

Tormented his soul Jemshid, entered the ore mine,
Reading for a hundred years, neither Zal nor Lukman will come.

Jemshid was the son of Tahmures, who was the fourth king of the dynasty of the Kings of Pishdadits. Ten ancient Iranian kings mentioned according to historical records in the first part of «Shahnama» were called the generation of Pishdadits. Jemshid taught people to wear, cut out, sew clothes, build houses of bricks, and find such useful ores as gold, diamond silver.

In the poem «Näler görüner» («What is seen») by Magtymguly Jemshid is also shown as one of the images who realized great deeds:

Let’s travel in the world
There what can be seen?
Built by Iskender, Jemshid,
Great buildings are seen.

Another hero of «Shahnama» Feridun is shown in the poems by Magtymguly as the person who was one of the famous heroes who fought against invader Zahhak, who killed Jemshid. Underlining the heroic deeds of Feridun Magtymguly wrote a poem addressed to Muhammad Hasan han who was the son of Feth Aly Serdar, who was the son of one of the famous leaders of Turkmen people, and calls upon him to become like Feridun:

Those who make you angry will become sand,
Who gets your generosity, will become grand,
With great authority, you will stand,
The unique fate of Feridun is yours.

In many of his poems, Magtymguly Pyragy uses the names of famous heroes of «Shahnama», such as Zal, Rustem, Hosrow Parviz, Key Kavus, Sohrab, Barzu, Gushtasp, Darab, Shahriyar, Gulchihre, Ispendiyar, Iskender (Alexander Makedonskiy) and different episodes from the poem to express his humanistic philosophical ideas. That’s why we can see that the poems by Magtymguly Pyragy are very expressive and they are in harmony with the world literature because Abulkasym Firdausi and his epos «Shahnama» is one of the wonderful works belonging to the golden treasury of the world literature.