MIRZA MEHDI KHANʼS WORK "MABANI'L-LUGHAT": GRAMMAR OF THE OLD UZBEK LANGUAGE IN PERSIAN

Among the philological works devoted to the study of Mir Alishir Navoi’s language, Mirza Mehdi Khan’s dictionary “Sanglakh” with a grammatical essay “Mabani’l-Lughat” (“Basics of the Language”) (18th century) is particularly noteworthy. Compared to others, it is the first valuable and more reliable work on the grammar of the old Uzbek language. In 1172-1173 of the Islamic calendars, Mirza Mehdi Khan concluded his philological work, entitled “Sanglakh”. Four folios of this work by Mirza Mehdi Khan are known to exist. The Gibb Foundation holds the first of these, the second is located in the British Museum, the third is in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, and the fourth is in the Sulaymaniye Library in Turkey. An abridged version of the “Sanglakh” held at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. The text was transcribed by Muhamed Huwayi for the ruler Abbas Mirza and is known as the “Hulasa-yi Abbasi”. “Mabani’l-Lughat” is divided into three sections: a preface, a grammar section, and six sections, or bases, which describe various grammatical forms and phenomena. This article presents an analysis of the grammatical system of “Mabani’l-Lughat”. The grammatical material of “Maboniu-l-lughat” introduces Mirza Mehdi Khan as a Persian Turkologist and the author of the first scientific grammar of Uzbek language. The study of the grammatical material of “Mabani’l-Lughat” is of great importance in solving a number of problematic issues related to the history of Uzbek language and for compiling a historical grammar of Uzbek language.