Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Vol. 11 No. 2 (2026)
Special Issue: The Qur’ān and the Turkic World

Special Issue: The Qur’ān and the Turkic World: Context and Interpretation

"The Clearest Point of the Story": Rabghuzi’s Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyā’ and the Message of the Qurʾān For Turko-Mongol Inner Asia

https://doi.org/10.55831/ajis.v11i2.1173

Published 20.04.2026

  • Robert Paix
Robert Paix
Australian Catholic University, Australia

Abstract

This article examines the Qiṣaṣ i-Rabghūzī, the earliest and most influential Turkic rendition of the qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ tradition, composed by Nāṣir ad-Dīn Rabghūzī in 709–710 AH/1310–11 CE within the religiously plural and politically fractured world of the Chaghatay ulus (appanage). Focusing on Rabghūzī’s richly developed Story of Joseph (Yūsuf), this article explores how he adapts and expands a well-established Qurʾānic storytelling tradition, adding local lore, lyric poetry, mystical insight, and pedagogical innovation. Rabghūzī crafts a multilayered work designed not merely to make Islamic scripture and culture accessible to a Türki-speaking audience but to shape behaviour and belief within a mixed Islamic environment. This article argues that Rabghūzī’s concluding emphasis, “the clearest point of the story,” which forbids harbouring a bad opinion of forgiven offenders, constitutes a call for reconciliation addressed not only to the general populace, but particularly to the divided Chinggisid elite. Yet this teaching is only the distilled expression of a wider programme: Rabghūzī offers Joseph as a paradigm of just kingship, patient Islamisation, moral reform, and communal integration, inviting Mongol elites to realise a truly Islamic polity through Joseph-like virtues.

Keywords

Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, Rabghūzī, Joseph/Yūsuf, Central Asian Islam

PDF

References

  1. Albayrak, İsmail. “Isrāʾīliyyāt and Classical Exegetes’ Comments on the Calf with a Hollow Sound Q.20:83-98/7:147-155 with Special Reference to Ibn ʿAṭiyya.” Journal of Semitic Studies 47, no. 1 (2002): 39–65. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/47.1.39
  2. Argunşah, Mustafa, and Gülden Sağol Yüksekkaya, Karahanlıca, Harezmce, Kıpçakça Dersleri [Lessons in Karakhanid, Khwarezmian, and Kipchak]. Kesit Yayınları, 2019.
  3. Aşyrow, A. “Şekerden Datly Kyssa” [A Story Sweet as Sugar]. In Kysasy Rabguzy (Kysasyl Enbiýa), edited by W. M. Hramow and A. A. Aşyrow, 2:483–501. Miras, 2004.
  4. Baumer, Christoph. The History of Central Asia: The Age of Islam and the Mongols. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.
  5. Beeston, A. F. L. Baiḍāwī's Commentary on Sūrah 12 of the Qurʾān. Clarendon Press, 1963.
  6. Biran, Michal. “Āṣaf Ibn Barakhyā in the Mongol and Mamluk Realms: Between Vizier and Magic.” Mamlūk Studies Review 27 (2024): 269–95.
  7. Biran, Michal. “Culture and Cross-Cultural Contacts in the Chaghadaid Realm: 1220–1370: Some Preliminary Notes.” Chronica (Szeged) 7-8 (2007): 26–43.
  8. Biran, Michal. “The Chaghadaids and Islam: The Conversion of Tarmashirin Khan (1331–34).” Journal of the American Oriental Society 122, no. 4 (2002): 742–52. https://doi.org/10.2307/3217613. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3217613
  9. Blatherwick, Helen. “Textual Silences and Literary Choices in al-Kisāʾī’s Account of the Annunciation and the Birth of Jesus.” Arabica 66, no. 1 (2019): 1–42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-12341519
  10. Boeschoten, Hendrik E. “Vokalquantität in Rabghuzis Poesie” [Vowel Quantity in Rabghūzī’s Poetry]. Central Asiatic Journal 34, no. 3/4 (1990): 187–213.
  11. Boeschoten, Hendrik, and Mark van Damme. “The Poetry in Rabghuzi's Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ.” In L'Asie Centrale et ses Voisins: Influences Réciproques, edited by Rémy Dor, 9–36. INALCO, 1990.
  12. Brinner, William M. The History of Al-Ṭabarī Vol. 2: Prophets and Patriarchs. SUNY Press, 1987.
  13. Bulliet, Richard W. Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative History. Harvard University Press, 1979. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674732810
  14. Clauson, Gerard. An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-13th Century Turkish. Oxford University Press, 1972.
  15. Clauson, Gerard. “Early Turkish Astronomical Terms.” Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher 35 (1964): 132–50.
  16. Dankoff, Robert. “Review of Al-Rabghūzī, The Stories of the Prophets, Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ, An Eastern Turkish Version by H. E. Boeschoten, M. Vandamme.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 117, no. 1 (1997): 115–26. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/605626
  17. DeWeese, Devin. Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde: Baba Tükles and Conversion to Islam in Historical and Epic Tradition. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994.
  18. DeWeese, Devin. “Turkic and Chaghatay Sources.” In The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire Volume II Part 1 - Literary Sources, edited by Michal Biran and Hodong Kim, 273–88. Cambridge University Press, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316337424.033
  19. Eckmann, János. “Das Chwarezmtürkische” [Khwarezmian Turkic]. In Philologiae Turcicae Fundamenta Vol 1, edited by Jean Deny, Kaare Grønbech, Helmuth Scheel and Zeki Velidi Togan, 113–37. Franz Steiner Verlag, 1959.
  20. Erkinov, Aftandil, and Dilnavaz Yusupova. “‘Olan’-A Song for Weddings or Treatment?” Oriente Moderno 87, no. 1 (2007): 103–16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/22138617-08701008
  21. Gali, Kol. The Story of Joseph: Kyssa'i Yusuf. Translated by Fred Beake and Ravil Bukharaev. Global Oriental, 2010. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004212862
  22. Hacıyeva, Naile. “Nasıreddin Rabguzi’nin Kısasü’l-Enbiya İsimli Eserinin Semantik ve Poetik (Anlam ve Şiirsel) Cümle Yapı Özellikleri” [The Semantic and Poetic Features (Meaning and Poetic Sentence Structure) of Nāṣir ad-Dīn Rabghūzī’s Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ]. Selçuk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 11 (1997): 241–51.
  23. Hacıyeva, Naile. “Nasireddin Rabguzi’nin Kısasü’l-Enbiya’sında Türk-İslam Kültürü Açısından Dini Ve Dünyevi Bakışlar” [Nāṣir ad-Dīn Rabghūzī’s Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ from the Perspective of Religious and Worldly Views in Turkish-Islamic Culture]. In Uluslararası Dördüncü Türk Kültürü Kongresi Bildirileri, edited by Azize Aktaş Yasa, 241–48. Atatürk Kültür Merkezi, 2000.
  24. Hagen, Gottfried. “From Haggadic Exegesis to Myth: Popular Stories of the Prophets in Islam.” In Sacred Tropes: Tanakh, New Testament and Qurʾān as Literature and Culture, edited by Roberta Sterman Sabbath, 301–16. Brill, 2009. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004177529.i-536.65
  25. Hagen, Gottfried. “Salvation and Suffering in Ottoman Stories of the Prophets” Mizan 2, no. 1 (2017). http://mizanproject.org/journal-post/salvation-and-suffering-in-ottoman-stories-of-the-prophets/.
  26. Hautala, Roman. “Comparing the Islamisation of the Jochid and Hülegüid Uluses: Muslim and Christian Perspectives.” Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée 243 (2018): 65–79. https://doi.org/10.4000/remmm.10705. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/remmm.10705
  27. Iskhakova, Alfiya Rafkatovna. “Ispol’zovanie Numerativov v Tyurkoyazychnom Pamyatnike XIV Veka ‘Kysas Al-Anbiya’ Rabguzi” [The Use of Numeratives in Rabghūzī’s Fourteenth-Century Turkic Work Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ]. Bulletin of Chuvash University 1 (2010): 197-200.
  28. Jackson, Peter. From Genghis Khan to Tamerlane: The Reawakening of Mongol Asia. Yale University Press, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300275049
  29. Jackson, Peter. “Reflections on the Islamization of Mongol Khans in Comparative Perspective.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 62, no. 2/3 (2019): 356–87. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26673134. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341482
  30. Jarring, Gunnar. Literary Texts from Kashghar Edited and Translated with Notes and Glossary. CWK Gleerup, 1980.
  31. Kefeli, Agnès. Becoming Muslim in Imperial Russia: Conversion, Apostasy, and Literacy. Cornell University Press, 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801454776
  32. Kefeli, Agnès. “The Tale of Joseph and Zulaykha on the Volga Frontier: The Struggle for Gender, Religious, and National Identity in Imperial and Postrevolutionary Russia.” Slavic Review 70, no. 2 (2011): 373–98. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5612/slavicreview.70.2.0373
  33. Kermani, Navid. The Terror of God: Attar, Job and the Metaphysical Revolt. Translated by Wieland Hoban. Polity, 2011.
  34. Al-Kisaī. The Tales of the Prophets of al-Kisaī. Translated from the Arabic with Notes. Translated by W. M. Thackston. Twayne, 1978.
  35. Lane, George. Daily Life in the Mongol Empire. Hackett, 2006. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9798400637155
  36. Lubanska, Magdalena. Muslims and Christians in the Bulgarian Rhodopes: Studies on Religious (Anti)Syncretism. De Gruyter Open, 2015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110440003
  37. Meisami, Julie Scott. Medieval Persian Court Poetry. Princeton University Press, 1987. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400858781
  38. Merguerian, Gayane Karen, and Afsaneh Najmabadi. “Zulaykha and Yusuf: Whose Best Story?” International Journal of Middle East Studies 29 (1997): 485–508. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S002074380006517X
  39. Nagel, Tilman. “Achieving an Islamic Interpretation of Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ.” Mizan 2, no. 1 (2017). https://mizanproject.org/journal-post/achieving-an-islamic-interpretation-of-qisas-al-anbiya/.
  40. Al-Naysābūrī, Abū al-Qāsim Maḥmūd b. Abī al-Ḥasan. ʾĪjāz al-Bayān ʿan Maʿānī al-Qurʾān [A Concise Exposition of the Meanings of the Qurʾān]. Edited by Ḥanīf b. Ḥasan al-Qāsimī. Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1995. https://ar.lib.eshia.ir/41701/1/434.
  41. Al-Naysābūrī, Isḥāq b. Ibrāhīm b. Manṣūr b. Khalafī. Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ [Stories of the Prophet]. Scientific and Cultural Publishing Company, 2003.
  42. O’rinboyev, A. and L. M. Elifanova. Sobranie Vostochnykh Rukopisej Akademii Nauk Uzbekskoj SSR [Collection of Oriental Manuscripts of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR]. Vol. 7. Nauka, 1964.
  43. Pregill, Michael, Marianna Klar, and Roberto Tottoli. “Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ as Genre and Discourse.” Mizan 2, no. 1 (2017).
  44. https://mizanproject.org/journal-post/qisas-al-anbiya-as-genre-and-discourse/.
  45. Al-Rabghūzī. The Stories of the Prophets Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ: An Eastern Turkish Version. 2nd ed. 2 vols. Edited by Hendrik Boeschoten and John O’Kane. Brill, 2015.
  46. Rabghuzi, Nasiriddin. Qisesul Enbiya [Stories of the Prophets]. Edited by Haji Xoja Abdulla Osman. Kashgar Uyghur Press, 1999.
  47. Rabghuziy. Qisasi Rabghuziy. Edited by Abdullo Yunusov, Hamidullo Dadaboyev, and Ergash Fozilov. 2 vols. Yozuvchi, 1990–1991.
  48. Rabgûzî. Kısasü'l-Enbiyà (Peygamber Kıssaları) I-Giriş-Metin-Tıpkıbasım [Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ (Stories of the Prophets) Volume I: Introduction - Text - Facsimile]. Edited by Aysu Ata. Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları, 1997.
  49. Rabguzy, Nasyreddin. Kysasy Rabguzy (Kysasyl Enbiýa) [Stories of the Prophets (Stories of the Prophets)]. Edited by W. M. Hramow and A. A. Aşyrow. Miras, 2004.
  50. Rieu, Charles. Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts in the British Museum. Trustees of the British Museum, 1888.
  51. Ritter, Hellmutt. The Ocean of the Soul: Men, the World and God in the Stories of Farīd Al-Dīn ʿaṭṭār. Translated by John O’Kane. Brill, 2003. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004245075
  52. Schamiloglu, Uli. “Reflections on the Islamic Literature of the Golden Horde: On the Occasion of the Publication of the Qalandar-Name.” Golden Horde Review 9, no. 2 (2021): 264–71. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22378/2313-6197.2021-9-2.264-271
  53. Starr, S. Frederick. Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane. Princeton University Press, 2015.
  54. Al-Thaʿlabī. ʿArāʾis al-majālis fī qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ or ‘Lives of the Prophets’ as Recounted by Abū Ishāq Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Thaʿlabī. Translated by W. M. Brinner Brill, 2002.
  55. Thum, Rian. The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History. Kindle ed. Harvard University, 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674736238
  56. Tottoli, Roberto. Biblical Prophets in the Qur’ān and Muslim Literature. Translated by Michael Robertson. Routledge, 2002.
  57. West, Steven L. “The Qiṣṣa-i Yūsuf of ʿAlī: The First Story of Joseph in Turkic Islamic Literature.” Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 37, no. 1-3 (1983): 69–84.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.