About the Orkhon-Yenisei monuments

The Orkhon-Yenisei monuments began to be studied in the 18th century: the first report came from the Russian official Remezov, and the Swedish officer Strahlenberg and the scholar Messerschmidt introduced them to European scholars; later V. Thomsen, V. Radloff, S. Malov and others studied them, and among Uzbek scholars A. Qayumov, N. Rahmonov, Q. Sodiqov and others. The monuments mainly reflect events of the 6th–8th centuries; the Turk Khaganate arose in the mid-6th century (the textbook gives 545; many historical sources give 552) and ruled until the 8th century. The textbook shows To‘nyuquq as a brave, bold, sometimes sharp yet composed commander and a great patriot: he feels the fate of the people and the land as one. The work has an opening, a development of events and a conclusion; many words in its language are still used in modern Uzbek. As artistic devices the book notes alliteration, word repetition, epithets (gold is “yellow”, silver “white”) and successive enumeration. Runic-script monuments are found not only on stone but also on paper, silver jugs, wood and other objects; the “Irq bitigi” was written on paper.