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Ruhnama
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{{Short description|Turkmen book by Saparmurat Niyazov}}{{Use British English|date=February 2023}}{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}{{Italic title}}- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
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| italic title | Ruhnama| name = Ruhnama| image = Ruhnama cover.jpg| caption = Cover| author = Saparmurat Niyazov
BackgroundEpics had played multiple important roles in the social life of Central Asia across centuries. Pre-modern rulers of these regions usually appropriated the text and invented a connection between themselves and the epic-cast, to seek legitimacy for their new order.Stalin had considered these epics to be "politically suspicious" and capable of inciting nationalist feelings among the masses; almost all significant Turkmen epics were condemned and banned by 1951–52. These epics would be rehabilitated back into public (and academic) discourse only with the onset of Glasnost.{{efn|The Khruschev era undid some of Stalin's policies in the regard but they were not highly significant.}} Ruhnama built on this rehabilitation phase.ProductionNiyazov apparently received a prophetic vision where Turkmen ancestors of eminence urged him to lead Turkmens to the "golden path of life". The first version was released in the 1990s but soon withdrawn because it did not fulfill Niyazov's expectations.BOOK, Peyrouse, Sebastien, Culture and Religion: The Issues of Reconstruction, 89–107,weblink Turkmenistan: Strategies of Power, Dilemmas of Development: Strategies of Power, Dilemmas of Development, 2015, Routledge, 978-1-317-45326-0, 10.4324/9781315698571, Preparations for the revised book were underway as early as April 1999, when Niyazov declared that Mukkadesh Ruhnama would be the second landmark text of Turkmens, after the Quran.JOURNAL, Kuru, Ahmet T, Between the state and cultural zones: Nation building in Turkmenistan, Central Asian Survey, March 2002, 21, 1, 71–90, 10.1080/02634930220127955, 30057239, {{Saparmurat Niyazov sidebar}}The first volume was finally published in December 2001.NEWS,weblink BBC News, The cult of the Turkmen leader, 2 November 2001, On 18 February 2001, it was accepted at the 10th joint meeting of the State Assembly of Elders of Turkmenistan, and National Assembly.JOURNAL, Shnirelman, Victor, Aryans or Proto-Turks? Contested Ancestors in Contemporary Central Asia, Nationalities Papers, September 2009, 37, 5, 557–587, 10.1080/00905990903122834, 161181364, In September 2004, Niyazov issued a second volume.NEWS, Corley, Felix, 1 March 2005, Turkmenistan: President's personality cult imposed on religious communities, Forum 18 News Service,weblink 25 May 2012, {{Efn|R. Nicolosi notes the publication date to be January 2005.}} An edited volume on the Ruhnama, published a year later, quotes his overall purpose to have lain in highlighting the nation's significant contributions to fields of art and science.JOURNAL, Sullivan, Charles J., 2016, Halk, Watan, Berdymukhammedov! Political Transition and Regime Continuity in Turkmenistan, Region, 5, 1, 39, 24896613, Victoria Clement and Riccardo Nicolosi suspect that the work was ghost-written.GenreScholars note Ruhnama to be a "mosaic" of different literary genres, the text combines spiritual and political advice, legends, autobiography, short stories, poems, and (fabricated) Turkmen history.BOOK, 10.1515/9789048531516-008, A Heavy Heritage, Art and Politics, 2016, 111–128, 978-90-485-3151-6, Joes, Segal, BOOK, Koschorke, Albrecht, Butler, Erik, On Hitler's Mein Kampf: The Poetics of National Socialism, 2017, The MIT Press, {{Project MUSE, 51723, book, |isbn=978-0-262-33877-6 }}{{pn|date=October 2023}} Written to "recover real Turkmen history without Soviet distortions", Niyazov promised the return of an atavist past from the times of Oghuz Khagan, but only if the conduct of ancient Turkmens were emulated in accordance to his sage guidance. According to Amieke Bouma, a scholar of post-socialist historiography, it is best treated as an epic in its own right: the OÄŸuzname of the third millennium. Tanya L. Shields reads it as an anti-colonial autobiography, which gets "almost comic in its grandiosity".BOOK, Shields, Tanya L., Inward Hunger: How Eric Williams Fails Postcolonial History, {{Project MUSE, 1579006, chapter, |editor1-last=Shields |editor1-first=Tanya L. |title=The Legacy of Eric Williams: Into the Postcolonial Moment |date=2015 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-62674-698-5 }} It has been compared to Kemal Atatürk's Nutuk, and Leonid Brezhnev's Trilogiya.ContentsVolume 1Stories and proverbs are borrowed from existing Turkmen epics – OÄŸuzname, Book of Dede Korkut, and Epic of Koroghlu – in preaching of morals and promotion of a model code of conduct. These are often supplemented with Niyazov's explanatory annotations.{{Efn|Boume feels that it is rather the other way round – the epics were a vehicle for his annotations.}} Virtues like generosity, unity, humility, hospitality, patience, honesty, defence of fatherland, protection of female dignity, and caring for horses (something that is placed into utmost importance by Niyazov's successor) are emphasised upon. Some of his own poems singing paeans of the Turkmen are present, too.The Shajara-i TarÄkima (unattributed) and writings of Ahmad ibn Fadlan are relied upon for a reconstruction of national history. Some seventy states are alleged to have been established by them – the Anau culture, Parthian Empire, Achaemenid Empire, Seljuk Empire, and Ottoman Empire among others – till the eighteenth century; this entire span was simultaneously periodised into four epic-epochs.{{Efn|"The epoch of Oghuz Khan" (5000 BC – 650 CE), followed by "the epoch of Gorkut Ata" (650 CE – 10th century CE); "the epoch of Görogly" (10th – 17th centuries); and "the epoch of Magtymguly" (17th – 20th centuries).}} Distinct since the inception of humans,{{Efn|Tools of Soviet Historiography like ethnogenesis were relied upon to make this construct.}} the Turkmen were the same as the Turks and descended from the venerable Noah via Oghuz Khagan, who had set up the first polity c. 5000 years ago.BOOK, Khalid, Adeeb, Are We Still Post-Soviet?, 458–474, {{Project MUSE, 2904091, chapter, |title=Central Asia: A New History from the Imperial Conquests to the Present |date=2021 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-22043-7 }}{{efn|Ancient Turkmenistan "stretched from Altyntepe through Anew, Nusay, Takgala, the entire Merw, Koneurgench and Caspian-Belh region, including Seyhun-Jeyhun from east to west up to the Idil Sea in the north".}}{{efn|Iranian and Arab historians were blamed for co-opting all these states as one of their own, and for later generalising them as Turkish. Turkmenistan SSR historians were blamed for repeating such assertions without critical scrutiny.JOURNAL, Shapira, Dan, ĪrÄn-o TÅ«ran: On Iranian (and Quasi-Iranian) in the Ruhnama, Iran and the Caucasus, 2010, 14, 2, 265–278, 10.1163/157338410X12743419190188, }} Warfare was apparently rare, and the state always preferred peace. Despite vague references to achaeo-historical evidence to support this range of pioneer assertions, there is a total lack of source materials, as understood in an academic sense.The Persian sphere of influence on Turkmen polity across medieval era was neatly purged; though, Zoroaster was appropriated as a Turkmen hero who had advised people to not abide by Mazdak's path of fire-worship. Both 18th and 19th century – integral to the foundation of modern Turkmenistan – are skipped except for the mention of Magtymguly Pyragy and the Battle of Geok Tepe. Soviet Turkmenistan is described in a single page, where it is blamed for colonisation.JOURNAL, Yilmaz, Harun, History writing as agitation and propaganda: the Kazakh history book of 1943, Central Asian Survey, December 2012, 31, 4, 409–423, 10.1080/02634937.2012.738852, 145641003, JOURNAL, Horák, SlavomÃr, The Battle of Gökdepe in the Turkmen post-Soviet historical discourse, Central Asian Survey, 3 April 2015, 34, 2, 149–161, 10.1080/02634937.2014.964940, 145283082, The narrative resumes with Niyazov ushering in independence of the state. Several of his specific policies find a mention.Niyazov's life is described to great details throughout the text – loss of parents in childhood, attachment to land, and his patriotic zeal for attaining sovereignty from Soviet imperialism. These descriptions form an embedded strata of the volume.Volume 2Drafted with explicit parallels to the Quran, this volume asked that the Ruhnama be recited as regular prayer after purifying oneself; it was also to never lie in an improper place.Thematically, the volume is concerned with morals and ethics. A total of 21 chapters deal with optimum manners and decorum for different situations and target audience. Niyazov's own narration gains a position of authority; he does not always seek support from the epics to support his positions.BOOK, Nicolosi, Riccardo, Tyrants Writing Poetry, Central European University Press, 2017, 978-963-386-202-5, Koschorke, Albrecht, Saparmyrat Niyazov's Ruhnama: The Invention of Turkmenistan, Kaminskij, Konstantin,weblinkSocietyNiyazovNiccolosi notes Ruhnama to have transformed Turkmenistan into an "epideictic space", which was in "permanent, unanimous exultation of the person of Niyazov". Bouma found the Ruhnama to rebirth Turkmenistan under Niyazov's responsible leadership. The most significant component of ideological propaganda during the later phase of Niyazov's personality cult, the text was a marker of politico-cultural literacy and key to survival in post-Soviet Turkmenistan.BOOK, Clement, Victoria, Conclusion, 173–180, {{Project MUSE, 2121207, chapter, |title=Learning to Become Turkmen: Literacy, Language, and Power, 1914-2014 |date=2018 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |isbn=978-0-8229-8610-2 }}JOURNAL, Clement, Victoria, Articulating national identity in Turkmenistan: inventing tradition through myth, cult and language, Nations and Nationalism, July 2014, 20, 3, 546–562, 10.1111/nana.12052, JOURNAL, Denison, Michael, The Art of the Impossible: Political Symbolism, and the Creation of National Identity and Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Turkmenistan, Europe-Asia Studies, September 2009, 61, 7, 1167–1187, 10.1080/09668130903068715, 154602989, BOOK, 10.1007/978-94-6209-656-1_5, Publicizing Nationalism, (Re)Constructing Memory, 2014, Dolive, Caroline, 79–102, 978-94-6209-656-1, BOOK, Heinritz, Katrin, Demokratisierung zur Diktatur? Ãœber die fehlgeleitete Demokratisierungsdiskussion am Beispiel Turkmenistans, de, Democratisation to dictatorship? About the misguided democratisation discussion using the example of Turkmenistan, 2007, Osteuropa, 133–154, Buzogany, Aron, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co KG, 10.5771/9783845204451-133, 978-3-8452-0445-1, Frankenberger, Rolf, BOOK, Clement, Victoria, Altyn Asyr Nesli: Nyýazow’s Golden Generation, 1996–2006, 137–159, {{Project MUSE, 2121204, chapter, |title=Learning to Become Turkmen: Literacy, Language, and Power, 1914-2014 |date=2018 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |isbn=978-0-8229-8610-2 }} Niyazov claimed those who read it thrice were destined for heaven.MAGAZINE, Remnick, David, The Land of Turkmenbashi,weblink The New Yorker, 23 April 2006, NEWS, Times Wire Reporter, 21 March 2006, Read My Words, Go to Heaven, Leader Says, Los Angeles Times,weblink 25 May 2012, {{efn|However, he had sometimes claimed that Ruhanama is not a religious scripture and it never meant to dislodge Quran.JOURNAL, Hann, Chris, Pelkmans, Mathijs, Realigning Religion and Power in Central Asia: Islam, Nation-State and (Post)Socialism, Europe-Asia Studies, November 2009, 61, 9, 1517–1541, 10.1080/09668130903209111, 145381219, }}After the publication of the second volume, Niyazov had mosques and churches display the Ruhnama as prominently as the Quran and Bible, and cite its passages during sermons. The TürkmenbaÅŸy Ruhy Mosque, which was commissioned in 2002 at his birthplace, is the largest mosque in Central Asia and features engravings from the Ruhnama as well as the Quran across its wall and minarets.JOURNAL, Polese, Abel, Horák, Slavomir, A tale of two presidents: personality cult and symbolic nation-building in Turkmenistan, Nationalities Papers, May 2015, 43, 3, 457–478, 10.1080/00905992.2015.1028913, 142510277, {{Efn|Niyazov would be buried near this mosque, after his death.}} A twenty foot tall neon Ruhnama was erected at an Ashgabat park in 2003.JOURNAL, Å Ãr, Jan, 2008, Cult of Personality in Monumental Art and Architecture: The Case of Post-Soviet Turkmenistan,weblink Acta Slavica Iaponica, 25, 206–207, {{efn|The book features a gold motif of Niyazov's bust on its cover with seven granite columns (representing his seven ancestors) erect around it. Each evening, the cover opened and a propaganda film commemorating Turkmen history was projected onto the pages to accompanying music. The frequency of the event has decreased since Berdimuhamedow's ascent to power.}} A mural of Niyazov drafting the Ruhnama has been put in place, too.BOOK, Clement, Victoria, From Happy Socialism to Independence, 1985–1996, 112–136, {{Project MUSE, 2121202, chapter, |title=Learning to Become Turkmen: Literacy, Language, and Power, 1914-2014 |date=2018 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |isbn=978-0-8229-8610-2 }} In August 2005, the first volume was launched into orbit so that it could "conquer space".NEWS, 27 August 2005, Turkmen book 'blasted into space', BBC News,weblink A photo-journalistic essay in 2006 noted the nation to be filled with advertisements of Ruhnama – each at a cost of two dollars.JOURNAL, Yacher, Leon, Photojournal: Turkmenistan, Focus on Geography, December 2006, 49, 3, 17–21, 10.1111/j.1949-8535.2006.tb00169.x, Government offices featured the Ruhnama prominently on their desk (often devoting a separate room), and state media regularly broadcast their content, with religious reverence.NEWS, Ingram, Simon, Turkmen live by leader's book,weblink 20 August 2016, BBC News, 29 May 2002, {{efn|The extent of state action upon violations of these provisions, remain disputed.}} Official ceremonies featured hundreds of Turkmens singing from the book.MAGAZINE, Halford, Macy, Shadow of the Ruhnama,weblink The New Yorker, 27 April 2010, 12 September was declared a national holiday.EducationRuhnama was the most integral aspect of the national educational curriculum across multiple domains.BOOK, 10.1515/9781614514534-008, Language Teaching in Turkmenistan: An Autoethnographic Journey, Language Change in Central Asia, 2016, Ahn, Elise S., Jensen, Antonia, 59–86, 978-1-61451-453-4, This emphasis on Ruhnama obviously ran in parallel to a rapid deterioration in overall standards of education.BOOK, Pomfret, Richard, Turkmenistan, 125–154, {{Project MUSE, 2222857, chapter, |title=The Central Asian Economies in the Twenty-First Century: Paving a New Silk Road |date=2019 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-18540-8 }}A course in Ruhnama was mandated for all students in school as part of social sciences. It was also made a required reading across all universities, and knowledge of the text was necessary for holding state employment; this perpetuated discrimination on minorities who were not proficient in Turkmen.BOOK, Malashenko, Alexey, Turkmenistan: No Longer Exotic, But Still Authoritarian, 171–192, {{Project MUSE, 1196478, chapter, |title=The Fight for Influence: Russia in Central Asia |date=2013 |publisher=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |isbn=978-0-87003-413-8 }}JOURNAL, Kurtov, Adzhar, Presidential Seat or Padishah's Throne?: The Distinctive Features of Supreme Power in Central Asian States, Russian Social Science Review, November 2007, 48, 6, 64–95, 10.1080/10611428.2007.11065272, 219313220, BOOK, 10.12987/9780300222098-004, Introduction: Central Asia Beyond Borders, Dictators Without Borders, 2020, 1–27, 978-0-300-22209-8, 246127185, Cooley, Alexander A., Heathershaw, John, {{efn|One had to undertake a 16-hour course on Ruhnama to qualify for a driving licence.BOOK, Qvortrup, Matt, The Psychopathology of Dictatorship, 22–34,weblink Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Slow Demise of Democracy, 2021, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 978-3-11-071332-9, }}{{Efn|A poetry volume by Niyazov was also made compulsory.}} Turkmen State University even had a "Department of the Holy Ruhnama of TürkmenbaÅŸy the Great", and Ruhnama Studies were pursued as a major research agenda in the country, often at the cost of academic disciplines.JOURNAL, Gaynor, Kelly Lee, Transformations in Turkmen higher education: current opportunities and challenges at a new university, Central Asian Survey, 2 October 2017, 36, 4, 473–492, 10.1080/02634937.2017.1367645, 148624243, The text also doubled as the sole government-approved version of history across all Turkmen schools until Niyazov 's demise, and had a substantial negative effect on academic scholarship.{{Efn|Bouma believes that teachers probably made simultaneous use of erstwhile Soviet textbooks; at least to discuss world history because Ruhnama lacked any significant discourse on those themes. The Soviet publications were instead lacking in Turkmen history, a void exploited by Ruhnama.}} Several conferences on Ruhnama itself were organised by historical and cultural institutes.{{Efn|These organisations include The Miras National Center for the Cultural Heritage of Translation, National Institute of Manuscripts, and The State Institute for Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of Turkmenistan, Central Asia and the Orient. All were set up under Niyazov's decrees to replace the Soviet-era Academy of Sciences.}} Other common topics were Turkmen epics, ancient Turkmen culture, and men of eminence – all deriving from Ruhnama.{{Efn|Some even attempted to locate genealogical connections between Niyazov and a range of eminent personalities from Alexander the Great to the Prophet Muhammad.}} The only books which were allowed to be published were those whose views were in service of Ruhnama; Turkmenistan does not have a significant record of public debates surrounding history, unlike other post-Soviet states.{{Efn|Bouma notes that Niyazov had called for academics to produce new surveys of Turkmen history as early as 1988. These manuscripts never made it past the state censorship, despite multiple cycles of revision. In 2000, a history book by N. Rakhimov was approved by the authorities and recommended as a textbook. Soon enough, all copies were destroyed on Niyazov's order because it claimed that Turkmens have originated from the Mongolian Altai region.}}In 2004, primary and secondary schools were assigned between two and four hours a week to Ruhnama while universities were assigned from four to eight hours.{{Efn|A 2002 report by BBC had noted a tenth-grader Turkmen to study Ruhnama twice a week.}} 26 of the 57 examination cards for the 2006 Turkmenistan University Entrance Examination revolved around themes set in Ruhnama.{{efn|Even text-books of mathematics for the primary tier had problems set up around Ruhnama.}} In the words of Laura E. Kennedy, Ruhnama was taught with a theological zeal.JOURNAL, Post, Jerrold M., Dreams of Glory: Narcissism and Politics, Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 4 July 2014, 34, 5, 475–485, 10.1080/07351690.2014.916986, 144849393,BerdimuhamedowIn his early days, Ruhnama was led away from its earlier spot-of-prominence though it continued to be a part of educational curricula.BOOK, Peyrouse, Sebastien, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov: Illusion of a Khrushchevian Thaw?, 108–132,weblink Turkmenistan: Strategies of Power, Dilemmas of Development: Strategies of Power, Dilemmas of Development, 2015, Routledge, 978-1-317-45325-3, 10.4324/9781315698571, In Spring of 2007, official references to Ruhnama were trimmed and around 2009-10, television broadcasts of Ruhnama stopped. Scholars have noted these incremental changes to fit Berdimuhamedow's posturing as a would-be harbinger of Turkmen renaissance, which necessitated partial critique of his predecessor's tenure.In 2011, the requirement to pass a secondary-school examination on the Ruhnama was rescinded.NEWS, Turkmen Government Removes Ruhnama as Required Subject,weblink 5 July 2021, Eurasianet, en, And in 2014, it was finally declared that Turkmen universities would no longer test applicants on their knowledge of the book, in what Slavomir Horak interpreted as the total purge of Ruhnama from Turkmen educational curricula.WEB, Hay, Mark, 31 July 2014, Turkmenistan Is Finally Putting the 'Ruhnama' Behind Them,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20150320041544weblink">weblink 20 March 2015, 19 November 2018, BOOK, 10.1007/978-3-030-50127-3_5, Education in Turkmenistan Under the Second President: Genuine Reforms or Make Believe?, Education in Central Asia, Education, Equity, Economy, 2020, Horák, SlavomÃr, 8, 71–91, 978-3-030-50126-6, 226746701, It has been noted that books written by Berdimuhamedow, Niyazov's successor, had begun to be included in coursework following his inauguration as leader. Luca Anceschi, an expert on the region and University of Glasgow professor, saw this as a transfer of Niyazov's cult of personality to Berdimuhamedow.NEWS, Lomov, Anton, Rickleton, Christopher, 22 December 2016, Cult of Turkmen 'Father' fades into history, 10 years on, Yahoo! News via Agence France-Presse,weblink 19 November 2018, 24 October 2021,weblink dead,TranslationsThe Ruhnama has been translated to over 50 languages. These translations were primarily designed by foreign corporations to gain a cordial relationship with Niyazov, and were not meant for international consumption.JOURNAL, Polese, Abel, Ó Beacháin, Donnacha, Horák, SlavomÃr, Strategies of legitimation in Central Asia: regime durability in Turkmenistan, Contemporary Politics, 2 October 2017, 23, 4, 427–445, 10.1080/13569775.2017.1331391, 157614052, {{Efn|The German translations were prepared by Daimler-Chrysler (vol. 1) and Siemens (vol. 2).}}These state-authorized translations vary substantially from one to another, leading Dan Shapira to conclude that the text remains in flux.JOURNAL, Kaya, Mümtaz, De l'intraculturel à l'interculturel : l'opération traduisante: Exemples de quelques problèmes rencontrés lors de l'opération de décodage et de transcodage, Meta, 21 November 2007, 52, 3, 584–588, 10.7202/016745ar, free, The English version was translated from a Turkish translation of Ruhnama; it does not correspond to the Turkmen version in many places, but is generally more accurate and bulky than the Russian translation.Media
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