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Abay Ibrahim Qunanbayuli (Kazakh: Абай Ибраһим Құнанбайұлы; Russian: Абай Ибрагим Кунанбаев) ...

Abay Ibrahim Qunanbayuli (Kazakh: Абай Ибраһим Құнанбайұлы; Russian: Абай Ибрагим Кунанбаев) (August 10, 1845 - July 5, 1904) was a Kazakh poet, composer and philosopher. He was also a cultural reformer toward European and Russian cultures on the basis of enlightened Islam. Abay was born on what is today the city of Karaul, in Abay District, East Kazakhstan Province; the son of Qunanbay and Uljan, Qunanbay's second wife, they named him Ibrahim, but because of his brightness, he soon was given the nickname "Abay" (meaning "careful"), a name that stuck for the rest of his life. His father's economic status enabled the boy to attend a Russian school in his youth, but only after he had already spent some years studying at a madrasah under Mullah Ahmet Ryza. At his school in Semipalatinsk, Abay encountered the writings of Mikhail Lermontov and Alexander Pushkin. Abay's main contribution to Kazakh culture and folklore lies in his poetry, which expresses great nationalism and grew out of Kazakh folk culture. Before him, most Kazakh poetry was oral, echoing the nomadic habits of the people of the Kazakh steppes. During Abay's lifetime, however, a number of important socio-political and