1900: captain F.A. Mikhajlov about the Turkmen poets Magtumguly, Zelili-mullah and Velimuhammed-mullah (the last of which remains unidentified to the present)

Abstract

In the early works of representatives of one national culture, dedicated to personalities and events from the history of a completely different national culture, sometimes there are statements and assumptions that do not correspond to reality. This article is devoted a solution of one mess admitted in 1900 by captain F.A. Mikhajlov in its book “Natives of Transcaspien area and their life. An ethnographic sketch” and to it A.Vamberi (1865) and A.F. Bakulin (1873) which has been connected with the creative person of the Turkmen poet-classic Mammedveli Kemine (1770-1840) named these western authors by wrongly Velimuhammed-mullah and Aman-mullah. Despite this, the publications of the above authors have an important historical significance, which lies in the fact that their works, which appeared after the famous English translations of Alexander Khodzko (1804- 1891), of individual poems by Magtumguly, Kemin and Karadzhaoglan (London, 1842), for the first time contained valuable information about the Turkmen poets of the past. Moreover, these works were intended directly for the Russian-speaking circle of readers.