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Pope Francis confirmed his official visit to Kazakhstan, as well as participation in the 7th World Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in the coming September during his video meeting with President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
“I look forward to this important event from the point of promoting interreligious dialogue, and for the theme of unity to bring countries, which is much needed for the world today,” the Head of the Catholic Church said.
The Pontiff stressed the exceptional importance of achieving unity and harmony in the world in the current difficult geopolitical situation.
“We see how diverse and united your country is. This is a basis for stability. We are happy that in Kazakhstan you understand that. You can count on my support, and I appreciate your efforts,” Pope Francis stated.
In turn, President Tokayev noted that this event is of great importance for Kazakhstan. He also affirmed Kazakhstan’s strong commitment to further developing cooperation with the Holy See in the sphere of spiritual harmony and mutual respect.
The Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions is a unique interfaith forum, convened every three years in Nur-Sultan at the initiative of the First President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. For almost 20 years, this forum has played an important role in the rapprochement of cultures and civilisations, in searching for answers to the key challenges of our time.
The 7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions will be held on September 14-15, 2022 in Nur-Sultan and will be dedicated to the role of leaders of world and traditional religions in the spiritual and social development of mankind in the post-pandemic period.
The idea of convening the Congress was put forward in 2003, at the turn of the century there was a dangerous global situation, directly affecting inter-religious relations in the world. Kazakhstan with its multinational and multi-confessional society, complex geopolitical environment, had not only to be involved, but also to take active steps.
At the beginning of the 2000s, the rapprochement between cultures, religions and peoples was facilitated by the historic visit of Pope John Paul II to Kazakhstan Capital in September 2001, by a major part of the first Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit in Almaty in June 2002 and the International Conference of Peace and Reconciliation in February 2003. These developments led to a new initiative on convening the Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.
First of all, it was hard to convince the participants to come and sit at the same table. In September 2003, on the sidelines of the First Congress taking place in Nur-Sultan, some delegates at a private audience with the head of Kazakhstan made no secret of their complaints to other participants and openly expressed the boundaries of their tolerance. It should be noted that in fact the disagreements were of a purely political, inter-state nature and did not raise any interfaith issues. In this situation, the credibility of the First President played a key role in the success of both plenary sessions and the adoption of the Joint Declaration.
Eventually, the participants came to a common understanding that it is vital to identify the place of religion outside the current and even long-term political conflicts. The culture of dialogue, as reflected in the documents of the Congress and the remarks of the participants, implies mutual respect of heads of denominations.
Over the years, the forum has become a leading example of enhancing interreligious cooperation. The Congress has become an open platform for representatives of world and traditional religions to establish a meaningful dialogue on topical global issues.
Dialogue participants
An important feature of the Congress is a broad and representative composition of its participants. The Congress is attended by high-level followers of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shinto, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism, representatives of religious and public organisations, and influential world politicians. The Congress has become not only a platform for inter-religious meetings, but also a dialogue between religious and political leaders. This transformation is of great importance for the real positive impact of religious leaders on the situation around the world.
In different years, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, King Abdullah II of Jordan, President of Finland Sauli Niinistö, President of Israel and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shimon Peres, Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir bin Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chrétien, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, Grand Imam of al-Azhar Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, General Secretary of the Muslim World League Abdallah At-Turki addressed the Congress.
Traditionally, the Congresses of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions were also attended by UNESCO Directors General Koïchiro Matsuura and Irina Bokova, OSCE Secretaries General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut and Lamberto Zannier, High Representative of the UN Alliance of Civilizations Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Iyad Amin Madani.
The First Congress was attended by religious leaders and honorary guests from 13 countries; the Sixth Congress in Nur-Sultan was attended by over 80 delegations from 42 countries of the world.
Documents of the Congress
In nineteen years, the Congress has gained considerable documentary framework concerning cooperation between different religions. In this regard, the Declaration of the First Congress played a key role, since it highlighted main common grounds and identified shared values of leading world and traditional religions. For Kazakh diplomacy, harmonisation of the first confessional document was a good test for professionalism, because it was necessary to identify common problems for the entire human civilization from the perspective of the religious leaders. It was necessary to carefully take into account the specific features of each denomination, to avoid debate about interfaith differences, and most importantly – to formulate a joint vision of cooperation of different religions.
Congress documents are unique due to the fact that religious figures themselves were directly involved in their development. When adopting documents of the Congress, religious leaders morally commit to make efforts for their implementation. All the main documents were duly circulated to the UN, OSCE and other international forums.
Institutionalising Dialogue
Another significant outcome of almost 20 years of the Congress’s existence was its consistent institutional development. The Congress has become a sort of “inter-confessional Davos,” as today it is the most representative dialogue platform for all religions, international organizations, politicians and experts. It is distinguished by a diverse agenda, an unusual format of participants, as well as political flexibility.
As the number of participants increases and the agenda of issues discussed is developed, the programme of forums has also significantly expanded. Today, congresses not only include plenary sessions, but also several parallel sectional meetings.
The noble ideas of the Congress are widely supported in the world community, both in religious and political circles. They give the world a chance to overcome centuries-old stereotypes about interreligious relations and to develop an effective formula for global tolerance and mutual understanding in the XXI century.
Kazakhstan will continue to do everything possible in the name of peace and stability on the planet and will continue contributing to the activities of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.
January 1, 2022, marked the 100th birthday anniversary of Roza Baglanova, a world-famous singer and People's Artist of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
The life and creativity of Roza Baglanova is an example of selfless service to the people, devotion to the stage and boundless respect for the audience.
The singer started her career at the State Women's Song and Dance Ensemble of the Uzbek Philharmonic Society. She was later sent to the Moscow Conservatory, but when the Second World War broke out, she participated in the war together with the ensemble. As part of the brigade, she performed for the soldiers of the Red Army at the front: she sang in the dugouts, at railway stations, on tanks and even on the wings of aircrafts. During the Second World War, Roza Baglanova not only raised the fighting spirit of the soldiers with her creativity, but also proved to be a hero, helping to carry the soldiers away from the battlefield.
On May 9, 1945, Baglanova took part in the Victory concert in Berlin. For her contribution as a soldier the singer was awarded with many military awards, among which she especially valued two medals, presented by Marshals Ivan Konev and Konstantin Rokossovsky.
Roza Baglanova’s calling card was the song “Oh, Samara-town” from the repertoire of Lydia Ruslanova, who liked her performance as a beginner singer at that time.
After returning to the stage following the war, Roza Baglanova became the first Kazakh singer to gain nation-wide recognition in the USSR. Roza Baglanova’s repertoire includes works of world opera, folk songs of different countries and songs of modern composers.
Roza Baglanova is a national symbol of the whole epoch: she was on stage with Alexander Vertinsky, Galina Ulanova, Maya Plisetskaya, Igor Ilyinsky, Arkady Raikin, Sviatoslav Richter, Daniil Shafran. The singer performed in Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, China, Korea, India, Burma, Canada, Sweden, Belgium and other countries.
Roza Baglanova also met with many prominent people: Stalin, Kim Il-sung, Mao Tse - Tung, Choibalsan , Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and the heads of many states. During her stay in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as part of a government delegation, Kim Il-sung specially allocated his plane to Roza Baglanova and she toured the Republic for 10 days.
In India, the singer attended a reception hosted at Jawaharlal Nehru's house, where she met with Indira and Rajiv Gandhi.
In 1949 she starred in the Soviet-Hungarian documentary film “The Youth of the World”. In 2006 the presentation of the documentary film “Ah-Samara town” took place in the city of Almaty.
In 2021, television channel “Khabar” released a biographical feature program “Bulbul” about the life and work of the singer.
An autobiographical book of Roza Baglanova “Aynalayyn khalkymnan yerkeletken” (I am grateful to my people for coddling me) was published in 2007.
Many books and paintings were published about Roza Baglanova, and numerous poetic works were composed. Her name is included in the Anglo-American encyclopedia “Who is who” on par with such great women as Margaret Thatcher, Elizabeth Taylor, among others.
Film studio “Kazakhfilm” shot a documentary about Roza Baglanova “Our Rose”, which presents the great creative path of the singer.
She was awarded with numerous titles and awards for the popularization of Kazakh art.
On November 23, 2021, by the resolution of the 41st general conference of UNESCO, the Calendar of memorable dates for 2022-2023 was accepted, and by the recommendation of Kazakhstan with the support of Russia and Uzbekistan, the 100th anniversary of the singer Roza Baglanova was included in it. In order to preserve the memory of the outstanding Kazakh singer, several events have been planned in 2022 in Kazakhstan and abroad, as part of the celebration of her 100th anniversary.
Akhmet Baitursynov (Akhmet Baitursynuly) (28.01.1873 – 08.12.1938) – Kazakh statesman, scientist, educator, poet, publicist, reformer of the Kazakh script, founder of Kazakh linguistics and literary studies, one of the leaders of the national liberation movement of the Kazakh people in the early 20th century.
In 1895-1909 he worked as a teacher in the Russian-Kazakh schools of Aktobe and Kostanay, headed the city school in Karkaraly.
Baitursynov’s political activity began in 1905. He is one of the authors of the Karkaraly petition, which was signed by 14,500 people. The document raised issues of local government and the court; changes in the public education system; freedom of worship and religion; publication of newspapers, opening printing houses; adoption of new laws.
On 1 July 1909, Baitursynov was arrested and imprisoned in the Semipalatinsk prison on charges of spreading the idea of autonomous self-government, inciting national enmity between Russians and Kazakhs. The tsarist authorities decided to banish him from Kazakhstan.
From 9 March 1910 until the end of 1917, Baitursynov lived in Orenburg. Together with Alikhan Bokeikhanov and Myrzhakyp Dulatov, Baitursynov published the first national newspaper titled “Kazakh”, which opposed the transfer of the best lands to Russian peasant settlers, warned against the hasty transition of nomadic villages to settled lifestyle, introduced new farming and animal husbandry methods, called for the unity of the people and active political struggle, increased literacy and cultural level.
In January 1916, Baitursynov participated in a meeting of the Muslim faction of the State Duma.
Baitursynov formulated his point of view on the people’s attitude towards the February and October revolutions: “As much as Kazakhs understood the February Revolution, to the same extent they didn’t understand the October Revolution. Kazakhs took the first one literally and accepted it with joy, because it saved them from the exploitation and oppression of the tsarist authorities, and their long-standing dream of self-government grew stronger in them.” Baitursynov explained the Kazakhs’ cautious attitude to the October Revolution by the absence of capitalist relations in the society and the corresponding class strata of the society.
Baitursynov, Bokeikhanov and Dulatov are the founders of the Alash Party and the Alash Orda government, the “fathers” of the Kazakh national state idea.
In March 1919, Baitursynov was sent to Moscow to negotiate with the Soviet government. In July of the same year, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars.
In 1920, Baitursynov wrote letters to Vladimir Lenin, where he sharply criticised the first steps of the Soviet government in Kazakhstan. As a member of the Kazrevkom, he took active part in establishing borders between Kazakhstan and Russia.
In April 1920, Baitursynov applied to join the RCP (b), but in 1921 he left the party due to disagreements with the Bolsheviks. In 1920-1921 he was the People’s Commissar for Education of the KazASSR. In 1922-1925 he headed the scientific and literary commission of the People’s Commissariat of Kazakhstan. Along with the state service, Baitursynov was engaged in pedagogical activity: in 1921-1928 he taught Kazakh language and literature, cultural history at public education institutions.
On 2 June 1929, in Almaty, together with other members of the Alash Orda, Baitursynov was arrested and transferred to the Moscow Butyrskaya prison. On 4 April 1930, he was charged with counter-revolutionary activities, preparation of an armed uprising in the Kazakh steppe. Baitursynov was sentenced to death.
In February 1931, the sentence was replaced with 10 years of camps, in November 1932 it was changed to a three-year exile in Arkhangelsk.
In 1934 Baitursynov was released early and returned to Almaty.
On 8 October 1937, he was arrested again. While in custody, he answered the interrogators’ question with the following words: “My ideal is to enhance the welfare and culture of the Kazakh people as high as possible, and since this good deed is in its beginning stage, I will bow my head to the power that will turn my wish into reality.”
On 8 December 1938, Baitursynov was executed by shooting.
Baitursynov’s first book “Qyryq Mysal” (“Forty Fables”) was published in 1909. The author castigates Russia’s colonialist policy, the arbitrariness and violence of the authorities. Using traditional plots of fables by Aesop, La Fontaine, Krylov and Abai as a base, he created a number of original works in which the genre of fable acquired national features. Baitursynov’s book “Masa” (“Mosquito”, 1911) encompasses his civic idea-dream, which is to introduce the people to knowledge and diligence, to promote the development of art and enhance the culture. The poet calls for getting rid of ignorance, indifference and negligence. While continuing and developing the educational and critical traditions of Abai, Baitursynov raised Kazakh literature to a new level.
9 February marks the 90th birthday of Mukagali Makatayev, a renowned Kazakh poet, writer and translator.
Makatayev was born in a little village of Karasaz, situated at the foothills of the Khan Tengri mountain. He wrote his first poem at the age of 17, but his first book of poems was published when he was 33 and he had only 12 years to live. He created over 4,000 poems in the two months he spent in a hospital due to a serious illness.
Only a fraction of his poems saw the light of day during his life. Most of his poems were published after his death. Mukagali Makatayev was the most loved poet of his age.
He was officially recognised only after his death. He received the highest state titles, orders and honours in 2006, thirty years after his departure.
He is often referred to as the Kazakh Pushkin of our times. His colleagues said about him: “He dashed into literature like a lighting and bedazzled all of us….” Makatayev is easily recognised by the flow of his poetic lines and by his unique poetic voice. He expressed deep human feelings and emotions that he communicated in clear and simple words that reached the hearts of everyone who loves poetry.
From his diary: “The days without poems for me are lifeless. Thanks to God for giving me this consolation. A poet has his own world, his own society, and his own universe. I live for this and fight for this.”
He was also one of the first poets who brilliantly translated into Kazakh the pieces of world classical literature: Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Dante’s The Divine Comedy among many others.
His life was full of ordeals, experiencing homelessness and joblessness, severe Communist censorship, harassment from fellow poets and expulsion from the Writers’ Association of Kazakhstan.
His last poem was called Requiem to Mozart. Makatayev was fascinated by Mozart’s music and was shocked to learn that there were no proper last rites served for the great musician. It seems that Makatayev took over this mission and read the last rites for him by writing Requiem to Mozart.
Article partially taken from www.adebiportal.kz
Al-Farabi – one of the greatest Eastern philosophers, an outstanding scientist and enlightener - was born in 870 in the town of Farab (nowadays part of modern Kazakhstan).
Having left his native town while a young man, al-Farabi visited all the major cultural centres of the medieval Arab and Islamic world: Bukhara, Merv, Harran, Alexandria, Cairo, Baghdad, Aleppo and Damascus, where he lived, studied and worked. He spent his last years, died and was buried in Damascus in 950.
The range of al-Farabi’s scholarly interests and research included astronomy, logic, theory of music and mathematics, sociology and ethics, medicine and psychology, philosophy, and law.
As an intellectual, Al-Farabi was a world-class personality. He succeeded in conciliating and bringing together the most valuable achievements of Arab, Persian, Greek, Indian and his native, Turkic, scientific thought, and culture, all of which found reflection in his numerous philosophical and scientific treatises. Al-Farabi’s legacy also includes his extensive commentaries on works by Aristotle and Plato. The most important treatises authored by al-Farabi have survived until our times and are stored in the best libraries in the world.
The publishing house " Kazakh University" of the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University has produced works by the great thinker Al-Farabi in various fields of science, which you can find on the website: https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21ALPCcHY21TPLMtk&cid=AE92B5FD9E544F15&id=AE92B5FD9E544F15%211260&parId=root&o=OneUp
In the framework of the celebration of the 1150th anniversary of the scientist and philosopher Abu Nasr al-Farabi, we are publishing material about the life, work and heritage of the great thinker.
AL-FARABI: LIFE AND WORK
The ancient city of Otrar was located on the territory of modern southern Kazakhstan at the confluence of the river Arys with the Syr Darya. The Otrar oasis, located at the joint of the nomadic steppe with a settled agricultural population, at the fork of the most important trade routes after the Arab conquest, became known as Farab district. In this blessed land in 870 the great thinker of the East al-Farabi was born. Al-Farabi’s full name is Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tarkhan ibn Uzlag al-Farabi at-Turki. The word “tarhan” in his name indicates that the philosopher belonged to a privileged family, and the phrase “at-Turki” proves that al-Farabi was a Turk by origin.
A few biographical data about al-Farabi came to us thanks to the writings of medieval authors: “Sources of information about the classes of doctors” Ibn Abi-Usaybiya, “Messages about scholars and sages”, authored by al-Kifti and “Dates of deaths of famous people and information about sons of time” Ibn Khallikan.
In his youth, al-Farabi had the opportunity to get acquainted with the treasures of the richest at that time, the second in the world in the number of books and manuscripts (after the famous Alexandria book depository) of the Otrar library. Probably since then an unquenchable thirst for knowledge had awakened in him. Al-Farabi, a young man of twenty, is leaving his homeland in search of knowledge and rushing to the Middle East. His goal was to visit the largest centers of intellectual and cultural life of the Arab Caliphate, such as Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Aleppo, and others. After long journeys, al-Farabi settled in Damascus, where he enjoyed the favor and respect of the ruler at the time Safe Ad-Daul ben Hamdani. As a true sage, al-Farabi needed a minimum of comfort and privileges, spending most of the day writing his treatises or having wise conversations by the pool or in a shady garden. Al-Farabi died in 950 at the age of eighty and was buried in the “cemetery of kings” Bab as-Sagir in Damascus. According to legend, the ruler himself read the prayer on him on four papyruses. Al-Farabi left behind a rich cultural heritage.
HERITAGE
The greatest scientist al-Farabi was born in the Turkic family of the Kipchak clan. It is worth noting that the Turkic world has given mankind with a number of outstanding scientists and thinkers. Among them, astronomer and mathematician Abbas Dzhauhari, who together with al-Khorezmi took part in the compilation of famous astronomical tables, Mohammed Khaidar Dulati left an invaluable monument on the history and culture of Turkic nations “Tarih-i-Rashidi”, Mahmoud Kashgari created a work on Turkic dialectology “Divan lugat at-Turk “, geographer Janah ibn Hakan al-Kimaki, etc.
Al-Farabi’s “weapon” against social injustice and suffering was the word, enlightenment, philosophy. He believed in the achievement of happiness by people in earthly life. He expressed this idea in his works: “A Treatise on the Views of inhabitants of a Virtuous City,” “Civil Policy,” “Showing the Way to Happiness,” “On Achieving Happiness,” and others. The result of al-Farabi’s many-sided scientific research was the treatise “On the Classification of Sciences”, in which the sciences of that time were listed in strict order, the subject of research of each was determined. According to contemporaries, “no one has ever written anything like this before.” In the XII century “On the Classification of Sciences” had been translated into Latin twice. His works on logic include “Categories”, “Dilelectics”, “Book of Letters”, “Gems of Wisdom”, “Speeches Used in Logic”, “Analytics”, “Proof”, etc. The treatises on music and poetry include “the Great book of music”, “On the art of poetry”, “Treatise on the canons of the art of poetry”. The famous French orientalist Rudolph d’Erlange translated and published in Paris in 1930-1935 two-volume French translation of the “the Great book of music”, which was a significant contribution to the study of the heritage of al-Farabi in Europe. Al-Farabi not only knew the theory of music perfectly, but was able to play musical instruments. The phrase of M. Zhumabaev is widely known: “Who does not know the music of the Turks and the nine-string dombra of Farabi.” It can be assumed that al-Farabi is the inventor of the nine-string or four-string dombra “Ut”. Al-Farabi’s natural-science treatises include “Comments on Ptolemy’s Almagest,” “On objection to Galen about his disagreements with Aristotle regarding the organs of the human body,” “On the need for the art of chemistry,” and others. The rich cultural heritage of the Turkic thinkers provided fertile ground for development of modern Kazakhstan.
AL-FARABI. THE DIALOGUE OF EAST AND WEST
Arabic-language philosophy was greatly influenced by ancient Greek philosophy. Al-Farabi, according to Ibn Khallikan, could say: “If I had lived in the time of Aristotle, I would have been the best among his disciples.” Al-Farabi created an entire encyclopedic system, similar to Aristotelian teachings. He wrote about 160 treatises covering all branches of knowledge known at that time: politics, psychology, ethics, natural sciences, aesthetics, logic, and of course philosophy. Unfortunately, not all works have been preserved, but the main works have survived and are stored in the best libraries of the world: in Cairo, Istanbul, Beirut, London, Berlin, Paris, Bratislava, Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Arab thinkers Al-Biruni, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Baja, Ibn Tufayil and many others considered themselves disciples of al-Farabi. Ibn Sina said that he understood the “Metaphysics” of Aristotle only through the comments of al-Farabi. Ibn Sina’s medical works were highly valued in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Ibn Rushd was known in Europe under the name of Averroes. Ibn-Rushd developed the idea of al-Farabi about the superiority of philosophy over religion, reason over revelation, laying the foundations of the doctrine of the duality of truth. Ibn-Baja was also influenced by the philosophy of al-Farabi, in his work “On the lifestyle of a hermit” he writes about the important role of knowledge in achieving ethical excellence. Ibn-Tufeyl in “The novel of Haya, the son of Yakzan,” develops the thought of al-Farabi about the perfection of the philosophical way of knowing the truth.
Speaking about the influence of al-Farbi on European philosophy, first of all we should mention the Jewish philosopher, the theologian Maimonides, whose work “Guide to the Lost” contains the ideas of al-Farabi. Through Maimonides, a thread is traced in the history of philosophy leading from al-Farabi to Spinoza, D. Skot, R. Bacon. The English monk and philosopher R. Bacon, fluent in Arabic, studied the works of al-Farabi in the scripts. During the Renaissance, Europe regained the “treasures” of classical ancient Greek philosophy and the al-Farabi’s merit in this is very significant. Al-Farabi is one of the key figures in the history of intellectual thought, that influenced the development of world civilization. His legacy had contributed to the establishment of dialogue and the rapprochement of cultures of East and West. The theme of dialogue between East and West remains relevant to this day. A dialogue strategy seems to be the only right one to strengthen solidarity and mutual understanding in the modern world.
Source:
Al-Farabi Research Center
http://al-farabi.kaznu.kz