Magauiya Abaiuly Kunanbayev
(1870-1904)

Magauiya Abaiuly Kunanbayev was born from the wife of Abai Dilda when Abai was twenty-five years old. Dilda had four sons and two daughters. Magauiya (Magash) is the youngest child of Abai.

At the age of eight-nine, Magauiya was sent to study to the Tatar mullah Muhametkarim, where he got a Muslim education. After five years of training in the village, Abay took Magauiya to the city to study at the Russian school in Semipalatinsk.

After two or three years of study in the city, Magauiya, who showed extraordinary ability in studies, showed excellent knowledge, was considered the best among students, he becomes ill. Concerned about the health of his son, Abai takes him to the most experienced doctor in Semipalatinsk, Stanov, who diagnosed pulmonary disease in Magauiya, which served as an obstacle to his further stay and training in the city, and Abai decides to take his son to the aul. Since then, Abai himself becomes a teacher and educator for Magauiya. Since 1885, Magauiya was on the education of his father. Under the leadership of Abai, Magauiya gets acquainted with the works of Russian scientists and outstanding writers, which Abai himself read, receives a lot of knowledge.

His brother Abdrakhman, who returned from Russia in 1889 after graduating from the Tyumen and St. Petersburg schools, also had a great influence on the education and development of Magauiya.

These were the years when Abai’s poetry was widely spread, and the village in which Abai lived became a cultural center. According to Abai, Magauiya’s lyric poems are realistic works that were easy to read and were close to his heart.

One of Magauiya’s first poems is his song “Ay zharyk, zhazdyn tunі at terletіp”. The poet describes his mood, mood and feelings in the summer, when he was two years old, when one night the moonlight disappeared from human eyes.

The first poems that were devoted to dreams and love, he wrote at the age of sixteen. Lyricism was impregnated with his poems “On a moonlit summer night they drove horses”, “That night I dreamed of you.” Many of the verses expressed the grief of Magauiya over the illness of his brother Abdrahman.

In 1894, Abai sent Magauyia to Almaty to be next to his sick brother Abrahman. For five months, Magauiya took care of his beloved brother, after which he personally let him on his last journey. The brother’s illness and death left a tragic imprint on Magauiya, which was expressed in his several verses “Bir Umіt, Bir hauіptіn” (“One Hope, One Horror”), “Birge Tugan Bauyrlas” (“Born Together”), etc.

The poetic talent in poems that he wrote on the advice of Abai: “Enlik-Kebek” in 1890, “Abylai” (not fully preserved) was revealed in every way. In terms of volume and artistic merit, the poem Medgat Kasym, written in 1900, also stands out.

  1. Auezov writes that the poems of Magauiya “Enlik and Kebek” and “Abylai” were preserved in the manuscript and were not widely distributed among readers. The poem “Medgat and Kasym” is the most voluminous work in which the poet and the artistic and ethical originality of the poet are clearly expressed. The poem “Medgat and Kassym” of Magauiya is dedicated to the life of a nation that is not connected in any way with the Kazakhs. The poem describes the events of the African tribe. M. Auezov notes that Magauiya adopted the traditions of European and Russian classics. The poem “Medgat and Kasym” is consonant with the works of Byron devoted to the East, A. Pushkin “The Bakhchisarai Fountain”, “The Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “Gypsies”, M. Lermontov “Izmail-Bay”, “Aul Bastunzhi”, “Ashik Kerib”.
  2. Auezov, briefly focusing on the storyline, emphasizes that the harmony, brevity and clarity is inherent to artistic style of Magauiya, like classical Western poetry. The poet avoids some of the traditions of classical eastern poetry- verbosity, splendor and excessive praise of a person or phenomenon. The poem is written in the spirit of romanticism. M.O. Auezov estimates the poem of Magauiya as an example of classical poetry. The poem captures the reader with a deep content, multilateral disclosure of characters, conflicts that were not reflected before Magauiya. M. Auezov notes that “the poem“ Medgat and Kasym is a highly ideological work, in the artistic sense it is perfect and you will not find such a work in the literature of the late 19th century ”. In addition, the researcher notes that such a deep content, style, language of the poem shows the author as a comprehensively educated person, a master-poet.

Magauiya, as if competing with a cousin Shakarim Kudaiberdiev, wrote the poem “Enlik and Kebek.” Auezov writes that Magauiya revealed the image of people who are guilty of the death of Enlik and Kebek, of that the innocent child was left an orphan, and also showed a rough of the time. The main characters of the poem biy Kengirbai, Enlik and Kebek and other characters in reality were in life. The student of M. Auezov K. Mukhamedkhanov confirms this opinion of his teacher. “The events described in the poem took place in the eighteenth century between the genera of the Tobykty and Naiman. Kengirbai is the great-great-grandfather of Abai Kunanbayev, the son of Zhigitek, a relative of Aidos. The fact that Magauiya wrote this poem is of great political importance. The problems raised in the poem are common to the entire Kazakh people, and are generated by reality. Abai revealed the hidden truth for decades and instructed Magauiya to write a dastan. At first, this poem was known only to Abai’s entourage, since the truth about Kengirbai could not suit the powers that be”.

  1. Auezov notes that, in the artistic sense, the poem of Magauiya is still weak, nevertheless, with its ideological content; it occupies a special place among the works of other poets.

Thus, as M. Auezov wrote, with full confidence we can call Magauiya, who received knowledge at the school of Abai Kunanbayev, as a talented student and a follower of the poetic tradition of the great Abai.

Magauiya died on May 12, 1904. The cemetery in which he is buried is located in the wintering of Akshoky.

 List of references

  1. Kazakhskaya SSR: brief encyclopedia/ Chief Ed. R.N.Nurgaliev. – Almaty, 1991. V.4: Language. Literature. Folklore. Art. Architecture. – P.367.
  2. Mukhamedkhanov K. Multivolume collection of works. 3 V. – Almaty: “Alash”, 2005. – p. 328.
  3. Mukhamedkhanuly K. Abaidyn akyn shakirtteri. Second book. – Almaty: Dauir, 1994. – p. 336.
  4. Mukhamedkhanuly K. Abaidyn akyn shakirtteri. Third book. – Almaty: Dauir, 1995. – p. 320.