Rare manuscript unknown for centuries found in university library

A manuscript held at Tashkent State University’s library, long considered lost, was found to be a major 14th-century encyclopedic source. It is Badriddin Ibrohim’s explanatory dictionary Zafangʻoʻ va jahonpoʻ, known for centuries only from short quotations in later works.

In 1964, orientalist Solomon Baevsky examined manuscript No. 809/292, whose cover reads “Farhangnoma,” and confirmed it as the sought-after work. Copied on 6 August 1711, it sorts words alphabetically by initial letter rather than by rhyme, covering everyday life, crafts and economic relations.

The text lists more than 5,170 entries across seven sections. The seventh section preserves ancient Turkic terms, numbers, household items, and names of animals and plants, suggesting that Turkic words played an important regional role in that period.