Mahmud al-Kashgari

Wax statue of Muslim Polymath Mahmud al-Kashgari on display at Istanbul Sapphire, İstanbul, Turkey.

Mahmud ibn Hussayn ibn Muhammed al-Kashgari (Arabic: محمود بن الحسين بن محمد الكاشغري‎, Maḥmūd ibnu 'l-Ḥussayn ibn Muḥammad al-Kāšġarī, Turkish: Kaşgarlı Mahmûd, Uyghur: مەھمۇد قەشقىرى‎‎, Mehmud Qeshqiri, Мәһмуд Қәшқири) was an 11th-century Kara-Khanid scholar and lexicographer of the Turkic languages from Kashgar.

Quotes

• We came down on them like a flood,
  We went out among their cities,
  We tore down the idol-temples,
  We shat on the Buddha's head!
  • Translation: English translation from the Turkic language. The Karakhanid Turkic Muslim writer Mahmud al-Kashgari recorded this short poem (in Turkic language) about the conquest of Khotan.
  • Attributed to Mahmud al-Kashgari in : Elverskog, Johan (2010). Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-8122-4237-9.