Abay (Ibrahim) Qunanbayuli was born in 1845 at the bottom of the Chingiz Mountain in the today's Abay district (former Karkaraly) located in Eastern Kazakhstan region (formerly, the Semipalatinsk region).
He was a well-known Kazakh poet, a great thinker, composer, philosopher, the founder of written Kazakh literature, and its first classic. He was also a cultural reformer toward European and Russian cultures on the basis of enlightened Islam.
The heritage he left his nation is rich in songs and poems, translations and prose. His translations of the poetry written by Russian writers and poets such as Pushkin, Lermontov, and Krylov became the national patrimony of Kazakhstan. He translated the works of Schiller, Goethe, and Byron into Kazakh language.
«Qara Sözder» [Book of Words] created by the great thinker constitute an ethnic philosophical work. This creation of his is an exploration of Kazakh national life in the second half of the 19th century. He influenced social affairs in the country where he lived.
He also participated in the governing of the country and played a certain role in trying to solve complicated problems justly.
The name of Abay is known worldwide just as Shakespeare, Goethe, and Pushkin are well-known in many countries, because his great words became a spiritual patrimony of not only one nation, but of the entire humankind.