The problem of good in kutadgu bilig

Kutadgu Bilig by Yūsuf Khāss Hājib is one of the most important sources of Turkish moral and political philosophy. The problem of the good holds a decisive position both in moral and political philosophy. One can say that it is through the notion of good that such concepts as intelligence, knowledge, justice, and happiness acquire a holistic character. Therefore, one should analyze the nature and essence of the good before discussing the problem of the good in the Kutadgu Bilig. Yūsuf addresses this question through four figurative personages on the basis of the contemporary political and moral theories. In this context, one can mention as his cultural and intellectual sources the pre-Islamic Turkish, the Persian, the Greek as well as Islamic thought. Though he has made use of all these sources, Yūsuf seems to analyze the problem of the good in the frame of a teleological eudemonist ethics that can be considered within the tradition of Islamic philosophy which took a systematic nature under the influence of Greek thought. Thus, the thinker regards the highest good as the highest happiness, which he in turn describes as the ideal