Abay Kunanbayev is an outstanding classic of Kazakh literature, a great praiser of the national and spiritual values of the Kazakh people, a great poet and a great thinker, one of the founders of Kazakh written literature. Because of his friendly and gentle attitude, his mother called him by the name Abay, which means humble and kind in Kazakh. Later he presented the poems he had written since his youth under the pseudonym Abay.
Abay Kunanbayev, who opposed social injustices in his life and works, sought the way to salvation of the people in enlightenment and national-spiritual self-awareness. Abay Kunanbayev, who lived his life with great difficulties, died in 1904.
