How Modern is the Understanding of Authority Advocated in the Kutadgu Bilig?

Classic works have the elements that may appeal to the readers of all periods as a requirement of the title they bear. Of the Turkish scholar lived in the 11th century, Yusuf Khass Hajib’s mirror of prince named Kutadgu Bilig also has the aspects that may be educational for today’s people and society. This characteristic of the work brings along the threat of the work’s interpretation as a modern work and may result in the creation of a perception of Yusuf Khass Hajib’s being the representative of a modern state order and meanwhile of a modern understanding of sovereignty. In this study, the traditional and modern aspects of the understanding of authority in the Kutadgu Bilig is discussed by interpreting it within the social context of the period it was written and it has been concluded that Yusuf Khass Hajib is an advocate of the traditional understanding of authority