Mahmud al-Kashgari
The 11th century scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari (also known as Barskhani) was a native of this area. His father Husayn was mayor of the village. Mahmud al-Kashgari is best known as the author of the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, the first comparative dictionary of the Turkic languages, which he wrote whilst living in Baghdad in 1072-4. His map of the then known world has Barskon at the centre of the world. His tomb is in Upal, a small town in present-day Xinjiang southwest of Kashgar on the Karakoram Highway to Pakistan.