The book was initially written as a collaboration between the Turkmen State University and several other institutes in Ashgabat sponsored by the Turkmen Presidency but entirely without Niyazov's involvement (Although it was credited to his Press Secretary Kurbanov), and was titled for the first time under the name "Ruhnama". In 1994, the Dean and Niyazov were both evidently unhappy with the end result, and Niyazov ordered the book to be withdrawn and established a committee to rewrite the book "as Dean should have wanted it". However, the resultant committee that Niyazov established was comprised not of academics or professional historians but of a poet, two fiction writers and a historian (who Orazov claimed were respectable professionals during Soviet times but had since fallen into alcoholism). The resultant book again failed to meet Niyazov's expectations so he again ordered it withdrawn but this time took on the responsibility of writing the book himself.