Corpus of the Old Uighur Letters from the Eastern Silk Road
By (author) T. Moriyasu
The documents in this volume were written by people of the West Uighur kingdom, which flourished from the second half of the 9th century to the start of the 13th century in and around the eastern Tianshan region including the Turfan Depression, and by Uighurs of the 13th to 14th centuries when this region had come under the rule of the Mongol empire (i.e. former West Uighurs). Old Uighur is a form of Old Turkic. This Corpus includes over two hundred letters that were written in Old Uighur using the Uighur script, which derives from the Sogdian script. Although the use of paper had at the time not yet spread to Europe, these letters are all written on paper. The ink is similar to that which was used in China, but the letters were written with reed or wooden pens rather than with writing brushes. The majority of these letters were discovered in the 20th century in China, either in the Turfan Depression in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region or in the famous Mogao Caves of the Thousand Buddhas at Dunhuang in Gansu, and a small number were unearthed at the remains of Kara-khoto in the Gansu Corridor.
The documents in this volume were written by people of the West Uighur kingdom, which flourished from the second half of the 9th century to the start of the 13th century in and around the eastern Tianshan region including the Turfan Depression, and by Uighurs of the 13th to 14th centuries when this region had come under the rule of the Mongol empire (i.e. former West Uighurs). Old Uighur is a form of Old Turkic. This Corpus includes over two hundred letters that were written in Old Uighur using the Uighur script, which derives from the Sogdian script. Although the use of paper had at the time not yet spread to Europe, these letters are all written on paper. The ink is similar to that which was used in China, but the letters were written with reed or wooden pens rather than with writing brushes. The majority of these letters were discovered in the 20th century in China, either in the Turfan Depression in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region or in the famous Mogao Caves of the Thousand Buddhas at Dunhuang in Gansu, and a small number were unearthed at the remains of Kara-khoto in the Gansu Corridor.
- By (author) T. Moriyasu
Other Titles in this Series
Hymns in Honour of the Hierarchy and Community, Installation Hymns and Hymns in Honour of Church Leaders and Patrons
Middle Persian and Parthian Hymns in the Turfan Collection
Volume 40
A Sogdian Version of the Mahāyāna-Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra in Pustaka Format
Fragments from the Berlin Turfan Collection and the Ōtani Collection Kyōto
Volume 53
Avalokitesvara-Sutras
Edition altuigurischer Ubersetzungen nach Fragmenten aus Turfan und Dunhuang
Volume 50
A Study of the Buddhist Sutra called Sakiz Yukmak Yaruq or Sakiz Torlugin Yarumis Yaltrimis in Old Turkic
Volume 33
The Berlin Chinese Text U 5335 Written in Uighur Script
A Reconstruction of the Inherited Uighur Pronunciation of Chinese
Volume 34
Buddhistische Erzahlungen aus dem alten Zentralasien
Edition der altuigurischen Dasakarmapathavadanamala
Volume 37
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