U I G H U R S C R I P T
by
Kuddus
Issiyev
Eastern Turkestan has been drawing attention of researchers
of the world for a couple of centuries. Recently interest of the world was drawn
to the region due to discovery of mysterious mummies, which are contemporaries
of Egyptian mummies and date back as far as 2000 B.C.
At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th
centuries 11 Russian, 3 English, 2 French, 4 German, 3 Japanese expeditions were
sent to the region. These expeditions have found ruins of ancient towns, burial
places of the unknown people, architectural ensembles and huge amount of written
texts on paper, wooden boards, and walls. They have
brought out great amount of materials including written manuscripts, frescos,
etc. Now these materials are being kept in museums, libraries and depositories
of St.-Petersburg (Russia), Berlin (Germany), London (Great Britain), Paris
(France), Peking (China), New Delhi (India) and Japan. The largest collection of
the Ancient Uighur manuscripts and fragments - Turfan collection - was collected
by the German researchers A.Grunvedel and A.
Leqoc in 1902-1914. It includes more than 8 thousand units. Russian collection
of the Leningrad Department of Russian Academy of Sciences includes about 4200
units of manuscripts. The materials of both collections are well studies. Some
of them were published. Collections of the Uighur manuscripts in other countries
are smaller and less studied.
Uighur documents
found in Eastern Turkestan were written in
various kinds of script, namely: Runic, Manichean,
Syrian, Nestorian, Estrangelo, Brahmi Tibetan and actually
Uighur. Uighur
manuscripts found on territory of today’s Mongolia
were written in so-called Orkhon script. The
majority of the texts, except those written in Orkhon and Uighur scripts,
are the religious texts of Manicheans, Nestorians and Buddhists. Orkhon Runic
script was used in writing of Epic works. Uighur script was widely used in
day-to-day life for economic and juridical needs. I would like to address to
this two kinds of script in more detail.
Runic Ancient Turkic script came into the world before the 7th
century AD. It consisted of 37 or 38 graphemes, which were written separately
from each other. The script was created on the basis of Sogdian non-cursive
alphabet, which, in turn, ascends to Aramaic. Orkhon script was written
from the right to the left. Most of consonant graphemes had several variants of
spelling depending on vowels next to them. The system of denoting of vowels is
based on the opposition of syllables containing forward and back vowels. Each
grapheme denotes a syllable or a phoneme.
This script was very suitable for rock inscriptions and
inscriptions on wooden boards and sticks. For the first
time monuments of Orkhon script were found in the river Yenisei valley
(today’s Russia) in the time of Peter the Great at the end of the 17th
and the beginning of the 18th centuries. At the end of 19 centuries
the Russian and Finnish expeditions were dispatched to Orkhon river (today’s
Mongolia) for the .bmp)
search and study of the monuments. Orkhon inscriptions are
found on the gravestones, stele and obelisks,
which describe the most important moments of life of the buried person. Next to
the obelisks are found the stone statues, which personify the main enemies
killed by the buried. Mainly, Uighur 
Orkhon inscriptions were created in the
time of Orkhon Uighur Qaghanate, which existed in 745-840. They are the Selenga
stone, Qarabalasaghun inscription, Sevrey stone,
Terkhin and Tesin inscriptions. In those inscriptions
we can find details on the history of the Qaghanate. Some samples of the Orkhon
runic in the Uighur language were also found in Eastern Turkestan.
But they are insignificant in number. The important fact is that so-called «Ancient
Turkic language» actually is divided into 2
languages – the language of Ancient Turkic Runic inscriptions
and the language of Ancient Uighur inscriptions. These two languages practically
are the same. Creators of the Ancient Uighur manuscripts in Eastern Turkestan in
one manuscript write, that they translated certain text from the certain
language into Turkic, and in others the same translators write, that they
translated the text into the Turkic Uighur language. (Shingko Seli-Tutung –
Altun Yaruq – Suvarnaprabhasa). Uighur interpreters, monks and
officials knew that the literary and linguistic tradition, which ascended to the
Runic obelisks on Orkhon river, was uninterrupted and continuous, irrespective
of change of religion and customs, and this tradition was related to the
creators of the first written texts who called their language Turkic.
Uighur script was created on the basis of
Sogdian cursive (italic) alphabet not later than the beginning of the 1st
millennium. The earliest work written in the Uighur
language in Uighur script “Huastuanift” –
“Penitential pray of Manicheists” was dated by the Soviet researcher
S.E.Malov the 5th century A.D. After having studied the Chinese
historical chronicles, Uighur historian Turghun Almas asserts, that Uighur
script came into the world several centuries before
Christ.
The Uighur alphabet consisted of 20
letters, including 5 vowel and 15 consonant graphemes. 3 out of 5 vowels denoted
2 sounds each, thus they reproduces 8 vowel sounds. 3 consonant graphemes
denoted 2 sounds each. Thus they reproduced 20 consonant sounds. Thus, the
alphabet, which consisted of 20 graphemes,
reproduced up to 30 phonemes. The spelling of the graphemes depends on their
location in a word, i.e. each letter is spelled differently in the beginning,
middle and the end of a word. The text in Uighur script was written vertically,
from above downwards. Uighur script, being
compact, reflected phonologic system of the language in the conditional form.
Therefore today the restoration of real phonation of the language elements is
very hard.
As it was already said before, the Uighur documents found in Eastern
Turkestan, mainly represent the translations of
religious texts, and also significant quantity of the economic and legal
documents. The religious texts including Buddhist, Manichean and Christian sutras,
tenets, descriptions of life of the Saints, etc. were translated from Sanskrit, Tokharian,
Chinese, Sogdian and other languages. The main
purpose of these documents was the distribution and strengthening of religion in
Eastern Turkestan, Mongolia, and also in China.
These documents are of particular importance for the researchers because many
works in the originals language have not reached us. They would have been
irrevocably lost, if there had not existed their translations in the Uighur
language. The legal documents included papers attesting sale and purchase, loan
of money and property, borrowing of cattle, rent of property, debt receipts,
etc. The economic documents comprised the orders and references of authorities
concerning economic activity of landlords and farmers.
Such documents were written not only by officials, but also
by ordinary people. It shows the high level of literacy among the Uighurs in the
Middle Ages, as every farmer could write.
As is known, the Mongols by the order of Genghis-khan adopted
the Uighur script in the 12-13th centuries through Uighur clerks,
administrative officials, and also khans’ children educators, who occupied
important positions at the court of the Mongolian khans. Plano Karpini, Guillom
de Rubruk and Marco Polo wrote about it in their travel notes when they visited
the Mongol Empire in the 13th century. In Mongolia this script is
still used though it is a little modified variant. In the time of Mongol dynasty
Yuan in China in 1260-1368 where the Uighurs also occupied important
administrative positions, the Uighur script was borrowed by the Manchu.
By the 7th century A.D. Buddhism lost its ground
in India, and in China it did not yet spread vastly. Thus in the 7-10th
centuries Eastern Turkestan became the world Buddhist center
with hundreds of Buddhist monasteries and thousand of monks. Buddhist monks and those
who wanted to follow Buddhism came into Eastern Turkestan
from all Central Asia and China to purchase religious books, to receive
enlightenment, and to participate in theological discussions. The demand for
books increased extremely and the old days’ method of book writing and
copying, which required large forces, expenses and time, could not satisfy the
demand. At this particular time in Turfan the
book printing by xylography was invented. Perhaps, it is not the accident that
the majority of Uighur manuscripts dated the 8-13th centuries was
found around town of Turfan, which was the pioneer of book printing. Some say,
that xylography is a Chinese way of book
printing. But they are mistaken, relating Turfan to China. Today Turfan is in
China, but in the time of the invention Turfan was not a part of China. It could
have been very difficult for the Chinese to introduce this way of book printing,
since the Chinese language is expressed on a paper by means of thousands of
hieroglyphs (characters). It is an infernal work to cut out thousands of tiny
hieroglyphs, which could have been destroyed after several printings. After that
it would have been necessary to cut them out again. According to T.F.Carter, the
Chinese written official chronicles do not indicate that the book printing was
invented in China. To compare, it is necessary to say, that in 
Europe the
xylography came into the world only in the 14th
century. The first printing press in Europe was invented by Joan Gutenberg in
Germany only in 1450. Thousands of books printed in Eastern Turkestan needed to
be stored somewhere. For this purpose, numerous libraries were built. Up to this day researchers discover documents, books and manuscripts of the
past in those libraries.
By the religious context the Uighur documents in Uighur
script are divided into 3 categories: the texts of Buddhist, Manichean and
Christian contents.
A minor part of the Uighur manuscripts discovered in Eastern
Turkestan were written on a wooden boards and sticks. But the majority of them was
written on a paper. Manufacture of paper in this region began approximately in
the beginning of the 2d century AD, first in Hotan and Qashqar, and later in
Turfan and Kuchar (the 4th century). Paper was produced of bark of
some trees (Broussonetia papyrifera, paper mulberry-tree).
In Aqsu area paper was produced of cotton. In the process of producing paper, it
was imbued with starch glue, then covered with a layer of plaster and polished.
To ensue the best preservation of paper, it was imbued with sap of flowers and
fruits of certain tree, which is called thumäk in Uighur (huay). It is
interesting that nowadays in Eastern Turkestan
local Uighur craftsmen produce paper by the
same way, as their ancestors long time ago.
Documents found in Dunghuang and dated the 18th
century are the last manuscripts in the Uighur language in Uighur script. By the
18th century, mainly the population of Eastern Turkestan had switched
to the Arabic alphabet. Only Buddhist clergy, who formed a stronghold in
Dunghuang, continued to use the same old Uighur script.
Script, which was used more than 700-800 years
not only by the Uighurs, but also by other Turkic and non-Turkic peoples, as
well as huge cultural and political influence
of the Uighurs in Central Asia fell into decay with arrival of Islam into the
region. As is known, Uighur khan Sutuq Bughra-khan adopted Islam in 932 and
since then the influence of the Arabic language, culture and arts on the peoples
who inhabited the region has steadily increased. Though in Turfan and Dunghuang
areas Buddhism and its influence remained unchanged up to the 14-15th
centuries.
Eastern Turkestan has been regarded by many scholars as the most mysterious spot on the planet. However, this region has not been sufficiently studied since the lack of resources and well-known attitude of the Chinese government towards foreign presence in the region erect insurmountable obstacles for researchers. Nowadays, the Uighur people who has created numerous invaluable monuments in literature and arts, who has influenced the development and evolution of other people and played an important role in the politics of the region, is being annihilated by the Chinese government policies. If the world continues to do nothing about it, this people will cease to exist.
Bibliography:
- Klyashtorny S.G., Ancient Turkic Manuscripts // Eastern Turkestan in
Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Moscow, 1992 (In Russian)
- Tugusheva L.Yu. Uighur Handwritten Book in Early Middle Ages //
Handwritten Book in Culture of Oriental Peoples, Moscow, 1988 (In Russian)
- Vorobyeva-Desyatkovskaya M.I., Handwritten Book in Central Asian in
Pre-Muslim Period // Handwritten Book in Culture of Oriental Peoples,
Moscow, 1988 (In Russian)
- Malov S.E., Ancient Turkic Manuscripts, Moscow-Leningrad, 1951 (In
Russian)
- Turghun Almas, The Uighurs, Volume 2, Almaty, 1994 (In Russian)
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