Written
Monuments
of the Orient
2(4) 2016
Issued twice a year
Selected materials as a *.PDF file
Nikolai Pchelin, Simone-Christiane Raschmann. Turfan Manuscripts in the State Hermitage — a Rediscovery — 3
Abstract: The article presents the results of a close cooperation of colleagues from the
State Hermitage and the Göttingen Academy of Sciences (Union Catalogue of Oriental
Manuscripts). 23 fragments of manuscripts and block prints in five different languages
(Chinese, Old Uighur, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Syriac) are described in detail. Almost all
of them could be identified. They stem from the four German Turfan expeditions (1902–
1914) and were housed in the Museum für Völkerkunde (Berlin) for exhibition reasons,
i.e. they belong to the most important findings of these expeditions. Nevertheless some
of these fragments have never been published before. For a long time it was thought that
they belong to the losses during World War II. Now they have been re-discovered in the
depot of the State Hermitage. In the appendix an Old Uighur fragment of the Säkiz Yükmäk
Yaruk is edited. It belongs to the re-discovered texts and was known up-to-now only
from some quotations in an early edition.
Key words: State Hermitage, German Turfan expeditions, Museum für Völkerkunde
(Berlin), manuscript, block print, scroll, folded book, amulet, illumination, Chinese, Old
Uighur, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Syriac, Säkiz Yükmäk Yaruk
Ogihara Hirotoshi, Ching Chao-jung. SI 3656 and other Kuchean tablets related to the Kizil grottoes in the St. Petersburg Collection — 44
Abstract: This paper introduces five wooden tablets written in Kuchean (Tocharian B)
and kept in the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, Russian Academy of Sciences (IOM,
RAS), namely SI 3656 (SI P/136в), 3669 (SI P/139д), 6385 (SI Strelkov-D/3), 1931
(SI Strelkov-D/51) and 6456 (SI Strelkov-D/85). THT4063, an unedited tablet kept in
Berlin, the text of which is largely parallel with SI 6456, is also introduced here.
According to the joint authors’ investigation, which has been ongoing since 2009, these
tablets are economic and administrative documents, and some of their features are comparable
with the Kuchean sale contract THT4001. The severely damaged SI 1931 is particularly
valuable because it proves that three currencies circulated in pre-Tang Kucha.
Together with THT4063, the other four tablets are closely related to the Yurpāṣka Monastery,
which is repeatedly mentioned in the findings from the Kizil grottoes as well as
the graffiti surviving there. Therefore, the content of these tablets helps scholars to restore
the history of this important Buddhist site as well as the activity of foreign expeditions
in Chinese Turkestan.
Key words: Kucha, Tocharian, Kizil, Buddhism, Central Asia
Li Gang, Matsui Dai. An Old Uighur Receipt Document Newly Discovered in the Turfan Museum — 68
Abstract: This article introduces an Old Uighur document, which had been excavated
seemingly in the Bezeklik Caves and was recently re-discovered in the Turfan Museum. It
is supposed to be a receipt for the payment of the poll tax (qupčir) of the Mongol period,
and to be closely related to the Old Uighur administrative orders of the St. Petersburg
collection (SI 6544).
Key words: Old Uighur document, Turfan, receipt, taxation, qupchir, Mongol Empire
Ekaterina Shukhman. Hebrew Palaeotypes in the Collection of the St. Petersburg IOM, RAS — 76
Abstract: The present paper is actually a review of Hebrew palaeotypes (i.e. books printed
in a Hebrew font between January 1, 1501 and January 1, 1551) kept at the IOM,
RAS. It gives a brief description of the ways in which the collection was formed along
with the numbers and genres of the books, while also identifying particularly noteworthy
items.
Key words: Palaeotypes, publishing, Hebrew literature, incunabula, the Friedland collection,
16th-century printing houses
Reviews
M. Sergeev. Theory of Religious Cycles: Tradition, Modernity, and the Baha’i Faith. Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2015. — 161 p. Value Inquiry Book Series. Contemporary Russian Philosophy. Ed. by R. Ginsberg, L. Donskis. Vol. 284, by Youli A. Ioannesyan — 89
Bodies in Balance. The Art of Tibetan Medicine. Ed. by Theresia Hofer. Rubin Museum of Art, New York & University of Washington Press, Seattle and London 2014. ISBN-13: 978-0-295-99359-1 (hardcover), by Alexander Zorin — 95
Peng Xiang-qian 彭向前. Xi xia wen “Mengzi” zhengli yanjiu 西夏文 ≪孟子≫整理研究 (The complex study of the Tangut translation of the Mengzi). Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2012. — 295 p., by Tang Jun, Yu.S. Mylnikova — 102