Old Uyghur: Yarkand Collection at SOAS, Turki 4+5 (Erdal Doc. I)
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Details

Details

Turki 4+5 (Erdal Doc. I)
Yarkand Collection at SOAS
Unknown
Gold (given following external peer review through journal/book publication)
Old Uyghur (Old Uyghur script)
Legal
Legal: Sale

Physical Description

paper
Single folio, recto and verso, some tears and holes
12
horizontal
ca. 12 horizontal fold lines

Content

The land sale contracts of the late eleventh century published here are important for several reasons. First, they are the oldest known legal documents written in Turkish. Very many Uighur-Turkish civil documents were found in the more eastern parts of the Tarim basin, but none of those appear to be older than the thirteenth century. the Persian text of A.D. 1107 published by Minorsky (1942) shows a rather similar form, which may simply have been borrowed by the Turks. Formally, our documents differ from the non-Muslim deeds of land sale in Turkish, which appear to follow Chinese models; this also speaks against common Turkish tradition. What we have here are also the oldest specimens of Muslim-Turkish writing. Our documents throw some light on the introduction of Arabic writing customs and lexical material into Turkish.

Dates

  • The Gregorian calendar: September-October 1080 (Estimated date range: 1080-09-25-1080-10-23)
  • The Hijri calendar: Rabīʿ II 473 (0473-04)

People

  • ʿAli b. Bäk Tüzün (ʿAli)
  • Aḥmad Arslan b. Bäk Tüzün (Aḥmad Arslan)
  • İsḥaq (Master İsḥaq)
  • Bughra Bäk
  • B. Tuthun
  • Bughra ögä
  • Ḥasan (Master Ḥasan "the Tall One")
  • Mūsā b. ʿAlī Muḥammad-chi
  • Yaʿqūb b. Yūsuf "the Ferry-Man"
  • Ḥasan b. Elig Murad
  • ʿAlī b. Yahudi Yalu
  • ʿAlī (ʿAlī the younger brother of Master Säli the cotton-carder)
  • Muḥammad (Muḥammad the younger brother of Master Säli)
  • ʿAlī (ʿAlī "the Persian", ... of Aḥmad)

Publications

  • Erdal, Marcel. "The Turkish Yarkand Documents." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 47/2, 1984. pp. 260-310 (Pages: 269-277, pls. I, II)

Related Shelfmarks

IEDC Data

153
17/06/2024
24/02/2025

Citations

Mateen Arghandehpour
All text has been taken from the publication, formatting has been changed to match IEDC style
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https://www.invisible-east.org/corpus/153/
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Contact

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Folios
1. recto
Tags
Transcription
Translation
2. verso
Tags
Translation
Transcription
Folio:

[See publication]

Translation
Folio:

[Line numbers and formatting have been revised in the IEDC]

1 The names of the witnesses have been noted at the
2 lower part of this document. The witnesses give
3 conscious testimony. I, commander
4 Bäk Tüzün's son, the veteran commander ʿAlī
5 (and) I, commander Bäk Tüzün's son Aḥmad
6 Arslan, we two, being clear of mind, free of illness
7 and sound of body, our
8 mental powers being unimpaired, acknowledge:
9 I, commander ʿAli (and) I, Aḥmad
10 Arslan have sold Master Isḥaq a piece of
11 land in Rabul for 800 yarmaqs.
12 The half of this amount is 400 yarmaqs.
13 We have sold this land, with its four boundaries,
14 [to] Master Isḥaq. There will, after us, be
15 no litigation or legal trick by our sons, our daughters, our wives, our family or by anybody.
17 Whoever, not being satisfied, starts litigation,
18 (that) is null and his witnesses are false. The first [boundary] of this land is

[Line numbers and formatting have been revised in the IEDC]

1 the land which Buġra bäg sold; the second
2 boundary is the mill-race; the third boundary
3 is the land of B. tuδun; the fourth boundary
4 is Buġra ögä's (?) [land.
5                 In the year 473,
6 in a mouse year, in the month of rabi' al-āḫir, this
7 document was drawn up. For the contents of this document
8 I, Master Ḥasan the tall one, am witness. I, Mūsā
9 the son of ʿAlī Muḥammad-či, am witness. I, Yaʿqūb the son
10 of Yūsu[f] the ferry-man, am witness. Ḥasan the son
11 of Elig Mura[d] (?) am witness. I, [ʿA]lī  the sond of Yahudi
12 (?) Yalu, am witness. ʿAlī, the younger brother of Master Säli the cotten-carder, am
13 witness. Muḥammad, the younger brother of Master Säli,
14 I, ʿAlī the Persian, ... of Aḥmad, am witness
15                          ... am witness
16            ... the son of ... am
17                ... witness ... the son of ...
18            ... am witness
Old Uyghur: Yarkand Collection at SOAS, Turki 4+5 (Erdal Doc. I): Folio (recto)
Old Uyghur: Yarkand Collection at SOAS, Turki 4+5 (Erdal Doc. I): Folio (verso)
Images courtesy of Yarkand Collection at SOAS