MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Visualization of the Heavens

© Depositum der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin—Preußischer Kulturbesitz Orientabteilung. Shelf no. U 496 (T III M 190).

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Objects Revealed: Unveiling Astral Manuscripts from the Berlin Turfan Collection
How is a collection of texts found in Central Asia related to astral knowledge?

On June 13, 2024 we had the unique opportunity to visit the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (BBAW)) to explore the Turfan Collection. This remarkable collection consists of texts found around the Turfan oasis in East Turkestan (Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, People’s Republic of China), which were brought to Germany by the German Turfan Expeditions between 1902 and 1914. Various cultural and religious communities, including Buddhists, Manichaeans, and Christians, played a role in creating these texts, which were written in more than twenty languages and scripts. The primary focus of the long-term Academy Project “Turfan Studies” is the editing of the Turkish and Iranian part of the fully digitized Berlin Turfan Collection.

Our visit, part of the “Objects Revealed” series, centered on texts from the Turfan Collection that relate to astral knowledge—the main interest of our Working Group (VoH). Professor Abdurishid Yakup graciously provided a comprehensive overview of pre-14th-century astral texts written in various scripts in Central Asian languages from the collection. We examined a wide variety of bilingual texts on topics such as eclipses and calendars, but illustrations were in particularly short supply.

man wearing glasses holding manuscript while presenting

Prof. Abdurishid Yakup

Following his presentation, Dr. Christiane Reck, a Research Fellow at the BBAW, provided an introduction to Middle Iranian and Sogdian astrological texts.

woman holding two manuscripts while presenting

Dr. Christiane Reck

Professor Peter Zieme, a senior researcher and leading Turkologist at the BBAW, discussed two significant astrological texts on the twenty-eight nakshatras (lunar mansions in Hindu astrology) and an Arabic text in the Sogdo Uyghur script—an extraordinary discovery among the manuscripts from Dunhuang and Turfan.

man holding manuscript while presenting

Prof. Peter Zieme

It was an incredible experience to not only learn about these manuscripts but also to see and handle them firsthand. We gained a deep appreciation for the challenges of reading and interpreting these texts as many of them are at least bilingual and are written in different formats. And most importantly most of the texts have survived only in fragmentary form.

script preserved between glass

Omen text with drawings, Depositum der Berlin Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin—Preußischer Kulturbesitz Orientabteilung. Shelf no. M556.

We are grateful to the three colleagues who organized such an informative and inspiring presentation on the Turfan collection’s material related to astral knowledge. In the following interview, Prof. Yakup, an expert in Turfan studies, Old Uyghur and Turkish languages, offers an overview of the manuscripts and shares his insights into their significance. His passion for these texts, which began in the 1990s, has evolved into a deep appreciation and expertise in the multidisciplinary study of these texts, which were found by chance in the Turfan oasis in a poor condition.

The follwing scholars presented during the event: 

 

Prof. Dr. Abdurishid Yakup, Research Fellow at the BBAW and PI of the German Research Foundation (DFG) funded project

“The Prints and Printing Culture of the Old Uyghurs on the Northern Silk Road”

 

Prof. Peter Zieme, Senior Researcher at the BBAW

“The Study of Old Uyghur Documents Discovered in Dunhuang and Turfan”

 

Dr Christiane Reck, Research Fellow at the BBAW

“Sogdian Texts with Manichaean Content”

In conversation with Abdurishid Yakup

 

What initially sparked your interest in the Berlin Turfan Collection at the BBAW?

My interest in the Manichaean texts, one of the earliest sources of the Old Uyghur language, and in Uyghur linguistic history was the main reason for my visit to the Berlin Turfan Collection at the BBAW in early 1995. Later, the great achievements of the scholars who worked on these texts and their very positive personalities deepened my interest in the texts and this piece of scholarship, Turfanforschung, or Turfan Studies.

 

What aspects of these manuscripts do you find particularly intriguing or significant in relation to astral knowledge? Could you describe one or two objects from your June 13, 2024, presentation and/or compare them in simple terms?

The multilingual and multicultural nature of the astrological texts in the Berlin Turfan collection is a significant factor in our understanding of the source of astral knowledge and the direction of its transmission, from West to East and from East to West. The Old Uyghur text U 494, which illustrates twenty-seven nakshatras, presents the names of nakshatras in Uyghur-Sanskrit form, which was introduced from Sanskrit via the medium of Tokharian, as known from the Berlin Turfan texts. The blockprinted text U 496 presents an Old Uyghur translation of a Chinese apocrypha with a clear Daoist background. The names of the stars in this text are presented in two different forms: firstly in Chinese, and secondly in Old Uyghur translations.

 

From a digital humanities perspective, how do you see technology and innovation advancing the study of such manuscripts?

The digitization of all texts in the Berlin Turfan texts began in 1995. Now all texts are available in digital form in the DTA. VATEC is an electronic database of pre-Islamic Old Turkic texts that was created between 1999 and 2005. Phase-contrast X-ray radiology and hyperspectral imaging and scanning can help to decipher damaged manuscripts; AI will certainly help to build a more comprehensive multilingual corpus of texts.

 

Could you share with us a memorable or humorous experience from your interactions with these objects during your research?

The decipherment of each Turfan fragment has its own memorable story. The first time I saw a text in the original I was so excited that I wanted to read it immediately, and I quickly made a transcription. Later, I found that the sentences were not well connected, and I realized that I was reading from the opposite direction, from right to left, although I am well aware that Old Uyghur texts are usually read from left to right. It is fascinating to see that Professor Zieme has found texts where the text is read from right to left. This shows how diverse and varied Old Uyghur texts can be.

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