Abstract
In this article, I assemble the three Manichaean Sogdian texts discovered in Turfan which bear out the exchange between Sogdiana and Turfan during the tenth to early eleventh centuries. While the first one (Ch/U 6879) proves the importation of cotton cloth from Sogdiana, the other two [LM 20 1552 (23) of the Lushun National Museum and Bäzäklik Letter B] attest the regular correspondence between the Manichaeans of Samarqand and those of Turfan. The Manichaean New Persian texts discovered in Turfan are most likely to represent the literary works of the Manichaeans living in Samanid or Qarakhanid Samarqand. Bäzäklik Letter B was sent by a bishop (aftāδān) of the Manichaean community of the town of Tūdh near Samarqand to celebrate the New Year. The addressee was a Teacher Aryāmān Puhr staying in Turfan. Therefore, in the early eleventh century the Manichaeans of Samarqand were under the leadership of a možak or Teacher seated in the church of Turfan, possibly what is now called Ruin K. Finally, I dwell on the problems surrounding the so-called Manichaean Letters i and ii and argue that they are connected to the evacuation of Manichaeans from Mesopotamia reported by al-Nadīm as happening during the reign of al-Muqtadir (908–932 CE).
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Notes
- 1.
One may refer to E. de la Vaissiere, tr. J. Ward, Sogdian traders. A history, 2005 which has now become a standard work. The third revised edition of its French original, Histore des marchands sogdiens, has just appeared in 2016. One of the latest works is V. Hansen, The Silk Road. A new history, 2013. For us Japanese, T. Moriyasu, The Silk Road and the Tang Empire (in Japanese) is the most popular and informative.
- 2.
Rong Xinjiang’s article may be referred to: “Khotanese felt and Sogdian silver: Foreign gifts to Buddhist monasteries in 9th and 10th-century Dunhuang (in Chinese)”.
- 3.
For the exact dating of the Turfan Manichaean texts, one may refer to the so-called Manichaean calendars in Sogdian and Uighur. So far the following dates have been proposed: Sogdian, (1) M796 = 929–930 CE, (2) Otani 6191 = 932–933 CE, (3) M148 984–985 CE, (4) M5268 = 1000–1001 CE; Uighur, (5) Ch/U 6932 = 988–989 CE, (6) U495 = 989–990 CE, (7) No. 88 in the Tulufankaoguji of Xuang Wenbi = 1002–1003 CE. On the Sogdian texts, see Yoshida “Buddhist influence on the bema festival?”. For the Uighur calendars, see J. Hamilton “Calendriers manichéens ouïgours de 988, 989, et 1003”.
- 4.
Reck, op. cit., p. 282, no. 394 reads ẓm’š’n’ky. The two letters before k look very similar and Reck’s reading is equally possible. See also my comment on the spelling of δyn’’βr’’y below.
- 5.
On the three Manichaean Sogdian letters discovered from Bäzäklik and my studies on them, see Sect. 4.3.
- 6.
Reproduced in Zs. Gulácsi, Manichaean art in Berlin collections. Young monks wearing a flat hat are also seen in two different art objects, cf. Gulácsi, ibid., pp. 90, 204. Gulácsi remarks as follows: “… its (flat hat, Y.Y.) connection with a specific rank, geographic or ethnic group within the Manichaean church is uncertain”, cf. ibid., p. 204. Yet another word meaning “novice” is suggested in Sims-Williams and Durkin-Meisterernst, Dictionary of Manichaean Sogdian and Bactrian.
- 7.
See now also its English version Sims-Williams and Hamilton 2015.
- 8.
For the text and translation, see Appendix.
- 9.
It may also be compared with Skt. kaupīna, which is translated with Chin. kun 褌 “drawers”.
- 10.
In Sims-Williams and Durkin-Meisterernst, op. cit., p. 144a, prt is translated “roll of cloth” with a query and Lüders’s work is referred to. It is interesting to see that when prt is mentioned three times in this text, it is always accompanied by δyn’’βr’’y. Different textiles, cotton and silk, appear to have been employed, respectively, for novices and ordinary monks.
- 11.
Middle Chinese forms are cited from Karlgren 1957, Grammata Serica Recensa.
- 12.
wrn’ attested in medical texts, So 14822 and So 14842 (both unpublished), seems to be the same word.
- 13.
Professor T. Moriyasu drew my attention to the Uighur equivalent solmï böz “cotton cloth of (the country) Solmï or Qarašahr” found in Uighur letter.
- 14.
Cf. Trombert, ibid., p. 225.
- 15.
Nevertheless, every oasis city of Turkestan could have its own cotton cloth. Khotan was famous for its fine cotton cloth named ganchengxixie 紺城細緤 “fine cotton cloth of Gancheng or city of Phema”, cf. Rong Xinjiang, art. cit., p. 271.
- 16.
After line l, or the last line of the text a blank space of two short lines and several incomplete lines follow. However, only beginnings of words are left and their relationship to the main text is hard to see. Here in this article I omitted this part.
- 17.
Since either a name of a textile or dress is expected, p’n “table” does not seem to suit the context.
- 18.
The two expressions are encountered in the Bäzäklik letters to be discussed in the following section.
- 19.
For the three letters and my edition, see the next section.
- 20.
If this interpretation of mine is correct, it lends support to van Tongerloo’s understanding of ’δw wkry ’ncmn mentioned above. However, since the notion of two communities comprising clergymen and clergywomen is so common not only in Manichaeism but also in Buddhism (cf. erbuseng 二部僧 “two groups of monks consisting of male and female”), I stick to my understanding of the expression.
- 21.
In Letter B one reads xwt’w instead of xwβw.
- 22.
Cf. also pr xwβw ’yšwy-y δstwβry (Bäzäklik Letter B, 13–14) “one who has authority by (the help of) Lord Jesus”.
- 23.
Samarqand is referred to in one of the old inscriptions discovered in Kultobe, Kazakhstan. In the inscription the adjective is spelled symrkntc. On the employment of t instead of δ in this very early monument, see Sims-Williams, “From Aramaic to Manchu: Prehistory, life and after-life of the Sogdian script”.
- 24.
For the editions of these texts, see the following publications: (1) Ancient Letter II: Sims-Williams, “The Sogdian Ancient Letter II”; (2) Mug documents: V. A. Livshitz, Sogdian epigraphy of Central Asia and Semirech’e; (3) Ladakh inscription: Sims-Williams, “The Sogdian inscriptions of Ladakh”.
- 25.
Relevant passages from the three Islamic sources are collected and translated by J. Reeves.
- 26.
Reeves, ibid., p. 228.
- 27.
This is a somewhat enlarged version of my discussion published in the following article: Yoshida, “Manichaean Sogdian letters discovered in Bäzäklik”.
- 28.
Originally, the Manichaean month of fast fell on the first luni-solar month of the Chinese calendar. Letters A and B are in fact dated towards the end of each letter. While almost nothing is left from this part of Letter A, Letter B states that it was written on Monday the sixth day of the month of Pushnu (pwšnw) or the first luni-solar month. This dating is far from specific enough to find the exact year.
- 29.
The two inscriptions were driven into the ground when stupas were built and the names of donors were written on them. For the text and translation of the two inscriptions see.
- 30.
I now abandon my old reading Sarïγ Bars Tarqan (sryγ prs trx’n) in favour of Moriyasu’s Sarïγ Baš Tarqan.
- 31.
Moriyasu reads Ašmïš, but for the reading of Asmïš see Sims-Williams and Hamilton, Documents turco-sogdiens …, p. 59.
- 32.
On the other hand, as Sundermann argued, not only Buddhism spread but also Manichaean literature flourished in particular under the qaghan mentioned in Stake Inscription III, Kün Ay Tängridä Qut Bulmïš Uluγ Qut Ornanmïš Alpïn Ärdämin Il Tutmïš Alp Arslan Qutluγ Köl Bilgä Tängri Xan, and the Bäzäklik letters may possibly be considered against this historical background..
- 33.
This dating no doubt applies to the other five Manichaean Uighur letters, which were discovered with the Sogdian letters.
- 34.
Since the presence of Manichaeans in the Semirech’e area is suggested by the Uighur text just mentioned, Moriyasu and myself propose to identify Nawēkath with the city referred to as nwykt in a Mug document. The town called nwykt is generally believed to be the old name of today’s Krasnaya Rechka on the right bank of the Chu, cf. Livshitz, op. cit., p. 22 with note 3.
- 35.
This understanding of the area covered by Sugd is corroborated by Kāšγarī’s statement about Soγd: “They (= Soγdāq) are from Soγd which is between Bukhara and Samarqand”.
- 36.
idem., “Eine Re-Edition zweier manichäisch-soghdischer Briefe”, in: M. Macuch et al. (eds.), Iranian languages and texts from Iran and Turan. Ronald E. Emmerick memorial volume. The English translation of the two letters was published in D. Durkin-Meisterernst, “Was Manichaeism a Merchant Religion?”.
- 37.
As far as I can see, neither Henning nor Sundermann gives the basis for this dating.
- 38.
Sundermann himslef rejects this possibility on the ground that the language and the contents point to much older period.
- 39.
The text was re-edited by L. Clark, and Gulácsi cites Clark’s still unpublished translation in her recent work.
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Appendix
Appendix
-
1
Ledger of spring clothes given to the house workers (attached to a certain Buddhist temple) on the 14th of the 4th month in the 6th year of Tianbao era (=747 CE).
-
2
Changzhu, Daji, [ ]zi, [ ]nu (Given) to each of these four people one duan 段 (=28 feet) of cotton cloth for making a shirt; eight feet (of cotton cloth) for making (one pair of) drawers.
-
3
Sinu, Moru: Given to each of these two people one duan 段 of cotton cloth for making a shirt; (Given) to Sinu eight feet (of cotton cloth) for making (one pair of) drawers.
-
4
Given to Keseng one duan 段 of cotton cloth for making a shirt. Given to Huweizi one zhang 丈 (=10 feet) and two feet of cotton cloth for making (one pair of) trousers.
-
5
The above mentioned nine duans 段 of cotton cloth: For each duan 段 202 coins were spent; the cotton cloth was bought up and given away to the above mentioned house workers for making their spring clothes. This matter is recorded here. The monks are requested to give their signatures: (Signatures) Monk Wusheng, Monk (left blank), Monk Xuanzang, Monk Fazang, Monk Chenglian.
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Yoshida, Y. (2020). Relation Between Sogdiana and Turfan During the 10th–11th Centuries as Reflected in Manichaean Sogdian Texts. In: Li, X. (eds) Non-Han Literature Along the Silk Road. Silk Road Research Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9644-1_4
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