ARCHIV ORIENTÁLNÍ 83, 2015 • 53 Sogdian Christian Texts: Socio-Cultural Observations Barakatullo Ashurov ORTHOGRAPHY: A SYMBOL OF IDENTITY All Sogdian Christian texts known today were discovered  1 at the ruin of Shüi- pang, near the modern-day town of Bulayïq, located 10 km north of Turfan, China, and a small number were found in the Dunhuang area. 2 Collectively numbering about 600 fragments, the Sogdian Christian texts include a broad assortment of literary genres. The Iranian manuscripts in Syriac script in the Berlin Turfan collection catalogue edited by Sims-Williams designate the following categories: 3 1. Biblical texts in the Sogdian Christian corpus are represented by Gospel and Epistle passages surviving in lectionary fragments. From the Old Testament 1 The texts were discovered during the four campaigns by the German Turfan Expedition, led by Albert Grünwedel and Alber von le Coq between 1902 and 1914. Consequently, the majority of manuscripts are at present held in Germany in the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, with smaller collections being housed in the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz and in the Museum für Indische Kunst. For a brief history of German archaeological expeditions in Turfan, see: Zhang and Xinjiang, “A Concise History of the Turfan Oasis and Its Exploration,” 13−37. 2 On the Bulayïq monastery, where most of the Christian manuscripts were found, see Sims- Williams, “Bulayïq,” 545. The initial record of the discovery of Christian manuscripts at Bulayïq is found in Albert von Le Coq, Buried Treasures of Chinese Turkestan: An Account of the Activities and Adventures of the Second and Third German Turfan Expeditions, 100−101. The question of the nature and a historical sketch of Christianity in the Turfan Oasis have been addressed in Hage, “Das Christentum in der Turfan-Oase,” 46−57 and Sims-Williams, “Christianity in Central Asia and Chinese Turkestan,” 43−61. For a discussion of the Christian manuscripts discovered in Dunhuang, see Sims-Williams and James Hamilton, “Documents Turco-Sogdiens du IXe-Xe siècle de Touen-houang,” 51−76 as well as Klein and Tubach, “Ein Syrisch-Christliches Fragment aus Dunhuang/China,” 1−13. It is also thought that some of the Sogdian Christian texts of the Turfan collection were found in Qočo and Toyoq. 3 Sims-Williams, “Iranian manuscripts in Syriac script in the Berlin Turfan collection,” 2012. For the recent publication of some individual texts, including the Psalter, see Sims-Williams, “Biblical and other Christian Sogdian texts from the Turfan collection,” 2014. In addition, the detailed overview of the Christian literature in Middle Persian and Sogdian can be found in Sims-Williams, “Christian literature in Middle Iranian languages,” 266−87. A general survey of the Christian manuscripts in various languages, including Sogdian, discovered at Turfan and Dunhuang is also given in Dickens, “Multilingual Christian Manuscripts from Turfan,” 22−42, Dickens, “The Syriac Bible in Central Asia,” 92−120. ArOr – Issue 83.1 ISSN 0044-8699 © 2015 Oriental Institute (ASCR), Prague