Opinions on the Turks’ Turkic Translation Activities in the Period of Taspar Qagan ACTA VIA SERICA Vol. 3, No. 2, December 2018: 151–160 doi:10.22679/avs.2018.3.2.008 There is a variety of opinions about the frst translation activities within the Turkic Empire. It is widely believed that some Buddhist sutras were translated into the Turkic language in the period of Taspar Qagan (572-581). This theory is based on certain arguments: Some Turks practiced Buddhism, Buddhist monks translated sutras in the center of the Turkic Empire, Taspar brought sutras from China and had them translated, and the monarch of Northern Qi had a sutra translated and sent to Taspar. However, in my opinion, these arguments lack credibility. This article, which is based on primary Chinese sources, will question the likelihood of such translation activities having occurred. Some Chinese records for these claims exist: Da Tang Nei Dian Lu (大唐內 典錄) and Xu Gao Seng Chuan (續高僧傳) by the Buddhist monk Jinagupta and the records of Hui Lin in Sui Shu (隋書) and Wen Xian Tong Kao (文獻 通考). These are known as “primary sources.” Secondary sources, namely contemporary history and language studies, such as those in books and articles, must be based on primary sources. It can be seen that claims relating to the frst Turkic translation activities at the time of Taspar are mainly derived from secondary sources, and that the arguments in these secondary sources vary. Sometimes researchers make suppositions on the existence of information that is not referred to in primary sources. However, this is not normal practice. If a researcher relies on unknowns for the evidence of information existing, it can cause false information, ideas and anachronisms KÜRŞAT YILDIRIM (kursatyildirimtr@yahoo.com) is an associate professor in the History Department, the Faculty of Letters at Istanbul University. * This article has been supported by a project of Istanbul University (BEK-2016-21401). KÜRŞAT YILDIRIM