Syriac, Sogdian and Old Uyghur Manuscripts from Bulayïq e79e Syriac, Sogdian and Old Uyghur Manuscripts from Bulayïq * Erica C.D. Hunter Department for the Study of Religions, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, The German Turfan Expedition conducted 4 campaigns at the Turfan Oasis between 1902 and 1914 bringing 40,000 fragments in 20 scripts and 22 languages back to Berlin. During the 2 nd and 3 rd seasons (1904 – 1907), a library was unearthed at the monastery site of Shuïpang near Bulayïq yielding ca.1100 fragments written in Syriac script and covering 3 major languages: Syriac, Sogdian and old Uyghur. Several fragments in New Persian and a Middle Persian (Pahlavi) Psalter were also found [1] . Small quantities of Christian texts, in Syriac, Sogdian, Uyghur and Persian, were discovered at other sites in the Turfan oasis (Astana, Qocho, Qurutqa and Toyoq). Regrettably, there are scant remarks about the excavation of the archive by Theodor Bartus at Bulayïq, north of the city of Turfan, a site which von Le Coq had previously visited. Talking about his colleague’s visit, von Le Coq stated in his book Auf Hellas Spuren in Ostturkistan: “er hat ... in dem schauerlich zerstörten Gemäuer eine fabelhafte Ausbeute christlicher Handschriften ausbegraben” (he excavated ... in the extremely ruined walls an amazing Christian manuscript”) [2] . The Syriac - script fragments from Turfan shed invaluable light onto the eastward missionary expansion of the Church of the East whose dioceses extended into Central Asia, China and Mongolia up till the 14th century, not only attesting the nature and expression of worship (liturgy etc) that was conducted, but also revealing how this branch of Eastern Christianity interacted with the local languages and cultures of its diverse congregations. As well as the Christian manuscripts in the Turfan collection, 97 Syriac fragments were brought back to St. Petersburg by N. N. Krotkov, the Russian consul at Urumqi [3] . A few Christian manuscript fragments were also recovered from two other sites in western * The author extends her thanks to the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussicher Kulturbesitz for access to and permission to reproduce images of the relevant fragments. All images are copyright from Depositum der Berlin Brandenburgischer Akademie der Wissenschaften in der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Orientabteilung. Low resolution images of the Syr HT signature numbers are avail- able on the International Dunhuang Project website (http:id.bl.uk/ enter the signature number in the search box). [1] Plate 1: The monastery site of Shuïpang near Bulayïq. [2] Albert von Le Coq, Auf Hellas Spuren in Ostturkistan (Leipzig: 1926), p.88. [3] E. N. Meshcherskaya, “The Syriac Fragments in the N. N. Krotkov Collection”, in Ronald E. Emmerick et al. ed., Turfan, Khotan Und Dunhuang, Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1996, pp.221 – 227. These fragments currently remain uncatalogued and unpublished. ࢃϘᆁ᱇ θᵍᵣ