- Central Asia, Study of Religions, Central Asian History (Area Studies), Syriac (Languages And Linguistics), Syriac Christianity, Central Asian Studies, and 107 moreSyriac Studies, Syriac literature, Central Asia (History), Pre-Islamic Iran, Medieval Islamic, Mongol world empire Seljuk, Mongol, post-Mongol, Ottoman Anatolia (1200-1500) Comparative empire, Frontier, political culture Persian, Manuscript Studies, Inner Asian History, Turkic Speaking Peoples, Codicology of medieval manuscripts, Cross-Cultural Interaction (History), Yuan Dynasty, History of the Mongol Empire, Il-qanate, Iranian Studies, Mongols, Turco-Iranian World, Ottoman Turkish historical writing, Khwarezmian, Khotanese, Late Antiquity, Sogdian Coins, Art and Archaeology, Turkic Speaking Nomads, Pahlavi / Middle Persian (Religion), Pahlavi, Bactria (Archaeology), Kushan art and architecture, Art History of Ancient Iran, Sasanian History, Turfan Texts, Turfan, Dunhuang, Sogdian, Chaghatay Turkic literature, Dunhuang_Ancient Khotan_ Buddhism, Old Turkic Culture, Archaeology of Central Asia, Old Turkic, Hellenistic Bactria, Sogdian art, Kushan history, Old Turkic, Old Uyghur, Sogdian Archaeology, Dunhuang manuscripts, Turkic Studies, Altaic Studies, Mongolic Studies, Turkic-Mongolic linguistic relationship, Gog and Magog, Nestorian Christianity, Nestorianism, Christianity in Central Asia, Central Eurasian Studies, Mongolian Studies, Mongol empire, Mongol Empire and Its Successors, Syriac, Syriac manuscripts, Aramaic/Syriac, Syriac Liturgy, Syriac Epigraphy, Syriac historiography, Church of the East theology, Church of the East, Assyrian church of the east, Middle Eastern Christianity, Persian Christianity, Silk Road Studies, Silk Road, Nestorius, Christianity in China, Sogdian Culture, Sogdiana, Central Asians/Sogdians in China, Sogdian Language, Uighur, Old Uighur, Ancient Turk and Uighur, Silk Road Archaeology, Archaeology of the Silk Road, Great Silk Road, History of the Silk Road, Tocharian, Turkic & Altaic Studies, Turkic Linguistics, Turkic languages, Timurids (Islamic History), Mongol and Timurid Period In the History of Iran, Mongol and Timurid period in the history of Iran, Central Asia, Turfan studies, Transoxiana, Bukhara Khanate, Samarkand, Bukhara, Samanids, Qarakhanids, Seljuks (Islamic History), Qara Khitai, Chaghatai Khanate, Chaghadaid Khanate, Nicholas Sims-Williams, and Eastern Christianityedit
- My research concerns the interaction between Syriac Christianity and the inhabitants of Central Eurasia (particularly... moreMy research concerns the interaction between Syriac Christianity and the inhabitants of Central Eurasia (particularly the Turkic peoples) between the 6th and 14th centuries. Of particular interest is the contrast between the historically multi-religious nature of Central Asia (including animism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Manichaeism and Islam) and the predominantly Christian and Semitic culture of Syriac speakers and writers.
My previous position (Apr. 2008-Sept. 2011) involved the cataloguing of approximately 500 Syriac manuscripts discovered in Turfan, Xinjiang Province, China in the early 20th century and now preserved in the Turfan Collection in Berlin. This is part of a larger project to catalogue some 1100 manuscripts in Syriac, Christian Sogdian and Christian Old Turkic from Turfan (http://www.soas.ac.uk/ceoc/turfan/).
My PhD dissertation (Cambridge, 2008), Turkāyē: Turkic Peoples in Syriac Literature prior to the Seljüks, explored how the Turkic peoples of Central Asia before the Seljük invasion of the Middle East in the 11th century are presented and perceived in published Syriac literature.
I have also written and spoken on such topics as 1) the role of the Syriac Psalter and other biblical and liturgical texts in Central Asia (particularly Turfan); 2) multilingualism and other characteristics of Christianity in medieval Central Asia; 3) Syriac gravestones and other Christian inscriptions discovered in Central Asia and 4) the ecclesiastical organization and structure of Syriac Christianity along the Silk Road.
The interaction between Syriac and Central Asian/Turkic culture can be examined from several angles. On the one hand, Syriac literature provides important insights on Eurasian steppe nomads, including the Turks, which can supplement references found in other literary traditions. On the other hand, Syriac texts and inscriptions from both the Middle East and Central Asia often give unique information on the spread of Christianity into the Turkic world and other parts of Asia.
Important research questions to be considered include:
1) How did Syriac writers view nomadic steppe peoples, including Turkic groups, and how did those perceptions change over time and in different sociopolitical contexts?
2) In their writings on Turkic peoples, to what extent were Syriac writers drawing on other literary traditions, especially Muslim and Byzantine literature, and to what extent were they innovative and even influential on those literatures?
3) What role did Syriac Christianity play in opening up corridors of interaction between the West and the East, including the propagation of Christianity amongst various Turkic tribes in Central Asia?
4) To what extent was the Christian message accommodated to Central Asian/Turkic culture and to what extent was it a decidedly foreign influence?
5) What do Syriac and Syro-Turkic manuscripts and inscriptions from Central Asia reveal about the faith and practice of Turkic peoples who converted to Christianity?
6) How did Central Asian Christians relate to other faith communities (animists, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Manichaeans and Muslims) in Central Asia between the 6th and 14th centuries?edit
Talk given by Zoom in the "Dunhuang & Silk Road Seminar Series" hosted by the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge on Thursday, March 10th, 2022 on the topic "Fragments of Lost Communities: Textual... more
Talk given by Zoom in the "Dunhuang & Silk Road Seminar Series" hosted by the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge on Thursday, March 10th, 2022 on the topic "Fragments of Lost Communities: Textual Remains from the Christians of Turfan."
The Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho, located in the Turfan oasis just north of the Tarim Basin in what is now the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, was an important regional player in Central Asia, from its establishment after the overthrow of the Uyghur Empire by the Kyrgyz in 840 up until the Mongol era, when Uyghurs played a key role in the Mongol Empire. Although Buddhism and Manichaeism were the two most important religions practiced in the kingdom, there were also a significant number of Christians in Turfan, as evidenced by the nearly 1100 Christian manuscript fragments in Syriac, Sogdian, Uyghur, Pahlavi (Middle Persian) and New Persian which were excavated by the Second and Third Prussian Turfan expeditions (1904-1907) and which are now housed in Berlin. After a brief overview of the Christian texts from Turfan, this talk will take a more in-depth look at some fragments of particular interest. In the process there will no doubt be various codicological rabbit trails to go down…
The Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho, located in the Turfan oasis just north of the Tarim Basin in what is now the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, was an important regional player in Central Asia, from its establishment after the overthrow of the Uyghur Empire by the Kyrgyz in 840 up until the Mongol era, when Uyghurs played a key role in the Mongol Empire. Although Buddhism and Manichaeism were the two most important religions practiced in the kingdom, there were also a significant number of Christians in Turfan, as evidenced by the nearly 1100 Christian manuscript fragments in Syriac, Sogdian, Uyghur, Pahlavi (Middle Persian) and New Persian which were excavated by the Second and Third Prussian Turfan expeditions (1904-1907) and which are now housed in Berlin. After a brief overview of the Christian texts from Turfan, this talk will take a more in-depth look at some fragments of particular interest. In the process there will no doubt be various codicological rabbit trails to go down…
Research Interests: Uyghur, Central Asia (History), Silk Road, Silk Road Studies, Codicology, and 14 moreSyriac Studies, Central Asia, Old Turkic, Syriac Christianity, Church of the East theology, Syriac literature, Sogdian, Uyghurs, Nestorianism, Old Turkic, Old Uyghur, Turfan Texts, Nestorian Christianity, Sogdian Culture, and History of the Silk Road
Three articles on Gog and Magog in Syriac Literature, in the recent collection Gog and Magog. Contributions toward a World History of an Apocalyptic Motif, ed. Georges Tamer, Lutz Greisiger and Andrew Mein (Berlin/Boston: Walter de... more
Three articles on Gog and Magog in Syriac Literature, in the recent collection Gog and Magog. Contributions toward a World History of an Apocalyptic Motif, ed. Georges Tamer, Lutz Greisiger and Andrew Mein (Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2023)
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This article discusses a number of medieval Christian gravestones, several with inscriptions in Syriac script, found at a medieval settlement near the village of Krasnaya Rechka, located in the Chu River valley in the northern part of... more
This article discusses a number of medieval Christian gravestones, several with inscriptions in Syriac script, found at a medieval settlement near the village of Krasnaya Rechka, located in the Chu River valley in the northern part of Kyrgyzstan. The archaeological context is described, including other Christian artefacts discovered in the vicinity, after which the discovery of the gravestones is narrated. Each of the six stones is described, including inscriptions on three of them, after which conclusions are drawn.
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This article attempts to locate the Christian metropolitanate of Nawākath mentioned by the Christian writer Ṣalībā ibn Yūḥannā in the fourteenth century by examining references to Nawākath in various Muslim authors writing between the... more
This article attempts to locate the Christian metropolitanate of Nawākath mentioned by the Christian writer Ṣalībā ibn Yūḥannā in the fourteenth century by examining references to Nawākath in various Muslim authors writing between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, as well as a Chinese travel itinerary from an eleventh century Chinese source.
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This unpublished addendum is intended to provide some additional information on the angelic names discussed in the article Syro-Uigurica III: Enochic Material in a Christian Text from Turfan.
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This article examines a fragmentary Christian text from Turfan written in Uyghur which contains an embedded Syriac magical text intended to be used for capturing a horse. After giving a transcription and translation of the Syriac passage... more
This article examines a fragmentary Christian text from Turfan written in Uyghur which contains an embedded Syriac magical text intended to be used for capturing a horse. After giving a transcription and translation of the Syriac passage and setting it in its literary context, including the role of amulets and other magical texts in the history of Syriac Christianity, the article discusses the angelic name Saraqael found in the Syriac extract, in an effort to trace the origins of the text. Excurses are given on the book of I Enoch and the Book of Giants, the first because the angelic name is found in it, the second because of its connections with the Aramaic and Central Asian cultural zones. The article then examines another text where the angelic name occurs, the Pishra de-Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa, before discussing possible links to other Syriac amulets and incantation bowls.
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Item ВДсэ-524 in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is an amulet scroll written in Syriac which was discovered by the Second German Turfan Expedition (1904-1905) and kept afterwards in the Museum of Ethnology (Museum für... more
Item ВДсэ-524 in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is an amulet scroll written in Syriac which was discovered by the Second German Turfan Expedition (1904-1905) and kept afterwards in the Museum of Ethnology (Museum für Völkerkunde) in Berlin. The artifact originates in the Turkic-speaking Christian milieu of the Turfan Oasis, probably from the Mongol period. The text, however, reflects a long tradition of magical literature that goes back to ancient Mesopotamia and can be categorised as a piece of apotropaic (protective) magic. The article contains an edition of the Syriac text with translation and a discussion of its place of discovery, its overall composition and specific words and expressions found in the text. The authors point out likely connections between the Hermitage amulet and the Turfan fragments SyrHT 274-276 kept in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz and briefly discuss its similarity with amulet H彩101 discovered in Qara Qoto by the 1983-1984 expedition of the Institute of Cultural Relics, Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences.
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Item ВДсэ-524 in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is an amulet scroll written in Syriac which was discovered by the Second German Turfan Expedition (1904-1905) and kept afterwards in the Museum of Ethnology (Museum für... more
Item ВДсэ-524 in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is an amulet scroll written in Syriac which was discovered by the Second German Turfan Expedition (1904-1905) and kept afterwards in the Museum of Ethnology (Museum für Völkerkunde) in Berlin. The artifact originates in the Turkic-speaking Christian milieu of the Turfan Oasis, probably from the Mongol period. The text, however, reflects a long tradition of magical literature that goes back to ancient Mesopotamia and can be categorised as a piece of apotropaic (protective) magic. The article contains an edition of the Syriac text with translation and a discussion of its place of discovery, its overall composition and specific words and expressions found in the text. The authors point out likely connections between the Hermitage amulet and the Turfan fragments SyrHT 274-276 kept in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz and briefly discuss its similarity with amulet H彩101 discovered in Qara Qoto by the 1983-1984 expedition of the Institute of Cultural Relics, Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences.
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Turkish translation of my "John of Ephesus on the Embassy of Zemarchus to the Türks" from "Central Eurasia in the Middle Ages. Studies in Honour of Peter B. Golden."
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Работа посвящена редкому типу археологических находок в сибирских музеях – кайракам. В настоящей статье предложена расшифровка эстампажей с двух кайраков, хранящихся в Омском историко-краеведческом музее, происходящих с несторианского... more
Работа посвящена редкому типу археологических находок в сибирских музеях – кайракам. В настоящей
статье предложена расшифровка эстампажей с двух кайраков, хранящихся в Омском историко-краеведческом музее,
происходящих с несторианского кладбища у города Пишпек, открытого Н.Н. Пантусовым в 1885 г.
статье предложена расшифровка эстампажей с двух кайраков, хранящихся в Омском историко-краеведческом музее,
происходящих с несторианского кладбища у города Пишпек, открытого Н.Н. Пантусовым в 1885 г.
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Title page and table of contents from the volume in which this article appears. Available for purchase from https://www.lit-verlag.de/publikationen/religionswissenschaft/73567/artifact-text-context
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An examination of the corpus of Syro-Turkic Christian gravestones found in
Inner Mongolia, with particular attention to their inscriptions. Text, translation, and a brief commentary are given for each Turkic inscription in Syriac script.
Inner Mongolia, with particular attention to their inscriptions. Text, translation, and a brief commentary are given for each Turkic inscription in Syriac script.
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Discussion of 10 gravestones in Syriac script originally unearthed in the Semirechye (Yetti Su) region of present-day Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and currently kept in museums in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Panjikent (Tajikistan) or Ashgabat... more
Discussion of 10 gravestones in Syriac script originally unearthed in the Semirechye (Yetti Su) region of present-day Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and currently kept in museums in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Panjikent (Tajikistan) or Ashgabat (Turkmenistan).
Research Interests: Christianity, History of Christianity, Central Asian Studies, Central Asia (History), Eastern Christianity, and 12 moreSyriac Studies, Central Asian History (Area Studies), Central Asia, Archaeology of Central Asia, Syriac Christianity, Central Asian Archaeology, Gravestones, Inscriptions, Church of the East, Syriac Epigraphy, History of Central Asia, and Christianity in Central Asia
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An analysis of the story of the 6th century embassy of Zemarchus to the Turks in the work of the Syriac historian John of Ephesus.
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Overview of the history of Christianity in Central Asia from the earliest reference in the works of Bardaisan to allusions in various sources to the final state of Christianity in the Timurid realm
Research Interests: Christianity, History of Christianity, Central Asian Studies, Central Asia (History), Eastern Christianity, and 9 moreSyriac Studies, Central Asian History (Area Studies), Central Asia, Syriac Christianity, Sogdian, Church of the East, History of Central Asia, Christianity in Central Asia, and Turkic & Altaic Studies
Text, partial translation & discussion of a Syriac Psalter transliterated into Old Uyghur script, contained in the Turfan Collection in Berlin. Due to contract restrictions, I am unable to upload a complete PDF of this article.
Research Interests: Christianity, History of Christianity, Central Asian Studies, Central Asia (History), Silk Road, and 17 moreSilk Road Studies, Eastern Christianity, Syriac Studies, Central Asian History (Area Studies), Peshitta, Book of Psalms, Central Asia, Old Turkic, Syriac (Languages And Linguistics), Syriac Christianity, Syriac literature, Old Turkic Culture, Church of the East, Turfan, Turfan Texts, History of Central Asia, and Christianity in Central Asia
Research Interests: Christianity, History of Christianity, Central Asian Studies, Central Asia (History), Silk Road, and 16 moreSilk Road Studies, Eastern Christianity, Syriac Studies, Central Asian History (Area Studies), Central Asia, Old Turkic, Syriac (Languages And Linguistics), Syriac Christianity, Syriac literature, Scribal Culture, Old Turkic Culture, Church of the East, Turfan, Turfan Texts, History of Central Asia, and Christianity in Central Asia
Research Interests: Central Asian Studies, Central Asia (History), Syriac Studies, Central Asian History (Area Studies), Central Asia, and 10 moreOld Turkic, Syriac Christianity, Syriac literature, Old Turkic Culture, Church of the East, Turfan, Old Turkic, Old Uyghur, Turfan Texts, History of Central Asia, and Christianity in Central Asia
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An overview of the use of Uyghur script to write Syriac texts in a few materials from Turfan
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Research Interests: Christianity, History of Christianity, Central Asian Studies, Central Asia (History), Eastern Christianity, and 12 moreSyriac Studies, Central Asian History (Area Studies), Central Asia, Archaeology of Central Asia, Syriac Christianity, Central Asian Archaeology, Gravestones, Inscriptions, Church of the East, Syriac Epigraphy, History of Central Asia, and Christianity in Central Asia
Sorry this dissertation is not available, as I am converting it into a book.
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This volume is a collection of ten articles published between 2009 and 2016 by Mark Dickens on the Church of the East in Central Asia, along with a new article on Mar Yahbalaha III, the only Turkic patriarch of the Church of the East.... more
This volume is a collection of ten articles published between 2009 and 2016 by Mark Dickens on the Church of the East in Central Asia, along with a new article on Mar Yahbalaha III, the only Turkic patriarch of the Church of the East. Most articles deal with the textual evidence for Syriac Christianity in Central Asia, including six on Christian manuscript fragments from Turfan (China) and two on gravestone inscriptions from Semirechye (Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan). As the volume title indicates, these articles remind us of the centuries-long presence of the Church of the East at the centre of the Asian continent, now all but forgotten due to the general scarcity of sources from which this history can be reconstructed. ISBN 978-3-643-91103-2
Research Interests: History of Christianity, Central Asian Studies, Eastern Christianity, Codicology, Syriac Studies, and 11 moreCentral Asia, Syriac Christianity, Syriac literature, Gravestones, Inscriptions, Nestorianism, Mongolian and Central Asian Studies, Syriac manuscripts, Turfan Texts, History of Central Asia, and Nestorian Christianity
Catalogue of all the Syriac texts in the Turfan Collection in Berlin. You can download a PDF directly from the publisher's website: https://rep.adw-goe.de/bitstream/handle/11858/00-001S-0000-0023-9AEC-4/793978807.pdf?sequence=1
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This book is a must read for all who deal with the history of Christianity in China and Central Asia. It will also be of interest to scholars of religion, experts in Chinese Buddhism, church historians, theologians and missiologists. It... more
This book is a must read for all who deal with the history of Christianity in China and Central Asia. It will also be of interest to scholars of religion, experts in Chinese Buddhism, church historians, theologians and missiologists. It is surely to become an indispensable English reference work when dealing with the Christian texts from Tang-era China.
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The first and only translation into Uzbek (that I am aware of) of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" - translated by Sanobar Karimova, my former Uzbek language teacher) and I and published in the Uzbek language journal "Jahon Adabiyoti" (World... more
The first and only translation into Uzbek (that I am aware of) of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" - translated by Sanobar Karimova, my former Uzbek language teacher) and I and published in the Uzbek language journal "Jahon Adabiyoti" (World Literature).
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Information on a talk I will be giving March 10, 2022