The Turkish Yarkand documents

Bibliographic Data

ID2803421
AuthorsM Erdal (0000-0002-1604-4193, corresponding author)
Year1984
Volume47
Issue2
Pages260-301
Publication date1984-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0041-977X • E-ISSN: 1474-0699
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0041977x00037319
OpenAlexW2043580079
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited12

The land sale contracts of the late eleventh century published here are important for several reasons. First, they are the oldest known legal documents written in Turkish. Very many Uighur-Turkish civil documents were found in the more eastern parts of the Tarim basin, but none of those appear to be older than the thirteenth century. On the other hand, there are Central Asian legal documents in several non-Turkish languages from as early as the first centuries of our era. After the Turks had penetrated the area in alternately warlike and peaceful manner and become owners of land, they may have gone on using the local vernaculars for such purposes, as they adopted many other facets of local life. The present texts have a fairly rigid structure, but this should not be taken as an indication that they were preceded by a Turkish legal tradition: the Persian text of A.D. 1107 published by Minorsky (1942) shows a rather similar form, which may simply have been borrowed by the Turks. Formally, our documents differ from the non-Muslim deeds of land sale in Turkish, which appear to follow Chinese models; this also speaks against a common Turkish tradition. There is nothing surprising about this: the Turks were probably relatively new both to the area and the occupation

Ancient history · Archaeology · Eleventh · Geography · Islam · Linguistics · Nothing · Persian · Political science · Turkish · Byzantine Studies and History · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Law · Linguistics and Cultural Studies · Philosophy

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