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VIII. Dr. Stein's Turkish Khuastuanift from Tun-huang, being a Confession-prayer of the Manichæan Auditores

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

European science is indebted to Dr. M. A. Stein's industry for the remarkable document here published. It is one of the many valuable MSS. which fell to his lot through the partial acquisition in 1907 of an ancient library discovered, by a Chinese priest, in one of the Buddhist cave temples of the “Halls of the Thousand Buddhas” to the south-east of the Tun-huang oasis, as described by him in the Geographical Journal for September, 1909. Its excellent state of preservation, and the fact of its being written in the clear unequivocal letters of the Manichæan alphabet, renders this MS. a most valuable help to all interested in the study of the ancient Turkish speech in which it is edited.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1911

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References

page 277 note 1 [The MS. which now bears the number Ch. 0015 was found mixed up in a bundle with Chinese manuscript rolls, mainly containing Buddhist texts. It is rolled on a stick of hard close-grained wood, about 4⅝ inches long and ¼ inch thick, with broader knobs at the ends. The paper is tough and stout, with a very smooth surface, apparently sized; in appearance it seems to resemble the paper of certain dated Chinese MSS. of the T'ang period discovered in the same library.—M. A. Stein.]

page 278 note 1 Here are some instances of varying spellings: äki and iki, igid and (the presumably older) igidd; ïγαč and (presumably older) 'ïγαč, ičrä and 'črä.

page 278 note 2 For these cf. n. 49; in our more carefully written MSS. clerical errors are commonly blotted out by an application of opaque white colour, on which the correction is carefully entered.

page 279 note 1 Cf. Le Coq, A. v., “Ein christliches und ein manichäisches Manuscriptfragment in türkischer Sprache (aus Turfan)”: Sitzber. d. kgl. Preuss. Akad. d. W., xlviii, 1909Google Scholar.

page 279 note 2 For the importance assigned by the Manichæans to repentance cf. Baur, Das manichäische Religionssystem, Tübingen, 1831, p. 262Google Scholar.

page 283 note * This whole passus (11. 1–8) differs somewhat from the Berlin MS. The word suv (being destroyed in the Berlin text also) is a suggestion of the editor.