The Dalāʾil al-khayrāt in Central Asia and Eastern Turkestan

Recent discoveries and overlooked documents help us to understand the spread of the Dalāʾil al-khayrāt in a region stretching from the Tatar lands to the Tarim Basin, passing Bukhara and Kokand along the way. This paper by no means aims to provide a historical survey of al-Jazūlī’s prayer book in Central Asia. Rather, I introduce some leads for research on the basis of several manuscripts. A first issue is that of chronology and geography: terminus a quo, terminus ad quem, and the geographical extent of the book’s production and circulation should be revised. A second question regards the circuits of circulation: manuscript designs and illustrations reveal influences from various regions and an evolution in uses. A third lead consists in investigating the education: Sufi training and Qurʾanic institutions such as Dalāʾil-khānas played an important role, while Persian interlinear translations, reading notes in Chaghatay Turkish, and commentaries (sharḥs) suggest a complex reception process.

THE HISTORY OF POPULATION MIGRATION FROM EASTERN TURKESTAN IN THE FERGHANA REGION AT THE END OF THE XIX CENTURY

The article discusses the problem of the peoples of East Turkestan fleeing the oppression of the Chinese Manchus and moving to two regions of Central Asia: the 70s and the Fergana Valley.An independent state will be created in East Turkestan by the military leader and diplomat Yakubbek. After his death in 1877, a struggle for the throne began between his sons, which passed into the hands of the Chinese. The occupation of the Etishahr state led to a massive resettlement ofthe population to the Fergana Valley. As a result of migration, large numbers of ethnic Uyghurs migrated to the Fergana Valley and Uyghur villages emerged.

The Finds of Golden Horde Coins in India and China

Research objectives: The study of all known Golden Horde coin finds in India and China. Research materials: All the known coin finds of the Golden Horde in India and China in the context of published coin finds (the research of Ch.J. Rodgers, M.A. Stein, and others). Results and novelty of the research: The author, for the first time ever, summarized the information about Golden Horde coin finds from these two countries. All Golden Horde coins from China and a portion of Golden Horde coins from India (Indian museum) were minted in Khwarazm. There is numismatic catalogue of Islamic coins from the Calcutta Museum where it is possible to find information about Golden Horde coins from the collection of the museum. Any information about finds of these coins is absent in this publication. However, it is most probable that these coins were found in India because the numismatic collections of such local museums were created practically only from local finds. The Golden Horde coins from the Calcutta Museum collection are mainly silver dirhams of the fourteenth century from Khwarazm, but there are also several coins from Lower Volga region. Probably, the Golden Horde coins went to India and China via Khwarazm. The materials published in the article gives archaeological evidence about close trade routes between Khwarazm on one end and India and Eastern Turkestan on the other end. The peak activity on these trade routes is dated to the second half of fourteenth century (mainly the coins of Uzbek and Janibek Khan of the Golden Horde). At the end of fourteenth century, the most important cities of the Golden Horde were in decline or ceased to exist as a result of Timur’s campaigns against it. The main trade routes between East and West shifted towards the south and stopped passing through the territory of the Ulus of Jochi. Not a single specimen of the finds is dated to the fifteenth century.

An Unpublished Fragment SI 4645 of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra from the Serindia Collection of the IOM, RAS

The article provides a study of a newly discovered manuscript fragment from the Serindia Collection (IOM, RAS), containing the Sanskrit text of the Lotus Sutra. Currently, the group of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra manuscripts from the Serindia Collection comprises 28 items. Some folios and fragments among them remain unpublished. The goal of the article is to introduce to the specialists a previously unpublished fragment of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra. This manuscript fragment is preserved in the Oldenbourg sub-collection (part of the Serindia Collection), call mark SI 4645. According to the documents from the IOM RAS archive, this fragment was acquired by Serguei F. Oldenbourg in Kizil-Karga during his first expedition to Eastern Turkestan (1909-1910). The text of the manuscript is an excerpt from the 4th chapter of the Lotus Sutra, which contains “The Parable of the Prodigal Son”. The article provides facsimile reproduction of the fragment SI 4645 accompanied by transliteration and translation into Russian. It also outlines the physical features of the manuscript, provides a brief description of the text of the fragment SI 4645 and offers its comparison with the other well-known texts of the Lotus Sutra. The comparison of the fragment with several texts representing two Sanskrit “editions” (versions) of the Lotus Sutra shows that the fragment SI 4645 stands closer to the Gilgit-Nepalese “edition” of the Sutra, while the majority of the Lotus Sutra manuscripts from the Serindia Collection reveal features of the Central Asian “edition”.