Editing Turpan (section)

===Uyghur rule===
In 803, the [[Uyghurs]] of the [[Uyghur Khaganate]] seized Turfan from the Tibetans.  The Uyghur Khaganate however was destroyed by the [[Yenisei Kirghiz|Kirghiz]] and its capital [[Ordu-Baliq]] in Mongolia sacked in 840.  The defeat resulted in the mass movement of the Uyghurs out of Mongolia and their dispersal into Gansu and Central Asia, and many joined other Uyghurs already present in Turfan. In the early twentieth century, a collection of some 900 Christian manuscripts dating to the ninth to the twelfth centuries was found by the [[German Turfan expeditions]] at a monastery site at Turfan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.soas.ac.uk/cwc/turfan/|title=The Christian Library from Turfan|publisher=[[SOAS, University of London]]|access-date=5 August 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814130024/http://www.soas.ac.uk/cwc/turfan/|archive-date=14 August 2014}}</ref>

==== Idikut kingdom ====
{{main|Qocho}}
[[File:Pranidhi_Scene,_Replica,_Turpan,_10th-12th_Century.jpg|thumb|left|[[Pranidhi]] scene, Turpan, 10th–12th century.]]

The Uyghurs established a Kingdom in the Turpan region with its capital in [[Gaochang]] or Kara-Khoja. The kingdom was known as the Uyghuria Idikut state or [[Kara-Khoja Kingdom]] that lasted from 856 to 1389&nbsp;AD. The Uyghurs were [[Manichaean]] but later converted to [[Buddhism]] and funded the construction of cave temples in the [[Bezeklik Caves]]. The Uyghurs formed an alliance with the rulers of [[Dunhuang]]. The Uyghur state later became a vassal state of the [[Kara-Khitans]] and then as a vassal of the [[Mongol Empire]]. This Kingdom was led by the Idikuts or Saint Spiritual Rulers. The last Idikut left Turpan area in 1284 for [[Hami|Kumul]] and then [[Gansu]] to seek protection of the [[Yuan dynasty]], but local Uyghur Buddhist rulers still held power until the invasion by the [[Moghulistan|Moghul]] [[Khizr Khoja]] in 1389.

====Turfan expeditions====
{{main|German Turfan expeditions}}

German scientists conducted archaeological expeditions, known as the [[German Turfan expeditions]], at the beginning of the 20th century (between 1902 and 1914). They discovered paintings and other art treasures that were transported to the [[Museum of Asian Art]] in [[Berlin]].

Artifacts of Manichaean and Buddhist provenance were also found in Turfan.<ref name="Gulácsi2005">{{cite book|author=Zsuzsanna Gulácsi|title=Mediaeval Manichaean Book Art: A Codicological Study of Iranian And Turkic Illuminated Book Fragments from 8th–11th Century East Central Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ikfnWtpbnyQC&q=turfan+mixing&pg=PA19|year=2005|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-13994-X|pages=19–|author-link=Zsuzsanna Gulácsi}}</ref> During World War II, many of these artifacts were destroyed or looted.<ref>From the Introduction by [[Peter Hopkirk]] in the 1985 edition of Von Le Coq's ''Buried Treasures of Chinese [[Turkestan]]'', p. ix–x.</ref>

====Turfan fragments====
[[Old Uyghur language|Uyghur]], [[Persian language|Persian]], Sogdian and Syriac documents have been found in Turfan.<ref name="TangWinkler2013">{{cite book|author1=Li Tang|author2=Dietmar W. Winkler|title=From the Oxus River to the Chinese Shores: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VYaMuV3N5vUC&q=turfan+mixing&pg=PA365|year=2013|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3-643-90329-7|pages=365–}}</ref> Turfan also has documents in [[Middle Persian]].<ref name="Paul2003">{{cite book|author=Ludwig Paul|title=Persian Origins--: Early Judaeo-Persian and the Emergence of New Persian : Collected Papers of the Symposium, Göttingen 1999|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DuKN47W68SkC&q=turfan+mixing&pg=PA1|date=January 2003|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-04731-9|pages=1–}}</ref>

All these are known as the Turfan fragments. They comprise a collection of over 40,000 manuscripts and manuscript fragments in 16 different languages and 26 different typefaces in different book forms. They are in the custody of the [[Berlin State Library]] where their study continues.

These writings deal with Buddhist as well as Christian-Nestorian, Manichaean and secular contents. The approximately 8,000 [[Old Turkic]] Buddhist texts make up the largest part of this.

A whole series of [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]] Buddhist scriptures were found in Turpan (and also in [[Dunhuang]]), but these date from the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907) and are translations from Chinese. Earlier Sogdian Buddhist texts could not be found.

Christian texts exist mainly in Syriac and Sogdian, but also as Syriac-Sogdian bilinguals (bilingual texts), as well as some Turkish-Nestorian fragments. They include fragments of Sogdian translations of works by [[Isaac the Syrian]].<ref>Pirtea, Adrian (2019). "Isaac of Nineveh, Gnostic Chapters," in ''Nicholas Sims-Williams, From Liturgy to Pharmacology: Christian Sogdian Texts from the Turfan Collection''. Berliner Turfantexte 45. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 117–44. (K4.39 mid to 46 beginning; parts of ch. 1.84–85, K1.16, 19)</ref><ref>Sims-Williams, Nicholas (2017). ''An Ascetic Miscellany: The Christian Sogdian Manuscript E28''. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 19–43.</ref>

Manichaean texts survive in Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian and Uyghur; the Sogdian and Uyghur documents show a notable adaptation to Buddhism, but there is also evidence of a reverse influence.

Important parts of the [[Gospel of Mani]] were found here, for example. Also, parts of the [[Arzhang]] (Book of Pictures), one of the holy books of Manichaeism were discovered.

Most of the Buddhist texts survive in only fragmentary form. There are several Indian [[Sanskrit]] texts from various schools of [[Mahayana]] and [[Hinayana]], Uyghur texts that are mostly translations from Sanskrit, Tocharian and, starting in the 9th century, increasingly from the Chinese.

Many of the Uyghur documents and fragments of Buddhist scriptures edited to date include didactic texts ([[sutras]]) and philosophical works (the [[abhidharma]]). In contrast to the other Buddhist contents, the monastic discipline texts (the [[vinaya]]) did not seem to be translated, but rather taught and studied in Sanskrit.<ref>[https://iranicaonline.org/articles/turfan-expeditions-2 Turfan expeditions] iranicaonline.org</ref>