Editing Turpan (section)

====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>