Erica C D Hunter: THE CHRISTIAN LIBRARY AT TURFAN: MEDIEVAL CHRISTIANITY IN WESTERN CHINA (9C - 12C)

Between 1902 and 1914, more than a thousand manuscripts written in Syriac-script and covering Syriac, Christian Sogdian and Christian Old Uighur were discovered in the Turfan oasis (Sinkiang Uighur autonomous province, China) principally at the monastery site of Shüipang near Bulayïq. These manuscripts were brought back to Berlin where they are housed in various repositories (Staatsbibliothek, the Turfanforschung and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Dahlem). This material, covering the Syriac, Sogdian and Old Uighur languages, provides a unique snapshot of Eastern Christianity in western China, and specifically at Turfan, during the 9^th - 12^th centuries.

The four Workshop papers focus on the manuscript discoveries at the monastery site at Turfan (China). Dr. Erica C D Hunter (SOAS, UK) will discuss the Syriac material (500+ manuscripts) to show that the monastery was an outpost of the Church of the East with robust links to Mesopotamia. Prof. Nicholas Sims-Williams FBA (SOAS, UK) will examine the Christian Sogdian material (500+ manuscripts) especially the translations of Evagrius Ponticus, the Apophthegmata Patrum and East Syrian spiritual writings that indicate an active pursuit of the ascetical life at Turfan. Prof. Peter Zieme (Berlin, Germany) will discuss the Christian Uighur texts (50+ manuscripts). The fourth paper, by Dr. Mark Dickens (SOAS, UK) will survey the range of Psalters (some 10% of Syriac manuscripts) but also translated into Sogdian, Pahlavi and New Persian to indicate the spread of Eastern Christianity in Central Asia and China during the early medieval period.

Specific issues that will be addressed include:

• the Mesopotamian heritage of Syriac Christianity at Turfan (9C-12C)

• the organisation and structure of the monastery Church of the East

• the vernacular composition of Eastern Christianity at Turfan.