Biblical and other Christian Sogdian texts from the Turfan Collection
- Submitting institution
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School of Oriental and African Studies
- Unit of assessment
- 31 - Theology and Religious Studies
- Output identifier
- 24231
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
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- Publisher
- Brepols
- ISBN
- 9782503552385
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- July
- Year of publication
- 2014
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This book is an edition, with translation, glossary and extensive philological commentary, of several fragmentary Christian texts in the Sogdian language. The first three chapters deal with Biblical manuscripts, most of them previously unpublished. Some of the fragments were identified by my collaborators (as credited in the text), others, in particular the Epistle lectionary and a hymn by Mar Babai appended to the Psalter, by myself. All the Biblical texts were translated from the Syriac Peshitta version of the bible. In the case of the Psalms I was able to show that the Sogdian version is connected with a particular class of Syriac manuscripts. Chapter 4 deals with a text whose Syriac original has not been identified. By linguistic analysis and comparison with related texts the understanding of the text is enhanced and a plausible sequence of the fragments is established. In chapters 5-6 I edit a very badly preserved manuscript containing two texts which were previously unpublished and unidentified. I was able to identify these as the so-called “Six Books” on the Dormition of the Virgin Mary and a series of maxims from the story of Ahiqar. Both texts were certainly translated from Syriac, but neither corresponds closely to the surviving Syriac manuscripts. In order to interpret the fragmentary Sogdian maxims I therefore had to examine versions of this text in Aramaic, Armenian and other languages.
As well as adding to knowledge of the history of Biblical and other texts in the East Syrian church, the edition is an important contribution to knowledge of the Sogdian language. Throughout, I identified and interpreted numerous previously unknown Sogdian words, for many of which I was able to propose an etymology, using my expertise in related languages and historical linguistics.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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