My paper on the tenth-century Old Uyghur codex known as Irk Bitig (Irq Bitig) is finally out. It is in a fantastic volume edited by Michael Clarke and Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, called Medieval Multilingual Manuscripts: Cases Studies from Ireland to Japan. The book is part of the Hamburg series Studies in Manuscript Cultures, and is the result of a collaborative project that began several years earlier. This has been one of the most interesting scholarly projects I have been part of, and I am proud to be in the volume, in the company of wonderful colleagues who share an interest in multilingual manuscripts.
Abstract:
This tenth-century manuscript from Dunhuang is celebrated for the Old Turkic divination text known as Irk Bitig, the Book of Omens. However, the same manuscript also contains two Chinese Buddhist hymns added to the beginning and the end of the Old Turkic text. Close examination of the manuscript in all its aspects sheds new light on the close interaction of texts, languages and religions in the Silk Road environment.
“The Bilingual Manuscript with the Irk Bitig.” In Michael Clarke and Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, eds., Medieval Multilingual Manuscripts: Cases Studies from Ireland to Japan. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2022, 83–97.