City, Palace, and Army: Various Fragments of Buddhist Uyghur Literature

Uyghurs who migrated to Ganzhou and Turfan regions after 840 established two new khaganates. In this region, in which religious and ethnic diversity is dominant, the Uyghurs have given importance to commercial activities. Thus, they have adopted a settled lifestyle. Linguistic data about the life of the Uyghurs can be found especially in nonreligious Old Uyghur texts, which contain an extensive vocabulary on architectural structures, interior and exterior structural elements, building materials, carrier systems, public spaces, agricultural areas, and irrigation structures. These texts point toward the settled lifestyle of the Uyghurs. In addition, Buddhist pilgrimage centers, important cities, religious buildings, and mystically divine palaces are occasionally mentioned in the Old Uyghur religious texts on Buddhist themes. This article focuses on the edition of seven Old Uyghur fragments related to Buddhism, which have not been previously published. The fragments primarily address topics such as the city, palace, and army. The Berlin Turfan Collection houses the fragments included in this work, which are identified through archival numbers U 2077 (o. F.), U 2301 (T I D), U 2316 (T I D 505; T I D), U 5465 (T I D 622), U 2418 (T II 530), U 2332 (T I D 526; T I D), and U 4868 (T I D 643; T I D). This article encompasses the transcription, transliteration, Turkish translation, explanation, and a glossary/index of these fragments.