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Toward the end of the 19th century and into the first
decades of the 20th,
scientific and archaeological expeditions to the region
of Eastern Turkestan¨s Silk Road discovered numerous cave
temples, monastery ruins, wall paintings, as well as
valuable miniatures, books and documents. Explorers from
Europe, America and even Japan were amazed by the art
treasures found there, and soon their reports were capturing
attention of an interested public around the world. These
relics of the Uighur culture constitute today major
collections in the museums of Berlin, London, Paris, Tokyo,
Leningrad (St-Petersburg) and the Museum of Central Asian
Antiquities in New Delhi. The manuscripts and documents
discovered in Eastern Turkestan reveal very high degree of
civilization attained by the Uighurs.
Throughout
the centuries the Uighurs used the following
scripts.
1.
Confederated with the Kok Turks in the 6th and 7th
centuries, they used the Orkhon script, which was developed
from the Sogdian alphabet.
2. In the
5th century they adopted Sogdian italic script which became
known as the Uighur script. This script was used for almost
800 years not only by the Uighurs, but also by other Turkic
peoples, the Mongols, and by the Manchus in the early stage
of their rule in China.
3. After
embracing Islam in the 10th century the Uighurs adopted the
Arabic alphabet, and its use became common in the 11th
century.
4. The
Uighurs of the former Soviet Union use Cyrillic.
5. The Uighurs of Eastern
Turkestan use the Arabic and Latin alphabets and the Uighurs
of Turkey use the Latin alphabet.
Most of the early Uighur literary works were represented by
translations of Buddhist and Manichean religious texts, but
there were also narrative, poetic and epic works. Some of
these were translated into German, English, Russian and
Turkish.
After
embracing Islam the Uighurs continued to preserve their
cultural dominance in Central Asia. World-renowned Uighur
scholars emerged, and
Uighur
literature flourished. Among hundreds of important works
surviving from that era are "Qutatqu Bilik" by Y┨s┨p Has
Hajip (1069-70), Mähmut Qäşqäri's "Divan-i Lugat-it T┨rk",
and Ähmät Y┨knäki's "Atabetul Hakayik".
The
Uighurs had an extensive knowledge of medicine and medical
practice. Chinese Sung Dynasty (906-960) sources indicate
that a Uighur physician Nanto traveled to China and brought
with him many kinds of medicine not known to the Chinese.
There are 103 different herbs for use in the Uighur medicine
recorded in a medical compendium by Li Shizhen (1518-1593),
a Chinese medical authority. Tartar scholar, professor
Rashid Rahmeti Arat in Zur Heilkunde der Uighuren (Medical
Practices of the Uighurs) published in 1930 and 1932, in
Berlin, discussed the Uighur medicine. Relying on a sketch
of a man with an explanation of acupuncture, he and some
Western scholars suspect that acupuncture was not a Chinese,
but a Uighur discovery.
The
Uighurs were also advanced in fields such as architecture,
art,
music
and printing. Western scholars who have studied
Uighur
history, culture and civilization have often expressed a
high regard for the cultural level of the Uighurs. For
instance, according to Ferdinand Sassure, "Those who
preserved the language and written culture in Central Asia
were the Uighurs". Albert von Lecoq wrote, "The Uighur
language and script contributed to the enrichment of
civilizations of the other peoples in Central Asia. Compared
to the Europeans of that time the Uighurs were far more
advanced. Documents discovered in Eastern Turkestan prove
that a Uighur farmer could write down a contract, using
legal terminology. How many European farmers could have done
that at that period? This shows the extent of Uighur
civilization of that time". Prof. Dr. Laszlo Rasonyi wrote,
"the Uighurs knew how to print books centuries before
Gutenberg invented his press". In the judgment of Prof. Dr.
Wolfram Eberhard, "in the Middle Ages, Chinese poetry,
literature, theatre, music and painting were greatly
influenced by the Uighurs".
Chinese
envoys such as Hsuan Chang, Wang Yen De and Chang Chun who
traveled through Eastern Turkestan within the seventh to the
thirteenth centuries reported that they were impressed by
the high degree of the Uighur power, prestige and culture
they encountered there.
Wang Yen
De, who served as an ambassador to the Qarakhoja Uighur
Kingdom between the years 981 and 984, wrote in his memoirs:
"I was impressed with the extensive civilization I found in
the Uighur Kingdom. The beauty of the temples, monasteries,
wall paintings, statues, towers, gardens, houses and the
palaces built throughout the kingdom cannot be described.
The Uighurs are very skilled in handicrafts of gold and
silver, vases and potteries. Some say God has infused this
talent into this people only".
This
Uighur power, prestige, and culture dominated Central Asia
for more than 1000 years went into a steep decline after the
Manchu invasion in East Turkestan, and under the
rule of the Nationalist and especially the Communist
Chinese. |
