How to Research Uyghur Manuscripts: Catalogs, Scripts and Provenance
A practical guide to Eastern Turki and Uyghur manuscripts, the Jarring Collection, catalog romanization, ownership notes and digital access.
Uyghur manuscript heritage extends beyond famous literary works. Collections hold Islamic texts, poetry, medical manuals, contracts, correspondence, historical notes and practical books in Eastern Turki or Uyghur, often beside Arabic and Persian. The Jarring Collection at Lund is a major access point, while other libraries preserve related material. Research begins by separating language, script, work, physical copy and catalog record. A digitized image is not the manuscript's complete history, and a modern catalog title may not reproduce the words a past reader used.
Key points
- Old Uyghur, Chaghatay, Eastern Turki and modern Uyghur are related labels with different historical and catalog uses; do not silently replace one with another.
- A manuscript may contain several works, hands, dates and languages. The text's composition date is not the same as the copy date or acquisition date.
- Colophons, seals, ownership notes, waqf statements, paper, binding and library accession files form a provenance chain; missing links must remain visible.
- Use the catalog's romanization for retrieval, preserve the original script when possible and record stable shelfmarks so another researcher can find the same object.
What survives in the collections
Lund describes the Jarring Collection as roughly three-quarters Uyghur or Eastern Turki, with Arabic and Persian material as well. Its subjects include classic and folk literature, Islamic manuscripts, judicial and historical documents, medicine, trades and mysticism. This breadth counters the habit of treating manuscripts only as decorated religious books.
Mission archives and diplomatic collecting also shaped what reached European institutions. A collection is evidence of communities of production and use, but also of twentieth-century routes of acquisition. Provenance research should ask how an object left its previous owner and under what power relationship.
Identify work, copy and catalog record
A poem may have been composed centuries before the surviving copy. A scribe may combine several works and later readers may add notes. The library then creates a modern title, language label and date estimate. Cite each layer accurately: author and work when known, manuscript shelfmark, folio, institution and catalog URL.
Do not date a manuscript solely from a translated web caption. Inspect the colophon, catalog explanation and material evidence. If the date is inferred from handwriting or paper, label it as an estimate.
Scripts and search strategy
Catalogs may use Uighur, Uyghur, Eastern Turki, Turki or Chaghatay, and romanization can change. Search name variants, original-script terms and subject headings. The ALA-LC table gives a reproducible catalog scheme but does not normalize every historical spelling.
Right-to-left OCR remains error-prone, especially with handwriting, damage and mixed Arabic-Persian-Uyghur text. Use OCR as a finding aid, then verify against the image. Preserve page and line references in transcription notes.
Build a reproducible manuscript note
Record shelfmark, stable URL, image license, folio range, dimensions, support, ink, binding, script, languages, named people, place, dates and uncertainty. Quote only the lines needed and provide a transcription method. If a personal letter concerns living families, consider privacy before publication.
Finally, link the digital surrogate back to the institution. Downloaded images without metadata quickly become orphaned files whose date and ownership cannot be checked.
How to read the evidence
Separate primary records, academic research, organizational reports and official statements. Record date, place, method and scope: evidence about one case does not by itself establish a regional total or a permanent condition.
Related reading
- Uyghur Language and Scripts: Arabic Alphabet, Latin and Cyrillic
- Uyghur Literature and Poetry: Oral Traditions, Print and Diaspora
- Uyghur Names and Spelling: Arabic Script, Latin and Chinese Forms
- Kashgar Old City: Neighborhood History, Heritage and Redevelopment
Sources
The sources below perform different evidentiary roles. Inclusion makes claims checkable and does not endorse every interpretation in a source.
- Lund University Library — The Jarring Collection — Collection guide to Eastern Turki/Uyghur, Arabic and Persian manuscripts, documents, medical manuals and literature.
- British Library — Digitised manuscripts and archives — Official access and catalog guidance for digitised and physical manuscript collections.
- Library of Congress — ALA-LC Uighur romanization table — Current cataloguing authority for a defined Uyghur romanization system; not a universal personal-name rule.
- UK Government — Uyghur romanization system — Government reference for geographic-name romanization, updated in March 2024.
- State Council Information Office — Cultural Protection and Development in Xinjiang — Chinese government account of cultural-heritage policy, protected sites, publications and performance institutions.
- Royal Anthropological Institute — Rahile Dawut and Uyghur pilgrimage rites — Institutional record of fieldwork, films, transcription and research on shrines and women's Sufi poetry.
