Very Good Turkish Paperback. Roy. 8vo. (24 x 17 cm). In Turkish and Uighur. 118, [1] p. Prens Kalyanamkara ve Papamkara hikâyesinin Uygurcasi. First Edition. Having shown up at the stage of history since the VIth century Uyghur Turks gained their independence by putting an end to Kokturk rule in 744 A.D and established the Uyghur State (744-840 AD). Kutluk Bilge Kul Khagan is the first ruler of the Uyghur State whose capital city was Ordu-Balik. The Otuken (Steppe) Uyghur State was forced to disintegrate in 840 A.D with the siege of Ordu-Balik (Karabalgasun) by the Kirgizs and resulted in migrations to various places. One group of the Uyghurs who were forced to migrate arrived in northwestern China, established the Kansu Uyghur State and another group headed to the west and founded the Turfan Uyghur State where today's Eastern Turkestan is located. Several prosaic and poetic literary works that are produced in Old Uyghur Turkish between the IXth and XIth centuries of the history of Turkish language were written mainly about four religions. Those works belonging to the circle of Manicheism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam are classified under literary genres such as: kosuk, sudur, çatik, vinaya, abidarma. Tis texts is one of Buddhist peritexts, namely the Story of Prince Kalyanamkara and Papamkara in which the story of Buddha was embellished by extra-ordinary, fabulous events and is written in the form of "çatik". This manuscipt is preserved by the registration number Pelliot Chinois 3509 in Paris Bibliotheque Nationale. Being written in Old Uyghur Turkish, this text consists of 40 sheets some pages containing 7 lines and others containing 8 lines. Supposedly written in the 10th century, the manuscript has more than ten versions in four languages such as: Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Turkish. The first academic work on the manuscipt was done by Clement Huart in 1914. Having considered the work as deficient and erroneous, Paul Pelliot re-published the worked in the same year. (Source: In Terms of Literary Language Elements Story of Prince Kalyanamkara and Papamkara, EMINE TEMEL). Hüseyin Namik Orkun was a famous Turkish historian and linguist.
