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A Qara̮hānid Document of A.D. 1121 (A.H. 515) From Yarkand 41035879
A Qara̮hānid Document of A.D. 1121 (A.H. 515) From Yarkand 41035879
A Qara̮hānid Document of A.D. 1121 (A.H. 515) From Yarkand 41035879
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ÇINASI TEKÍN
TRANSCRIPTION
ÂJbo U U li*U Ij^U- Uw>»^ 1^ . . . i*i I j ¡«# l! I x¿>~ l^lT I aJcfj U • JÜÜ I Ai! 1^
l3JjJluUvt^lcUl^jy>^^UJUv^lcUI<
. . . ^iJ^' ^L cJUl 28
[^ ù- Co^^>^>] ^LJ^^U^ 29
x^ l3^^ k^j^^J-^^ 3
(UOI^M 39
cxHiA^ 4i
• l'I V>
TRANSLATION
(1) This is [to testify] that the named Isrãfil Çavli Siibaçi bin Harun öge b.
b. £arluk, his ancestor [?] , has purchased from the named (2) Tamgaçi el-IJã
el-IJasan el-IJaccãc b. Yüsuf b. öge an entire vineyard, a meadow, and a pie
land ... (3) and a wood of white poplars which are located entirely at Sin
beyond the river, in an arable (4) rural district of Yarkand, opposite the m
belonging to Yahyä Inal el-IJãcib. These are comprised and (5) surrounde
totality by four boundaries.
As to the vineyard, as to its first boundary, it is adjoined by the road of qua
[?] ; the second one is adjoined by the vineyard of the herein named vendor; (6)
third one is adjoined by the land of Mes'üd Yabgu b. Musa; the fourth o
adjoined by the top of the hill.
As to the piece of land, as to its first boundary, (7) it is adjoined by the irriga
canal of the land of the herein named vendor; the second one is adjoined by
land of the herein named buyer; the third one is adjoined by a river called (8) M
Batigi; the fourth one is adjoined by a river called Yakalik.
As to the wood [of white poplars] , as to its first and second one [i.e., bounda
they are adjoined by the vineyard of the (9) herein named vendor; the third
adjoined by the meadow; the fourth one is adjoined by the mosque of the
belonging to Yahyã <lna>l, named herein.
(10) That herein mentioned buyer has purchased from the herein menti
vendor the entire vineyard, meadow, a piece of land, and a wood [of w
poplars] (11) whose location has been mentioned and whose boundaries
been stated herein, with the entirety of the vineyard, of the meadow, (12) o
fruit trees and others . . . space . . . tracks of their roads, (13) of their irrigati
the canals with their rights and all the rights he has on streams small and larg
flowing in and out, which he possesses in them; and finally with all that wh
recognized and attributed to them, for (15) 15,000 dirhems whose half is 7,75
in the currency of the city of Yarkand, entirely perfect, useful, current . . . stan
licit, actual, real and this is an absolute and definite sale; (17) without condi
to vitiate or to annul it.
The herein named vendor declares to have received (18) the herein mentioned
entire sum in full, pursuant to the payment of the herein named buyer. The herein
mentioned buyer declares to have received the herein named (19) sold properties
being free and not occupied, upon delivery by the herein named vendor.
The herein named vendor assures (20) the herein named buyer . . . with a good
and sufficient security . . . and both of them left the place of the legal transaction
after having stated its sincerity and its acquittal (21) its physical and verbal
separation.
Both of them have recognized the affair as it has been explained (22) herein, no
more no less, after the document had been read to both of them in a language
which they knew and understood. Both of them have witnessed in that . . .
(23) . . . (24) This document is a free ... for both of them just as faults. They are
PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARIES
(1) jiiyi Cf. Huart, pp. 615, 622, where the same person is
jiu must be çavli 'small falcon', with j» (Kãçgari, sub çafli' TM
38: êavli; ED PT, p. 397).
The next word is partly obliterated, but it could be subaçi. This p
is named in Minorsky's similar Turkish document, dated Rebi
(19 June-18 July A.D. 1121), in clear Arabic letters: u^j- J^JJ'-r
norsky, pp. 191, 193).
Also, çavli occurs as early as in an Arabic Qarahãnid Waqf doc
(a.D. 1046-1068): v^'J^ (JA, 1967, p. 325, line 13).
ir j i öge as a name and title is well attested in both pre-Islamic and
Islamic sources; G. Doerfer and G. Clauson have listed all its occurrences
(TMEN, 2:157-59; EDPT, p. 101). The word is, of course, a déverbal
noun from ö- 'to think'. However, sources from various periods indicate
differences in how it was semantically and morphologically conceived:
ög-e (from ög-, üg- 'to praise') = e.g., il ügesVfaiyr al-mulk' or dg'mind',
or even Mongolian iige 'word'. It is, therefore, impossible to give a single
etymology for the term.
¿i^ Karluk, if my reading is correct; cf. TMEN, 3:385 < qaral-uq.
(2) yiç-Uw tamgaçi, originally meaning "keeper of the seal," occurs in the
old Turkish inscriptions. The word does not seem to have this meaning in
Leumann, p. 407), has the Sogdian cognates knõh, knô, knô'k (the last
form is most common) .
These data show that the city's name occurred in two forms: (1) Yãr-
kand {Yarkand on coins only), which was used by Kãçgari (eleventh
century) and all other Muslim historiographers and geographers, and,
without the final -d, even by Tibetans around A.D. 700; (2) Yãrkanda
•xfj u , which appears only in private documents of sale drawn up by in-
habitants of the city itself.
The first form was definitely based on the Sogdian element -kna' in
other words, outside of Yarkand the name of the city had been propa-
gated by the Sogdians, insofar as we know, as early as A.D. 700 (e.g.,
Tibetan G-yar-skyan ) . Since the second form, carrying on the Khotanese
tradition, was used exclusively by the city's inhabitants, one could assume
that its population was mostly Khotanese!
The component yãr+ occurred in local place-names in the Inner Asian
territories. Its earliest appearance is in Tibetan sources, where it means
"above, up, upper." According to R. N. Frye (an oral communication to
me), yãr does not exist in Iranian in this sense. In Turkish, however, yar
can mean "the vertically eroded bank of a river" or "a precipice," that is, a
high place from which one can look down {EDPT, pp. 953-54). In pre-
Islamic Uighur materials, it occurs only in medical texts, which are of
relatively late date (cf. EDPT, p. 953). Its earliest instance is in Kâçgarï
(eleventh century). Since this element's basic meaning is "what remains
when something has been split off," it can be derived from the common
Turkish verbal root yar- 'to split, to cleave' <*ya-r-. The participle ya-r,
could easily have derived from this *ya-, as well. If, however, the Tibetan
g-yar, etc., was not borrowed from Turkish, has it an acceptable Tibetan
etymology?
jui Inal can also be written jbi; cf. line 41. In the oldest Turkish
documents it is well attested with the literal meaning "trustworthy" (<
*ina-; cf. inan-); its early usage seems to have been as the title of an
obscure office (for a chronological listing, cf. EDPT, pp. 184-85).
Other titles have been derived from the verbal root *ina-: e.g., inanç{~
yinanç), inak (~ inag) (cf. TM EN, 2:217-20; EDPT, p. 187). Ç. Süley-
man's dictionary gives several meanings for these words (p. 62). G.
Doerfer seems to have a different word - yinäl; this reading is based on a
palatal reading in Old Turkish inscriptions which may not be quite
correct {TMEN, 4:196). ç.y.i 'chamberlain' (cf. EP9 s. v. hãdjib and
Enverï, pp. 29-31).
(6) >rf Yabgu, also in line 42 j* j i ¿i i>- . This ancient title goes back to the
For batig 'gorge of a river; swamp', see EDPT, p. 301 and Kãçgari.
¿iii^u;^ Yakalik 'a river called Y' This yakalik is not attested; ya-
ka, however, is well known as "edge, shore, bank." Huart, p. 615, has
¿iiiJuTjau^-tfUL- 'irrigation canal with the Turkish name Yakalik' and
further in the same document we read: j* i% j»j V^'VU 'irrigation canal
called su arigi (water canal), Yaka batik*. This "canal" or "river" can
perhaps be identified with a small village, approximately ten miles
southwest of Yarkand, which today is called Yaka-arik.
(9) j^r Çimgen. Cf. Huart, p. 615: o^isji^^; TMEN, pp. 99-101,
and EDPT, p. 423.
(15) f*j> dirhem is used here without specification to mean the Muslim
monetary unit. Although all the sources insist that the metal of the dirhem
was silver, in a similar document (Huart, p. 616) the dirhem is referred to
as a gold coin: ...u¿uuj^¿ This document, dated Shavval 505 (April
1112), deals with similar locations and persons as the one examined here.
Its specification - namely, "golden" - indicates that dirhem was a
generic term for coin or money at the time.
(28) This line ends with words (signatures?) that I cannot identify. Un-
doubtedly the roll call of witnesses begins here. The rest of the document
is in Turkish.
¿l jbi (line 42: du.*/). The compound Yabgu beg does not occur in
earlier documents. Its first appearance, as far as I know, was in the
fourteenth century (cf. Arat, "Uygurca Yazilar arasinda,"p. 104, line 20) .
For the etymologies and occurrences of beg, see TMEN, 2: 389-406, and
EDPT, pp. 322-23.
(29) j i * i A (line 33 - 'ömer Çarãbdãr Haylbaçi; line 34 - his son §alih
$.; line 45 - Mahmud Ç.) These examples, naturally, give no information
about Çarâbdâr's function. The word signifies an officer who takes care of
the royal repository of drinking water; sometimes he is also called j *- ^ i ¿.
For details see Enveri, pp. 214-15, s.v. jijui^^-vi^^i-ui^.
tfAii J^ Haylbaçi (cf. lines 33, 45); ìjayl, of Semitic origin, means "mili-
tary force, state." After the Iranians borrowed it from the Arabs during
the first centuries A.D., the word came to mean "tribe, cavalry, battalion,"
and "horses; many" (see Açnin, pp. 255-64) .
The military and administrative term fjaylbaçi is attested with the
meaning "battalion commander" in Nizãm al-Mulk's Siyãset-nãme (Dar-
ke, p. 106; Barthold, Turkestan, p. 227). Kutadgu Bilig has the following
important passage (Arat, ed., p. 4139): "tegir erse hil ya sariga on otag
'sana takim veya on otag rutbesi teveccüh ederse . . .'" (Arat's trans-
lation), which clearly indicates that Jjayl equals "ten otag," or tents.
Nizãm al-Mulk mentions (Darke, p. 106) a Visãkbaçi, or "commander of
the tent"; a promotion raises this Visãkbaçi to the rank of Haylba§i, or
"commander of ten tents" (for this visãkbaçi = otagbaçi correlation, cf.
Tekin, "Bilenen en eski tslami Tiirkçe metinler," pp. 175-76). According-
ly, C. E. Bosworth's statement "khailtãsh . . . was an officer who
commanded ten cavalrymen ..." (p. 46) should be corrected to "com-
manded ten tents."
The Persian historical and lexicographical sources contain the strange
word j u^ ; its meaning, based on the simple interpretation of the
Turkish suffix -das (-ta$) is "cavalry and infantry belonging to the same
tribe." Enverï rejects this interpretation and states only that "fjayltãçãn
are noblemen from the cavalry" (p. 131). Ifayltãç (pl. -an) is obviously a
mistranscription of Ijaylbaçi. The missing dots and the confusion of ¿> in
^u with j> might have led the non-Turkish Muslim scribes to create
this meaningless j. uu . Mohamed Khadr's reading should also be cor-
rected (JA, 1967, p. 325, line 14).
What is Ijãss (jaylbaçi (line 45)?
(30) niçãn. Here, suddenly, the style changes: <ta>nukmn appears at the
beginning of the sentence, rather than at the end. Furthermore, an unusual
expression occurs: "I put my signature onto this document (Ilyãs ffãss
Hãcib)" The next witness says something slightly different: his name
precedes "put my own signature." Obviously, here niçãn does not mean a
Harvard University
33 4-^b 1 J^1
15 r^' 42 J>i
(Uighur) 43 '>*¿rA 4 *-!■*•
3 cr-t- 4 a'¡'
36,37,38 ¿>^.r 1 «V
29,33,34,35 S^? (Uighur) 43 [w]
1 JJ 28,42 W>«>¿A{
3 jr-'j** 2,29,31,32 &>*
30,32 ^^ 1 jîu-
4 .xfjk 9 j^
6,28,42 ^r* 3 (ij^)jy
8 jia. 29,33,45 ^J~
Arat, R. R., éd. Kutadzu Bilis. Vol. 1: Istanbul, 1947. Vol. 2: Ankara, 1959.
5-53.