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MAY, 1889.]
place to corresponding words and forms of other Central Asiatic dialects, but in the Jaghatai language there remained a whole series of Uighur words and forms, which were exclusively used in the literary language.
In the times of the first successors of Changêz Khân, the Jaghatai literature was spread among all the Eastern Turks, but the rapid decline of the Mongolian Empire arrested the final development of the language. Since they had no educational centre, as was the case with the Southern Turks, the Jaghatai language was influenced by other dialects, and words from Usmanli and Azarbaijan literature entered it in various degrees. As Changêz Khan preferred the Uighur writing, that character became official in the chanceries of the Khâns, and continued to be used even where it was unfamiliar.
MISCELLANEA.
The yarliks of Tuqtamish and Tamir-Qutlugh shew that the Khans of the Golden Horde issued documents in Uighur characters till the begin.ning of the fifteenth century. But other letters are occasionally used: the yarlik of Tuqtamish of A. H. 794 is written in the Arabic character, and that of Tamir-Qutlugh in Uighur and Arabic. From this we may conclude that the Khôns used the Uighur character only in diplomatic documents, and the Arabic in those intended for the people.
The yarlik of Tuqtamish to Jagiello has been translated by I. N. Berezin, and that of TamirQutlugh by von Hammer, Berezin and Vambéry. These versions are on the whole accurate, but the author has thought it advisable to publish the yarliks in a slightly corrected version.
(1.) Yarlik of Tuqtamish to Jagiello.
This yarlik was found among the chief archives of the Minister of Foreign Affairs at Moscow. The text is comprised in 25 lines, which begin at an equal distance from the edge of the paper, the words Tugtamish, we and God, and the Khan's seal are closer to the edge. These words are written in gold, and the seal of the Khân is stamped in gold. The seventeenth line is only half written, so that the new line may begin with we.
The name Jagiello stands below the words the word of Tuqtamish.' This yarlik is written in a beautiful and very legible Uighur character. Although, as Banzarov remarks, this letter from a calligraphic point of view yields the palm to the two letters of the Persian Changêzis to Philippe le Bel, the handwriting everywhere shows the firm hand of a practised scribe. The writing may be called Mongol Uighur, as distinguished from the Musalman-Uighur style, used in the manuscripts of the Kudatku Bilik, the
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Bakhtiarnama, etc., and the broken Uighur writing used in other documents. It most resembles the copy of the Uighur legend about Oguz Khân in the library of Charles Schefer at Paris. It is written perpendicularly.
(2.) The Yarlik of Tamir-Qutlugh.
The original is in the Vienna Palace Library. It is written on a long roll of glazed paper. The second and third lines begin in the middle of the page, and above them ought to be the square seal of the Khân. But the paper in this place is quite smooth, and no trace of a seal can be found: it is clear that this is a yarlik prepared for publication, which from some cause was never confirmed. It cannot be a mere copy. Under each Uighur word there is a transcription in beautiful Arabic characters in red. It was prepared for some official purpose: a proof of this fact among others is furnished by the third word on the ninth line, where two points under the letter sh have been undoubtedly added subsequently. The writer thinks the copyist remarked the omission of these points and added them when he had finished writing. This shows that the Uighur character was even at that time so little understood that a document intended for the people had to be accompanied by a transcript in Arabic letters. The Uighur writing differs from that of the yarlik of Taqtamish and of the Uighur books, but is like some of the postscripts to the Kudatku-Bilik. The letters are angular. They appear to be made by a reed with a very broad nib, and are written from right to left. Von Hammer made some trifling mistakes when he printed the Arabic text, which arose from his being unacquainted with the Jaghatai language.
In the yarlik of Tuqtamish, out of 104 words, 43 are Common Turkish (met with in all the Turkish dialects), 24 Northern Turkish, 22 Western, and 15 Uighur Jaghatai. Of the 54 grammatical endings, 23 are Common Turkish, 15 Northern, 12 Western, and 4 Uighur Jaghatai. This gives the following percentage:-Common Turkish, 41; Northern Turkish, 23; Western Turkish, 21; Uighur-Jaghatai, 15: and of grammatical terminations-Common Turkish, 41; Northern Turkish, 31; Western Turkish, 21; Uighur-Jaghatai, 7.
The yarlik of Tuqtamish was, therefore, written by a Western Tatár, knowing well the official language of the chanceries of the Khân, but preserving many peculiarities of his native dialect. This is shown by the phraseology of the yarlik and the absence of Arabic literary expressions.
The language of the yarlik of Tamir-Qutlugh is different. Of 166 words, 50 are Common Turkish, 38 Northern, 44 Uighur-Jaghatai, 13
