Studien zur Sprache, Geschichte und Kultur der Turkvölker

The status of Crimean Karaim, an extinct eastern dialect of Karaim, has long been a subject of debate among scholars. Some have labeled it a "ghost dialect," while others argue it assimilated into Crimean Tatar over time. The oldest written records of this dialect predominantly appear in Bible translations. The language of the corpus in this volume, specifically the Book of Leviticus from the so-called Gözleve Bible printed in 1841, is also identified as Crimean Karaim. Past research primarily analyzed the edition based on short fragments, often describing it as showing signs of Tatarization, and sometimes as being created based on Western Karaim manuscripts.
This volume offers a comprehensive examination of the linguistic features of an understudied biblical book from this translation to address these claims, providing a transcription, translation, and a facsimile of the original text. The linguistic examinations, delving into phonology, morphology, morphophonology, syntax, morphosyntax, and lexicon, suggest that while the translation embodies the oldest traditions of Karaim Bible translations, it also reflects specific linguistic trends of its time, illustrating the nature of a mixed variant of Crimean Karaim.

As the core theme of Early Modern Ottoman poetry, love inspired a plethora of Turkish research, the most enlightening of which explored questions of terminology, semantics, and mystic dimensions. Internationally, however, there have been few publications on this subject.

This book closes this gap by investigating ʿışḳ in different genres and contexts. Whereas the terms ḥubb and maḥabbet point to comfort and care, the term ʿışḳ denotes passionate love; often laced with mystical connotations. Through this lens we show that Ottoman lyrical realities transgressed the rules, burgeoning beyond conventional settings and giving voice to vivid creativity. Large parts of urban society indulged in poetry and thereby challenged certain norms.

Die Überfälle der Tataren des nördlichen Schwarzmeerraums im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert nehmen im historischen Bewusstsein der davon betroffenen Gesellschaften des östlichen Europa einen nicht unerheblichen Raum ein. Mit ihrem Fokus auf die Zerstörung und deren Folgen fand die Forschung lange Zeit aber nur unzureichende und häufig politisch gefärbte Erklärungen für die Raubüberfälle. Kaum gefragt wurde, welche komplexe soziale Funktion die Raubzüge für das Krimkhanat und die tatarischen Gemeinschaften des Osmanischen Reichs hatten. Diese Forschungslücke versucht diese Arbeit zu schließen. Es wird dabei in den Blick genommen, welche diplomatischen, administrativen und ökonomischen Praktiken sich stabilisierend auf das Gewalthandeln ausübten. Besonderes Augenmerk wird auf die Einbettung der Raubzüge in politische Netzwerke gelenkt, die u.a. von Bağçasaray nach Isfahan und Iași nach Istanbul reichten. Nicht zuletzt wird die Bedeutung gemeinschaftlicher Ausübung von Gewalt und die Polarisierung der krimtatarischen Eliten durch Angst vor Gewalt als ein die Raubzüge beeinflussender Faktor besprochen. Das Buch leistet einen wichtigen Beitrag zu dieser in den letzten Jahren in den Fokus gerückten, aber immer noch relativ schlecht erforschten europäischen Geschichtsregion.

This volume builds on the work of Ilse Laude-Cirtautas (1926–2019), a pioneering Turkologist who introduced the field of comparative Turkic studies to the US in the 1960s. It presents an ongoing dialogue whereby scholars from central and inner Asia and the West engage on issues of Turkic heritage, identity, language and literature. The discussions enrich scholarship in Central and Inner Asian Studies and explore the question "Who are the Turks?"

This collection of papers explores the facets of gender and sex in history, language and society of Altaic cultures, reflecting the unique interdisciplinary approach of the PIAC. It examines the position of women in contemporary Central Asia at large, the expression of gender in linguistic terms in Mongolian, Manju, Tibetan and Turkic languages, and gender aspects presented in historical literary monuments as well as in contemporary sources.

This collection of papers presented at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference explores the complex relations of religion and state in history, language and society of Altaic cultures, reflecting the unique interdisciplinary approach of the PIAC. It examines aspects of shamanism, religious belief, totemism and religious influences on contracts in historical literary monuments as well as in contemporary sources.

The Old Turkic Yenisei Inscriptions have been significantly less thoroughly investigated than the famous Orkhon Inscriptions, and many paleographical, grammatical, and lexical aspects are still insufficiently examined. This book is the first monograph study of eight inscriptions found near the Uybat River in Khakassia, seven of which are engraved in stone, one in the bottom of a silver vessel. Although all but one of the inscriptions have been the object of research, many problems regarding the glyphs and their reading are unsolved. The present study collects and compares all relevant information available on the Uybat Inscriptions and provides a thorough, revised analysis of the texts. Every inscription is presented in transliteration, transcription and translation, with detailed metadata, exhaustive information on the glyph inventory, and a comprehensive critical apparatus. The book also contains a glossary of all identifiable lexemes and a morphology index. Drawings, photographs and facsimiles are given in the appendix. The study contributes to our understanding of the language, script, and culture of the Old Turkic civilization in the Yenisei area and can serve as a model for further studies on individual inscription groups.

Based on original Ottoman sources, the author traces the transformation of the financial and administrative system of the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 17th century. The changes were made necessary by the burgeoning budget deficit, a consequence of overspending by the oversized Ottoman state. The author proves that the phenomena previously thought to be signs of decline were in fact aspects of a well-considered reform program, dismantling step by step the centralized redistributive system. As part of this process, most of the state functions were privatised, and the officials were forced to undertake their jobs as private entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, a radical overhaul of the taxation system provided the extra resources needed for the maintenance of the system, with the reforms being largely financed by the working and tax-paying population. An important conclusion of the book, with relevance beyond Ottoman history, is that while a state can be modernised without modernising society, such a course will diminish the capacity for renewal in the long run. The volume provides useful information and insights not only for specialists in Ottoman history but also for those who are interested in the Islamic world, the state and modernisation.

The pheno­menon of comp­laints was a central tenet in the ideo­logy of the Ottoman Empire, an obses­sion it inhe­rited from former Middle Eastern empires, Islamic and pre-Islamic. Atten­tion was directed in parti­cular to the tendency of state offi­cials to over­step the bounds of their autho­rity, exploi­ting vast areas of the coun­try­side to enrich them­selves at the expense of the poor citi­zens and, as a conse­qu­ence, to under­mine the legiti­macy of the ruler himself. On the other hand, so many comp­laints of harsh abuses might give the impres­sion that the Ottoman Empire in its enti­rety should have collapsed as a conse­qu­ence. In the first place, the Şikayet Defteri is a legal docu­ment because many of the comp­laints stem from the point of depar­ture that a certain Shari’a law has been broken, viola­ting the natural rights of certain groups of citi­zens. More important than this, however, the Şikayet is a legal docu­ment from an addi­tional, metho­do­lo­gical perspec­tive: the docu­ment provides a perspec­tive on the Kadi, his court, and his posi­tion in the state, which are unli­kely to be obtained from any other source. Parti­cu­larly, such infor­ma­tion cannot be had from the Kadi record (sicill) itself, as this source only looks at itself from the inside, solving day-to-day prob­lems.

Today, we have possibly reached a point where we discuss, or explore anew, the scien­tific ratio­nale of pursuing Altaic Studies. In this situa­tion it might be helpful to remember that all scho­larly endea­vors unavo­i­dably consti­tute a process where ready answers are not adequate. Looking back to the histo­rical devo­lop­ment of a given field of rese­arch will make this process more tran­s­pa­rent and permit to envi­sage the possi­bi­lites of future rese­arch more clearly. It is in this sense that this biblio­graphy of arti­cles published in the procee­dings of past PIAC meetings is presented at the 60th Meeting.

This book is the shortened and revised version of the authors’ volume “Fortresses and Fortress Garrisons in Ottoman Hungary I–III”, published in Hungarian by the Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Budapest, 2007). This revised version contains considerable alterations in order to suit better for the needs of non-Hungarian readers. However, the book maintains the original structure: the first part is a monograph about the Ottoman border defense system and its garrison troops, the second part is a data collection concerning Ottoman fortresses. This collection is based on a wide range of sources like Ottoman pay lists (mevacib defterleri) that are kept in archives of Vienna, Istanbul, Berlin, Budapest etc., records of the treasury house that contain pay accounts (hazine defterleri), estate records (icmal defterleri) and tax censuses (mufassal defterleri). The border of the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary remained a battlefield during the sixteenth–seventeenth centuries. Fights persisted even in-between officially declared wars, effective truces were absent in those decades in Hungary. The parties strove for expanding their influence over greater territories and above all to collect taxes. Garrison troops were assigned to ravage the other’s lands by both parties therefore the significance of these fortresses remained high even in times of formal peace.

The book offers a balanced and realistic account of the coexistence of different peoples and cultures in Ottoman Hungary. It refrains from either repeating the commonplaces of the sixteenth-century antiturcica literature, or sharing the overtly positive Ottoman-image of the early modern age. The studies of this multidisciplinary book deal with three groups of topics: the historical, literary and art historical approaches combine their methodological merits to paint a colourful picture of Hungary facing or under Ottoman rule. A case study discusses the decay of medieval art heritage, underlining the shared responsibility of the conquerors and the local community. After the re-occupation of Buda (1686), the library of the müfti of Buda passed into Christian hands. The discovery of the catalogue in the Marsili Collection in Bologna is of high importance. Some texts deal with the complexity of Ottoman identity and with the role of the Ottoman establishment in such processes. Cultural exchange is of extreme importance, in conjunction with the changes of identity. Other studies reveal the significance of Hungarian–Ottoman confrontations in the slow emergence of Hungarian national consciousness or deal with the multiple identities of individuals and communities. The authors consider a wide scale of loyalties which – among Christians – bound individuals and communities in the same manner to language, culture, religion, (imagined) comancestry as to the territory, the patria, the country, and the empire. We discover similar tendencies on the Ottoman side, where an abundance of identities coexisted, influencing each other. The book pays special attention to the cultural memory of the Ottoman age, more precisely, to the swift memory loss that followed the rebuilding of the country after it had been reconquered from the Ottomans (Gergely Tóth). Within a few decades following Hungary’s subjection to Habsburg rule the everyday experiences of the Ottoman era had faded away a

Giovanni Molino’s Dittionario Della Lingua Italiana, Turchesca (1641), is the first extensive Turkish dictionary of its kind, with nearly 8000 lexical head entries excerpted, not from the Ottoman literature, but the everyday Turkish language, the vernacular for at least a part of the population of 17th century Constantinople.
Molino, born Armenus Turcicus Yovhannēs of Ankara, was exposed to the Turkish language from childhood, unlike other authors of the known ‘texts in transcription”. In Armenian cultural history, he is remembered as a man of letters, a publisher and the translator of religious texts, whose services to the history of the Turkish language and the corresponding contribution to Ottoman Turkish culture were to this date unknown.
The editor has reversed and reorganised the material of the lexicon from Italian-Turkish to Turkish-Italian. The lexical entries of Molino’s dictionary are presented according to morphological and phonological principles, with their orthographic variants side by side, revealing information on the morpho-phonological patterns of Ottoman-Turkish at that time. The language Molino recorded sounds almost like contemporary Turkish and can be considered a bridge to the modern Turkish language.

Im Bābur-nāme, dem Claus schönig so viel von seinem wissenschaftlichen Enthusiasmus gewidmet hat, erwähnt der Autor Zahir ad-Din Muhammad Babur (1483-1530) eine wilde Tulpe, die vereinzelt an einem Berghang zu Seiten des Baran-Tales wuchs; wegen ihres besonderen Aussehens war sie für ihn die 'hundertblättrige Tulpe'. Nimmt man die 'Hundertblättrige Tulpe' als Symbol, so kann sie für die vielfältige Persönlichkeit von Claus Shönig und sein komplexes Werk stehen, zudem aber darauf anspielen, dass der vorliegende Band, in dem 34 Autorinnen oder Autoren mit ihrem jeweiligen Beitrag versammelt sind, einem Bukett der verschiedensten wissenschaftlichen Interessen gleicht.

The research on Old Turkic runiform sources reaches back to several generations of scholars, who collected valuable knowledge about their signs, paleography, spelling and grammar. They are an important part of the written heritage of the Turkic world, providing us with valuable linguistic and historic information. Taken together, these inscriptions constitute a large corpus of several hundred inscriptions. However, there have never been systematic activities aimed at documenting the Altai corpus as a whole until very recently.

This dissertation consists in a microhistorical study of the social and cultural context of slavery in the early modern Ottoman Empire and Eastern Mediterranean. Using a wide selection of primary sources in Arabic, Ottoman, Persian and various European languages, it examines the slave population recorded in the Ottoman shari'a court registers (1560-1572 ?AD) of Galata, a neighbourhood of Istanbul. Based on evidence from the court registers, the origins of the slaves, their rates of religious conversion, and the nature of slave labour in Galata are examined. A detailed analysis of the descriptions of slaves in the court registers and contemporary literature illuminates the cultural construct of slavery in sixteenth-century Istanbul, and it is argued that the contemporary discourses (legal, literary and pseudoscientific) surrounding slavery allow us to reconstruct the Ottoman articulation of difference and sixteenth-century Ottoman understandings of slavery. Furthermore, it is argued that the early modern Ottoman Empire encouraged the manumission and integration of skilled slaves into the urban social hierarchy; the capture and enslavement of skilled individuals, particularly in the context of sixteenth-century Ottoman maritime expansion, disposited as a method of increasing levels of Ottoman manpower and recruiting skilled labour into Ottoman elite households. In addition to presenting empirical findings concerning early modern slavery gathered from the court registers, this dissertation also presents the study of slavery as a framework for analysing the construction of identity in the early modern Mediterranean and argues for a new methodological approach to reading the Ottoman court registers.

Die Vorträge gehalten anlässlich des Zweiten Deutsch-Ungarischen Workshops zum Geburtstag von György Hazai am 24. Mai 2012 in der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (BBAW) werden in diesem Band vollständig dokumentiert. Barbara Kellner-Heinkele: Laudatio für György Hazai am 24. Mai 2012 Miklós Maróth: Die Rolle der griechischen Rhetorik in der Entwicklung der arabischen Prosaliteratur Elizabeth A. Zachariadou: La repopulation de Candie après la fin de la guerre de Crète (1669) Peter Zieme: Ein Marienhymnus in Garshuni-Türkisch Pál Fodor: Byzantine Legacies in Ottoman Identity Heidi Stein: Zur Modalkonstruktion des „Wollens“ in irantürkischen Texten der Safawidenzeit Hans Georg Majer: Der venezianische Feldmaresciallo Graf Matthias von der Schulenburg, die „Quadri turcheschi“ der Brüder Guardi und die Osmanen Sigrid Kleinmichel: Hizr und das Wasser des Lebens bei 'Ališir Nawa'i Simone-Christiane Raschmann: Zweihundert kuanpu für ein Kalb. Der Nachlass R. R. Arat in Istanbul

The Turkic language family features a wealth of expressions of modality, with large inventories of items within individual languages and considerable cross-linguistic variation. Taking the hierarchy of scope between different modal classes and their link to neighboring categories as a starting point for a basic classification, the study focuses on the internal semantic subdivision of three major classes of modality together with representative formal expressions of the semantic classes from numerous modern and pre-modern Turkic languages. The evolution of particular forms and underlying abstract structure types and their dissemination throughout the Turkic languages are investigated as well as the major semantic changes that can be observed in diachrony. The paths of conventionalization identified within Turkic are compared against universal paths of grammaticalization documented in the linguistics literature. This comprehensive synchronic and diachronic survey identifies the combasic parameters of Turkic modality systems, provides an insight into the intra- and cross-linguistic diversity, and offers new perspectives for further research into this hitherto little-studied domain.

Giovanni Stary is an outstanding specialist in Manchu Studies. Till his recent retirement he held the chair of Manchu at the University of Venice (Italy). Stary covered many fields, especially literature, shamanism, history. He convinced scholars that Manchu was not just a dead language but had merits of its own and deserved to be recognized as an independent discipline. Besides focusing on the early history of the Manchus and Manchu indigenous literature, he discovered the literature of the Sibe, Manchus in Xinjiang’s Ili region, which are officially regarded as a separate minority in China. Of his many publications a selection is offered in this volume (in German, English or Italian) – they supplement his monographs and comprise the latest results of his research. With index.

The manuscript no 35 of the Manuscript Collection of the John Rylands Library in Manchester contains a Turkish text in Latin script from the Diyarbakır region dated 1768. The text represents verses from the Gospels and Old Testament, religious teachings and quotations. The Turkish-language transcription takes up 32 folios. The author, Father Gery Desiré, remains a mystery. The Archives of the Capucin Friars in Paris do not seem to hold any mention of missionary activities in eastern Anatolia during the 18th century. A comment on folio 11 v of the manuscript suggests that the Turkish-language texts were used by Father Desiré in “converting” Armenians who spoke Turkish to Catholicism. The present volume consists of the French version by Father Desiré, the Turkish version in Latin script by Father Desiré, the Turkish text in modern transcription, an English translation of the Turkish text, and a study of the language of this extraordinary artefact.

Die Sandschyra der Sarbagïš. Eine Stammeschronik von Japar Kenciev. Aus dem Kirgisischen übersetzt und kommentiert von Gundula Salk.

Sandschyra: Das ist die informelle Geschichte der ethnischen Formation, der integrativen Gesellschaft, der inneren Politik und der Begegnung untereinander – nicht die Geschichte der „nomadischen Außenpolitik“ und ethnischen Grenzen. Das Wesen der Sandschyra ist vorrangig die Frage: „Was und wer sind wir 'Stamm'?“ Da diese einst mündliche Tradition unter dem kirgisischen Stamm der Sarbagis besonders gut bewahrt ist, ist sie eine Quelle für die verschiedenen Aspekte der möglichen Herkunft, der Stammesformation und der Zusammensetzung. Aitiologien für das zoomorphe Ethnonym (bagis ‚Elch‘), dessen Heimat auch Forscher im südlichen Sibirien vermutet haben, gehören zum mythischen Zeitkonzept der dark ages, also wohl vor 1700. Der Entwurf eines „genealogischen Organigramms“ der einzelnen Stammeseinheiten spricht für die Entwicklung von „heroisch-dynastischen Linien“ der Clan-Akteure seit der Wende zum recent past, also wohl nach 1700. Tatsächlich hatten die Sarbagïš jene player hervorgebracht, welche die gesellschaftliche Situation dann vor allem seit dem 19. Jahrhundert taktisch, militärisch und politisch gestaltet haben. Die Verfasserin, seit langem mit dem kirgisischen Stammeswesen befasst, zeigt diesen Leitfaden anhand der Stammesmorphologie.

Der 80. Geburtstag unseres Freundes, Lehrers und Kollegen György Hazai war uns Anlass, eine größere Anzahl seiner maßgeblichen Aufsätze, die über eine Vielzahl internationaler Zeitschriften, Kongressbände und Festschriften verstreut sind, zusammenzustellen und damit Zugang zu diesem Wissensschatz für eine Leserschaft zu ebnen, die nicht nur turkologischen und osmanistischen Forschungsinteressen nachgeht, sondern auch in benachbarten Disziplinen ihre Schwerpunkte hat. Dieser Auswahlband gibt einen Überblick über ein mehr als 50 Jahre umfassendes turkologisches Lebenswerk, das noch immer aktuell, anregend und zukunftsweisend genannt werden darf. Aus der Fülle der Aufsätze haben wir diejenigen ausgewählt, die sich den Schwerpunkten Turkologie und osmanische Geschichte Osmanische und türkeitürkische Sprachgeschichte Transkriptionstexte Dialekte Historische Urkunden Alttürkische Studien zuordnen lassen.

53rd Annual Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference.

Proceedings of the 49th Permanent International Altaistic Conference, Berlin, July 30 – August 4, 2006.

Das vorliegende Buch ist die Edition eines für die Geschichte des Türkischen wichtigen Sprachdenkmals. Das Werk Kissa-i Yusuf von Ali (1233) wurde für die Turkologie das erste Mal durch die von Th. Houtsma veröffentlichten Ausschnitte bekannt (Ein alttürkisches Gedicht, ZDMG 43, 1889, 69-98). C. Brockelmann (1868–1956), der später Alis Werk studierte (1917), wies schon im ersten Satz seiner detaillierten Bearbeitung darauf hin, dass man diese Yusuf-Geschichte als 'das drittälteste Literaturdenkmal türkischer Sprache aus muslimischer Zeit' ansehen kann. Er unterstrich in seiner gründlichen Analyse nicht nur den einzigartigen Charakters des Werkes, sondern erläuterte damit zugleich auch, warum der Text im Titel der Studie als 'der älteste Vorläufer der osmanischen Literatur' bezeichnet wurde. Das Werk von Ali leitet in der Tat eine wichtige Periode in der Geschichte der türkischen Sprache ein, deren Beginn um die Wende des 13. zum 14. Jahrhundert anzusetzen ist. Texte von Celaleddin Rumi und Sultan Velet markieren diese Periode, die zur Blütezeit der altosmanischen/ altanatolisch-türkischen Literatur überleitet. Was die Struktur des Sprachdenkmals selbst betrifft, scheint sie derjenigen nahe zu stehen, die in den Texten 'gemischten Charakters' anzutreffen ist. In Alis Werk wird zum ersten Mal die sprachliche Vielfalt dokumentiert, die für viele Sprachdenkmäler der späteren Jahrhunderte charakteristisch ist. Die vorliegende Textedition und -analyse schafft die notwendige Grundlage, um diese Besonderheit näher kennen zu lernen.

Die Aqtaghliq Hodjilar sind ein Zweig der Naqshbandiya in Zentralasien, der gemeinsam mit ihren Rivalen, den Qarataghliq Hodjilar, entscheidend das religiöse, soziale und politische Leben Xinjiangs von der zweiten Hälfte des 16. bis in die Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts bestimmte und nachhaltig prägte. Ihr Wirken ist vorwiegend in Hagiographien festgehalten, doch sind bislang nur wenige, hauptsächlich den Qarataghliq Hodjilar gewidmete Schriften bekannt. In den bisherigen europäischen Studien wurden die chinesischen Forschungen kaum berücksichtigt. Mit der vorliegenden Edition von Silsilat az-Zahab, die die wissenschaftliche Zusammenarbeit zwischen Forschern in Europa und Xinjiang befördern möchte, wird eine in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts auf caghatai-uigurisch verfasste Handschrift (nach heutigem Wissensstand ein Unikat) erstmalig publiziert und mit einem Kommentar und einer ausführlichen deutschen Paraphrase versehen. • Die Handschrift gibt neue Einblicke in das Selbstverständnis der Aqtaghliq Hodjilar. Neben Legenden über ihren berühmtesten Vertreter Afaq Hodja, seine Vorfahren, Frauen und Nachkommen sowie Berichten über politische Machtwechsel finden sich darin wertvolle Darstellungen ihrer Liebesmystik – sie benannten sich nach ihr als Ishqiya – und ihrer rituellen Praktiken.

One of the most important, earliest and most thorough discussions on the sense or nonsense of polygamous practice involved the pioneer of Ottoman feminism, Fatma Aliye (1862-1936) and the traditionalist and jurist, Mahmut Esat (1855-1918). Their views were published in a three-chapter book entitled Ta’addüd-i Zevcat Zeyl (Continuation [of the Debate] on Polygamy) in 1316/1898-99 in Istanbul. The first chapter contains Fatma Aliye’s critical reaction to some articles by Mahmut Esat, which he had published in the newspaper Ma’lumat. The second chapter is Mahmut Esat’s answer to Fatma Aliye’s views and questions concerning polygamy, and the third contains his reaction to Ismail Gaspirali’s (1851-1914) attack on polygamy. Ta’addüd-i Zevcat Zeyl is also a reaction to the image of the oriental woman, predominant in the West, and it fights the Western notion that the Ottomans were polygamous and that Islam was responsible for this. Ta’addüd-i Zevcat Zeyl is a polemical work, written as a dialogue. The edition presented here consists of a modern Turkish rendition of the Ta’addüd-i Zevcat Zeyl, a transcription of the original, and a facsimile of the work. Problems of Ottoman syntax and grammar have been resolved in a way designed to make the text better understood in modern Turkish.

Die ausgewählten Schriften Peter Ziemes verdeutlichen den Schwerpunkt seiner wissenschaftlichen Tätigkeit, die Erforschung des buddhistischen Schrifttums der Alten Türken, vor allem auf der Grundlage der Textfragmente der Berliner Turfansammlung. Eine umfassende, monographische Studie zum alttürkischen Buddhismus ist wegen der noch nicht abgeschlossenen Bearbeitung der Quellen und der Neufunde uigurischer Handschriften bis heute weltweit ein Desideratum geblieben. P. Ziemes Untersuchungen zu diesem Thema sind international hoch geschätzt und werden sowohl von Fachkollegen wie auch von den Kollegen in den Nachbardisziplinen regelmäßig zitiert. Er selbst hat seinen im vorliegenden Sammelband veröffentlichten Aufsätzen Addenda und Corrigenda beigefügt. Die Herausgeber haben die Studien durch mehrere Indices, wie einen Sachindex, einen Wortindex, einen Index der publizierten und zitierten buddhistischen Werke, einen Index der publizierten und zitierten Turfanfragmente sowie Indices zu Personen- und Ortsnamen für die Wissenschaft weiter erschlossen. Zwei in russischer Sprache veröffentlichten Aufsätzen wurden deutsche Übersetzungen beigefügt.