Mittwoch, 05. November 2025, 17:00 - 18:30 iCal
Ringvorlesung Turkologie Wintersemester 2025/2026
Constructing Knowledge: The Formation of the Turkistan Collection at the Berlin State Library by Aysima Mirsultan
Hörsaal (1F-01-38), Institut für Orientalistik
Spitalgasse 2, Hof 4, 1090 Wien
Antrittsvorlesung, Public Lecture, Vortrag
Abstract:
This talk offers an overview of the Central Asian manuscript holdings in the Oriental Department of the Berlin State Library, one of Europe’s most significant repositories of oriental manuscripts. The library houses more than 43,000 manuscripts in over 140 languages, including a substantial collection from Central Asia. Among its most prominent assets are over 40,000 fragments brought back from the Turfan expeditions (1902–1914), comprising a multilingual corpus in Old Uighur, Tocharian, Sogdian, Sanskrit, and other languages. In addition to these fragments, the library holds a considerable number of Arabic, Persian, and Chaghatay manuscripts acquired through renowned orientalists and antiquarians. The Chaghatay collection includes not only literary works by poets such as ʿAlī Shīr Navā’ī and Mīrzā Bayqara, some of which are written in the Old Uyghur script, but also rare premodern Uyghur booklets originating from Kashgar and Turfan. Ongoing restoration efforts and cataloguing activities, including recent digital initiatives such as Qalamos, have been instrumental in preserving these materials and expanding scholarly access to this exceptional corpus of Central Asian cultural heritage.
Bio:
Aysima Mirsultan is a librarian at the East Asian Department of the Berlin State Library. She is the author of Die alttürkische Xuanzang-Biographie X (Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010), as well as other books and articles. She is also the co-author of Auf kaiserlichen Befehl erstelltes Wörterbuch des Mandschurischen in fünf Sprachen: „Fünfsprachenspiegel“ (Harrassowitz Verlag, 2013), and the co-editor of Community Still Matters: Uyghur Culture and Society in Central Asian Context (NIAS Press, 2022), along with other edited volumes. After completing her B.A. in Social Science and Uyghur Literature at Xinjiang University in Ürümchi, she earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität), specializing in Sinology, Turkology, and Central Asian Studies. Her research focuses on Old Uyghur and Chaghatai manuscripts, Uyghur family law, and linguistic peculiarities from ancient to modern Uyghur.
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Kontakt
Ayse Dilsiz Hartmuth
Institut für Orientalistik
+43-1-4277-43405
ayse.dilsiz.hartmuth@univie.ac.at
Erstellt am Dienstag, 07. Oktober 2025, 09:27
Letzte Änderung am Dienstag, 21. Oktober 2025, 11:45