The Turfanforschung (Turfan Studies) at the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities offers in 2019 a summer school providing an introduction to the field of Turfan Studies, which deals with the many languages and scripts used along the Silk Road as well as the histories and cultures of those who used them. The summer school will center around the two main languages of Turfan research. Sogdian, a middle Iranian language, was widely used as a lingua franca in Central Asia since the 1st c. A.C. Old Turkic was the language of Turkic nomads which had a strong influence on the Silk Road since the middle of the 6th c. After the migration of the Uyghurs it was also used as the main language in the Turfan area under Uyghur rule until 14th c.

The courses in this summer school will be given by the staff of the Turfanforschung and the Katalogisierung der Orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland: A. Kılıc Cengiz, A. Begmatov, S.-Ch. Raschmann, Ch. Reck, A. Yakup, P. Zieme, D. Durkin-Meisterernst. There will also be guest lectures by I. Colditz, M. Erdal, H. Fellner, B. Koller, J. P. Laut, M. Peyrot, L. Sander, N. Sims-Williams, M. Vér and J. Wilkens.

Date: August 26 - September 6, 2019
Period: two weeks, four seminars (each 90 min.) in a day
The participation is free.

In case of a high number of applications, we must emphasize that priority will be given to more qualified students first. When submitting your registration, please also include the following information: institution, educational qualifications, and field(s) of specialization.

Participation in the summer school is free of charge, however participants are responsible for their own accomodation in Berlin and travel costs. We have no financial support available.

Topics:

1. Scripts (Sogdian script, Uyghur script, Turkic Runic, Nestorian script, Manichaean script, Brāhmī script

2. Language: Old Turkic (language course with reading, lecture for linguistics)

3. Language: Sogdian (language course with reading, lecture for linguistics)

4. Language: Tocharian (lecture)

5. Turfan studies (history of the Turfan expeditions, Central Asian book culture, history, religions, research history)

Because a minimum number of participants are required for the summer school to take place, we ask for a binding registration by 24th May 2019 at rabuske@bbaw.de or in writing at: Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, AV Turfanforschung, Jägerstraße 22-23, 10117 Berlin