Erica C.D. Hunter: "Syriac and Sogdian at Turfan:
Questions of Audience and Transmission"
[https://hcbss.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large-scaled/public/ecdh.image_.jpg?itok=Vx7gBIa-]
November 5, 2015 - 6:00pm
Levinthal Hall, Stanford Humanities Center Map<http://shc.stanford.edu/about/contact-us>
Free and open to the public
Abstract:
In the opening decade of the 20th century, the German
Turfan Expedition found over a thousand fragments at the monastery site of
Bulayïq on the outskirts of Turfan. Approximately 500 of the fragments were in
the Syriac language, the remainder were in Sogdian, but written in
Syriac-script. The Syriac manuscripts largely are liturgical or biblical,
including many from the Psalter, whereas the Sogdian manuscripts cover a much
wider range of genres, most notably hagiographies and ascetical literature. The
paper discusses what this distribution of genres reveals about the Christian
communities at Turfan, as well as commenting on the transmission of material
from the 'mother-church' in Mesopotamia and Central Asia.
Bio:
Dr. Erica C.D. Hunter is Head of Department and Senior
Lecturer in Eastern Christianity, Dept. for the Study of Religions, SOAS. She
is Co-chair, Centre of World Christianity, Dept. for the Study of Religions,
SOAS, University of London. She was Principal Investigator (together with Prof.
Nicholas Sims-Williams FBA) of the AHRC-funded project, 'The transmission of
Christian texts from Turfan' (2012-2015). Between 2008-2011 she was Principal
Investigator for the AHRC-funded project 'The Christian Library from Turfan'
which catalogued the Syriac manuscripts from Turfan. The catalogue by Erica C D
Hunter and Mark Dickens Syriac Texts from the Berlin Turfan Collection <http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/19424/>
(Stuttgart, Steiner Verlag: 2014) has been published as part of the series:
Verzeichnis der Orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, Syrische
Handschriften). Her research interests focus on Syriac Christianity in
Mesopotamia and its outreach to Central Asia and China.
Event Sponsor:
Ho Center for Buddhist Studies
Contact Email:
More Information:
Co-sponsor: The Department of Religious Studies<http://religiousstudies.stanford.edu>
This event belongs to the following series Silk Road
Lectures<https://hcbss.stanford.edu/events/series/silk-road-lectures>
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Posted by: Connie Chin <csquare@stanford.edu>
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