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Until the late 15th century, knowledge of Ptolemy’s Almagest in the Latin West was constituted by Gerard of Cremona’s translation from Arabic into Latin. The text of Gerard’s translation has been examined carefully and its dependence on two different Arabic versions is well studied. However, the tables of Gerard’s Latin Almagest have not been scrutinized, and the relation to their Arabic or Greek counterparts has not been examined. In this article, I will analyze the historical mathematical structure of tables in Gerard’s Latin Almagest translated from the Arabic in comparison to their Arabic and Greek precursors. While Gerard’s text has proved to be a faithful translation from Arabic templates, some of the tables will turn out to be different. Fundamental tables for, for example, the chord interpolation values, declination, and rising times appear to have been recomputed in order to match Ptolemy’s proofs and paradigm computations, which, in contrast, generally diverge in both Greek and Arabic tradition with the tables. It remains unclear if Gerard himself or someone in his company recalculated these tables and thus deliberately aimed to correct the ancient classic of astronomy. By a systematic analysis of these tables, I intend to provide a novel perspective on the medieval transmission and translation of knowledge, its cross-cultural exchange, and especially the practice of Gerard of Cremona and his collaborator(s).

In this paper we would like to introduce two newly identified Old Uyghur fragments kept in the Research Department of Dunhuang Academy, China. The first one (D0913) is a small fragment which we identified as part of another copy of the Ci’en zhuan 慈恩轉, namely of a colophon to the 4th book of the Old Uyghur translation. The second one (D0623) written on the verso side of a Chinese Buddhist scroll of T. 643 is an Old Uyghur poem which can be compared to the Ratnasūrya avadāna.

This paper offers the edition of SI 4485 and SI 4958, two manuscripts of the Old Uighur section of the Serindia Collection of the IOM written in alliterating verses. Their contents are praises on Maitreya, the future Buddha. The author tries to show why praises on Maitreya like the two presented here were written. He argues that it was to advocate the preservation of Buddhism through proving the superiority of the Maitreya cult over other religions in the current viral times of the Yuan.

The verso of a scroll of the Old Uyghur version of the Skiz ykmk yaruk sudur contains an Old Uyghur translation of the Kaimeng yaoxun 開蒙要訓, a textbook for learning Chinese which is known from the Dunhuang finds only. The Uyghur fragments of this version are preserved in the Serindia Collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences as well as in the Turfan Collection of the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In this paper one section is given in transliteration, transcription and in translation based on the Chinese Vorlage.

In this paper, I would like to discuss a minor point that does not alter any of the greatissues connected to the study of the Kutadgu Bilig. I used mainly the translation of Robert Dankoff which has already inspired many scholars who are engaged in the study of the Karakhanid literature. Although well-known, I would like to mention that R. Dankoff’s introduction, too, gives full justice to Yūsuf’s masterpiece. Working on the Old Uigur fragments I always had an eye open to the Karakhanid literature in the western region of Turkistan to find something worth to compare with the East. This time, I am able to present a small piece that opens the curtain a little bit.

The veneration of Maitreya is one of the important specifics of Old Uyghur Buddhism. There are numerous praises expressing the fervent wish to meet Maitreya, the Buddha of the future. Many of these praises are written in quatrains with strophic alliteration. In this paper, three fragments of the Serindia Collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IOM, RAS) are published. Of special interest are some probable references to Chan Buddhism.

Annemarie von Gabain was an eminent scholar in many fields of Central Asian studies, her main interest was research of the Old Uyghur texts from Turfan. The paper illustrates shortly her life and some of her research areas and works.

Berlin Turfan Koleksiyonu'nda bulunan Eski Uygurca fragmanı U 4830 (T II Y 6) burada Dharmaśarīrasūtra (Foshuo) fashen jing (佛説) 法身 經 (T.XVII.0766.0699b18-700c08)'in orijinal Çince pasajı ile birlikte düzenlenmiş ve karşılaştırılmıştır. Sanskritçe / Eski Uygurca iki dilli metin parçaları zaten biliniyordu. Burada yayınlanan fragman bir kez daha Uygur Budistlerinin sûtrayla veya belki de daha genel olarak dogmatik terimler dizisiyle ilgilendiğini kanıtlıyor., The Old Uyghur fragment U 4830 (T II Y 6) of the Berlin Turfan Collection is edited and compared here together with the original Chinese passage of the Dharmaśarīrasūtra (Foshuo) fashen jing (佛説)法身經 (T.XVII.0766.0699b18-700c08). Bilingual Sanskrit/Old Uyghur fragments of the text were already known. The piece published here testifies once more that Uyghur Buddhists studied on this sūtra or, more generally, on dogmatic terms., Das altuigurische Fragment U 4830 (T II Y 6) der Berliner Turfan-Sammlung wird hier zusammen mit der originalen chinesischen Passage des Dharmaśarīrasūtra (Foshuo) fashen jing (佛説)法身經(T.XVII.0766.0699b18-700c08) ediert und verglichen. Bilinguale sanskritische/altuigurische Fragmente Textes waren bereits bekannt. Das hier veröffentlichte Bruchstück bezeugt einmal mehr, daß bei den uigurischen Buddhisten ein Interesse für das Sūtra oder vielleicht sogar ganz allgemein für dogmatische Begriffsreihen bestand.

The temple banner IB 4781 of the former Ethnological Museum in Berlin (today: Hermitage Museum ВД 585) originates from Qočo (Dakianusšahri: afterwards D 222). A. Grünwedel gave its detailed description, but after his publication in 1905 it remained more or less untouched. The picture is based on an overall composition in which individual passages from the sutra have been integrated. The groups of figures arranged in the cloud scenes were examined in detail in Grünwedel's description. They are mostly bodhisattvas. In depicting the figures sitting around the Buddhas the painter has included figures seen from behind, so that one can correctly imagine a circle, which of course should indicate that all the figures are concentrated on the Buddha. The 10 text cartouches contain quotations in Old Uygur based on the Chinese text of the Lotus sutra. They are read here for the first time. In the paper these cartouche texts are studied as well as the names of the donors on the bottom of the temple banner.