Origin In use from around the eighth century CE, derived from the Sogdian script.
The Old Uyghur alphabet reached the Uyghur Khaganate of the Mongol steppe through Sogdian traders, who had themselves adapted it from the Aramaic script, and was in turn adapted around 1204 CE, at the founding of the Mongol state, into the vertical Mongolian script still in use today. In its own right it served several religious communities of Central Asia rather than one: Manichaean, Buddhist and Christian texts all survive written in Old Uyghur, a reflection of the Silk Road communities that used it rather than a single tradition's own script.
Facts
Origins
Origin PeriodIn use from around the eighth century CE, derived from the Sogdian script. 1 Place of OriginThe Mongol and Central Asian steppe, reaching the Uyghur Khaganate from Sogdian traders whose own script traces back to Aramaic. 1 Attributions
TraditionUsed across Manichaean, Buddhist and Nestorian Christian communities in Central Asia before its later adoption for Turkic and Mongolian languages. 1 Identity
Script TypeA vertically-written abjad descended from the Sogdian script. 1 Script type (class) Connections
Associated With
Manichaean texts survive in Old Uyghur alongside the Buddhist and Christian material the same script also carried.
Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)
Derived From
Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)
Related To
Mongolian letter Ba records that its alphabet was adapted from Old Uyghur around 1204 CE, at the founding of the Mongol state.
Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)
Script Of
Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)
Sources
1. The World's Writing Systems
Peter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.), Oxford University Press, 1996the chapter on the Old Uyghur scriptView the Source Old Uyghur script (Wikipedia)
In Group: Semitic Script Family (Scripts and Alphabets), Lead sentence, classQuote, In Group: Semitic Script Family (Scripts and Alphabets), Lead sentence, class
It was an adaptation of the Aramaic alphabet used for texts with Buddhist, Manichaean and Christian content for 700-800 years in Turpan.
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