Dr. Erica C. D. Hunter (University of Cambridge, UK)

The Nicene Creed at Turfan: MIK III 59

In the opening decade of the 20th century, the German Turfan Expeditions found more than 1000 paper fragments, written in Syriac and Sogdian (in both the Syriac and Sogdian scripts), at Turfan in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Province of western China. A hundred years later, the cataloguing of these fragments that are now housed in various institutions in Berlin, confirmed the identity of the site at Bulayiq (Xipang) as a Church of the East monastery. The bulk of the Syriac fragments are liturgical and uphold the Church of the East’s Dyophysite heritage: numerous exemplars of the Hudra have been found, and Mary is commemorated as the mother of Christ. The range of Sogdian material is more diverse, but includes East Syriac ascetical works, as well as a partial rendition of the Nicene Creed that was written in Sogdian script. The significance of this fragment (MIK III 59) was already recognised in the 1913 publication by Friedrich W. K. Müller, but the insertion of the Syriac incipit denoting the Creed and names suggesting private ownership, raise interesting questions which the paper will explore. Whatever the circumstances surrounding this unique fragment at Turfan, its presence demonstrates the transmission and knowledge of the Nicene Creed in the dioceses of the Church of East in Central and East Asia.

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