Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 370 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0370	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

of paper manufacture in Central Asia, will be found reproduced in the same Appendix. It
proves that the paper of the Judaeo-Persian document could not be distinguished in make
from the paper of other ancient documents (Chinese, Brāhmī) excavated by me at Dandān-Uiliq,
while on the other hand it was found to differ entirely in substance and structure from the modern
Khotan paper which has exclusively served as material for the forged MSS. and 'block prints'
from Islām Ākhūn's factory.

Thus there remains only the question as to whether the document was picked up in the
alleged place and manner, or obtained in the course of my excavations at some other ruin of
the site. Personally I am strongly inclined to credit the men's story; for the strict supervision
exercised over the labourers would have rendered the abstraction of objects, especially such
a relatively bulky one as the Chinese stucco inscription, distinctly difficult. But this question
fortunately does not affect in any way the conclusion to be drawn as to the age of the document,
or the historical and philological interest of its contents.

Historical
allusion in
Judaeo-Per-
sian letter. From Prof. Margoliouth's translation and notes, reproduced in Appendix C, it will be seen
that the document represents the much-mutilated fragment of a letter written by a Persian-speaking
Jew, and mainly relating to certain business affairs. Owing to the extent of the lost portions,
not a single line being complete, it has been impossible for Prof. Margoliouth to attempt to
make out a continuous sense; but more important from an antiquarian standpoint than the
general contents is the reference made in line 23 to the 'Ispahbud'. As pointed out by
Prof. Margoliouth, only one of the successive rulers of Tabaristān can be meant here, whose
distinctive title Ispahbud is well known from Muhammadan historians. As a reference to
Tabaristān is thus quite certain, Prof. Margoliouth proposes to identify the Yazīd named in
the same passage with the Muhammadan general of that name, son of Al-Muhallab, who is
known from Muhammadan chronicles to have conquered parts of Tabaristān in 717 A. D. On
the ground of other historical and philological observations, Prof. Margoliouth concludes that,
if this identification is correct, the letter containing this reference to the relations between the
Ispahbud and Yazīd is likely to have been written about 718 A. D.

Date of
document. The dating thus proposed can well be reconciled with the available archaeological evidence.
The fact of the Dandān-Uiliq site having been abandoned at the close of the eighth century furnishes
a definite chronological terminus ad quem for the Judaeo-Persian document; in the other direction
no fixed chronological limit can be deduced from the antiquarian observations and finds I made.
Considering the remarkable dryness of the atmosphere in the Khotan region, there is nothing
to preclude the possibility of a paper document, complete or fragmentary, remaining in fair
preservation for a considerable number of years, even when not protected by the sand nor specially
cared for. Hence the interval of fifty years which separates the date of our earliest Chinese
document, 768 A. D., from Prof. Margoliouth's conjectural dating of the Judaeo-Persian document
can in no way be considered a valid argument against the latter.

Relations
between
Tabaristān
and China. More difficult it may seem at the first glance to explain how a document written by a
Persian-speaking Jew of distant Tabaristān should have found its way into an outlying settle-
ment of Khotan. Yet Chinese historical records furnish evidence to meet any doubts that
might arise on this score. M. Chavannes' extracts from the T'ang Annals give us interesting
glimpses of the diplomatic relations which the rulers of Tabaristān maintained with China
during the eighth century⁴. Pressed hard by Muhammadan conquest, they naturally turned
for help to the great though distant power which asserted its hold over Sogdiana and even

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