TURFAN AND THE CHRISTIANS OF THE SILK ROUTE

Last updated on: December 31, 2014 at 7:04 am by Philip Jenkins

TURFAN AND THE CHRISTIANS OF THE SILK ROUTE 2014-12-31T07:04:54-04:00 Philip Jenkins

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Some years ago, I published The Lost History of Christianity, which traced the early expansion of Christianity into Asia and Africa, as well as Europe. For perhaps a thousand years, Christianity flourished at least as well in Asia as in Europe, and that when we focus wholly on the Western side, we are missing a very great deal of the Christian story.

Much of my story concerned the Silk Route, which ran from Syria into China through Central Asia. This was in its day the central artery of transcontinental commerce, which allowed the phenomenal development of cities like Merv, in present day Turkmenistan – at the time, one of the largest urban settlements on the planet.

Besides its economic importance, the Silk Route was also a highway of ideas and faiths, which was used extensively by Muslims, Buddhists, Manichaeans, and of course Christians. From the fifth century through the thirteenth, this was the great missionary road used by the legendary Church of the East, the so-called Nestorians, from their base in Mesopotamia. The Church operated major centers at Merv, Kashgar, Samarkand and Herat (Afghanistan).

Although it is only one Christian site among hundreds that would once have existed, we get some sense of this lost world from the amazing oasis of Turfan, in what is now far north-western China. Its transcontinental connections made Turfan a natural hub for religious groups, who built settlements in the area. Even better, the dry climate allowed the survival of manuscripts that would assuredly have perished in other settings. Modern scholars have been amazed and delighted to uncover whole libraries in the region, including some of the richest surviving evidence for the Manichaean faith.

The Christian finds are no less spectacular. In the early twentieth century, a German expedition uncovered the site of a monastery at Bulayïq, with extensive library remains. Among the treasures were fragments of over a thousand manuscripts, dating between the ninth and twelfth centuries. (Still other manuscripts come from Dunhuang, a Silk Road station east of Turfan, but I will concentrate here on this latter collection.)

Some of the Turfan texts were written in Syriac, the church’s usual language, which is closely related to the Aramaic of Jesus’s own time. Others though were in the standard languages of the people who lived and traded in those parts, although written in Syriac script. One such tongue was Sogdian, from the people whose merchants ranged across Central Asia. Other documents were in Uyghur, the language of the people who still inhabit the area. Sogdian is connected to Iranian languages, while Uyghur is Turkic. The effort to translate and comprehend these documents still proceeds, almost a century after the initial finds. Many remain unpublished.

What is important about the Turfan documents is no particular single text – for instance, some spectacular new gospel find – but the total impression they give of the spiritual and cultural life of a thriving community so far removed from what we still stubbornly think of as the heart of medieval Christianity, in distant Europe.

The collection is a remarkable mixture of what we might think of as the exalted and the humble. Of course, the community had its Biblical and liturgical texts, psalters and hymnals, all absolutely necessary for the daily spiritual life that was its raison d’etre. Equally valuable were the ascetic writings that sustained and inspired the monks – excerpts from the great Syriac fathers, and works by such once-legendary Egyptian ascetics as Abba Isaiah and Macarius. Other items reflect popular religion – Christian prayer amulets, a book of oracles.

One Turfan text is a work by Evagrius Ponticus, from the region we would today call Northern Turkey. Evagrius was a leading figure of the fourth century church in the East Roman empire, who ended his career as an ascetic in the Egyptian desert. His writings exercised a vast influence on the emerging monastic world, and still, half a world away and several centuries later, the Turfan community still cherished a copy of his Antirrhetikos.

I note one striking point here. Recently, I posted about the mighty influence of Egyptian Christianity on the emerging churches of the British Isles. But here too, in East Asia, Egypt cast its long shadow.

We also find major works of scholarship, including histories of events that otherwise would be wholly lost to us. The collection includes a history of the Syrian city of Nisibis, the intellectual hub of the eastern Christian world. There are also Lives of saints like Serapion, and of John of Dailam (660-738). John was as critically important to expanding the faith in Central Asia as figures like Boniface would be in contemporary Germany and Western Europe.

A Sogdian-language Life of Yazdin and his disciple Pethion describes the martyrdom of missionaries struggling to make converts in Sassanid Persia, where the church’s deadliest enemies were not Roman pagans but Zoroastrian magi.

Today, what non-specialist remembers the name of Bishop Bar-Shabba? Yet the story of this great missionary, this great Church Father, survives in a Turfan text, originally written in Syriac and later translated into Sogdian. He lived during the Sassanian Empire that ruled Persia until the Muslim conquest of the seventh century. We hear how, at that time, he pushed the church’s frontier’s forward deep into Central Asia, establishing settlements of monks and nuns.

Bar-Shabba operated in such evocative places as northern Parthia and Margiana, in Bactria and Hyrcania. He founded monasteries and convents at Balkh and Herat, and reputedly became Merv’s founding bishop. The priests and deacons whom he settled “began to teach and to baptize, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and by the authority and power that they had received from the pious Lord Bar Shabba….. [and to him] power and might was given… over the unclean spirits.” (I take this quote from Christians in Asia before 1500, by Ian Gilman and Hans-Joachim Klimkeit).

Obviously, in describing these finds I am only offering the barest of outlines. Even so, it suggests the sheer scale of this lost eastern church, and its heroic struggles.

Previous Post

March 10, 2013

ILLTUD AND THE END OF A WORLD

Next Post

March 12, 2013 C.J. Mahaney Steps Down as President of Sovereign Grace Ministries

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What four things does the Pale Horse in Revelations bring upon the earth?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Wrath, power, redemption, and judgment Storms, earthquakes, floods, and darkness Sword, famine, plague, and wild beasts Silence, fire, blood, and pestilence