Book review

Abstract

The volume under review here is based on the author’s doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Szeged in 2016, which aimed to present a critical edition of the Old Uyghur documents related to the postal relay system of the Mongol Empire. The author has published several articles on the topic from the viewpoint of the history of the Mongol Empire,1 and he intended this volume to provide the basis of further historical investigation. The first part of the volume is allotted to the introduction (pp. 9–55), which consists of four sections (1.1–1.4.). The general introduction (1.1.) explains trends in historical research on the Mongol Empire during the past quarter century, which reveal that the Mongols accelerated economic, cultural and religious exchanges across Eurasia during the 13th–14th centuries. Clearly, such exchanges in the premodern ages would have required physical and material facilities for human transportation. This viewpoint has led the author as well as many Mongolists to the study of the postal relay system (Mong. ǰam ~ Tü. yam > Pers. yām) of the Mongol Empire. Previous studies have mainly been based on the Chinese and Persian narrative sources; however, the author raises the significance of the Old Uyghur secular documents as primary sources from Central Asia, the least studied region of the Mongol dominion. Following the research history of the Old Uyghur secular texts (1.2.), the author offers descriptions of the Old Uyghur text materials edited in the volume, amounting to 67 in total (1.3.). They are briefly divided into two categories: official documents (1.3.1.1) and private documents (1.3.1.2.). The 45 official documents are classified into provision orders (PO01–PO24), käzig-orders (Käz01–Käz11), miscellaneous orders (OMis01–OMis03), official accounts (OAcc01– OAcc05), and official registers (OReg01–OReg02). Of the 17 private documents, 15 are designat-