the ‘outside’ other 77
and Syrian-Turkic epitaphs. Th ey were found on the territories of the
Nestorians in the northern parts of the T’ien-shan region and date
from the second half of the eighth until the mid-fourteenth century.
Analogies are also registered in Syria (the fi ft h-sixth century) and in
the neighboring regions. Th erefore, this ritual was strictly kept in the
areas where Syrian people were settled as well as in the regions of
Middle Asia, where the Turkic population was Christian.^240 Th e earli-
est epitaphs from the Semirechie are dated to the late eighth century
and continued the tradition of putting such monuments in Merv,
Samarkand, and Urgut where analogous funeral stones are dated to
the sixth-seventh century. Th e inscriptions usually consist of a date
according to the Turkic cyclic (so-called ‘animal’) calendar, the names
of the deceased as well as the names of the parents. Th e epitaphs are
clear evidence of the combination of elements from both languages.^241
Syrian writing was used in the territories of present-day Northern
Kirghizstan from the conversion to Christianity (the late eighth-ninth
century) until the downfall of the Nestorian municipalities in Semire-
chie in the mid-fourteenth century.^242
Th ere were pagans as well as Manichaeans and Nestorians among
the Uighurs^243 as was typical for Asia, where all world religions (Chris-
tianity, Zoroastrism, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, and Manichaeism)
co-existed among various tribal cults.^244
Th e Bulgars were an exception to a certain extent because in 864
A.D. they were converted to Christianity and adopted the religion
of their main rival, the Byzantine Empire. Until that time they per-
sistently imposed their pantheon, their religion and built up several
temples of their God of Heaven and Sun.^245 Th e Philippi inscription
from 837 A.D. is very indicative in this respect:
Persian, by Lord appointed archon of the many Bulgars, sent Isboul the
kaukhan, and gave him an army, and the ichirgü-boila, and the kana-
kolobur. And the kaukhan to the Smolyans... Th e one who seeks the
truth, the Lord sees, and the one who lies—the Lord sees. Th e Bulgars(^240) Shifman 1987, 85–90; Beliaev 2000 (2nd ed.), 229.
(^241) Beliaev 2000 (2nd ed.), 229.
(^242) Beliaev 2000 (2nd ed.), 253 and n. 147.
(^243) Minorsky 1978, 283; Mackerras 1990, 333.
(^244) Details see in, Litvinsky 1996, 421–431; Synkretismus 1987; Roux 1984.
(^245) See Stepanov 1999, 156–160, with literature cited there.