Mercury in Old Uyghur

Mercury, accepted as a harmful chemical today, is widely used in many fields by various nations as it was used in ancient times. Nations who believed in this element’s changing and transforming properties believed that it transformed worthless metals into gold, a precious metal, and thus placed merc...

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Main Author: Hacer Tokyürek
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Istanbul University Press 2023-12-01
Series:Türkiyat Mecmuası
Subjects:
Online Access:https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/18655E0AD27C41E8B160F563EA82BB5C
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author Hacer Tokyürek
author_facet Hacer Tokyürek
author_sort Hacer Tokyürek
collection DOAJ
description Mercury, accepted as a harmful chemical today, is widely used in many fields by various nations as it was used in ancient times. Nations who believed in this element’s changing and transforming properties believed that it transformed worthless metals into gold, a precious metal, and thus placed mercury in an important place in alchemy. In addition, mercury, which has an essential place in the science of medicine, has been combined with various plants or mixture included in drug compositions and used for therapeutic purposes. Mercury, used in Āyurvedic medicine, especially Indian medicine, is also included in yogic practice, considered among the sub-branches of Āyurveda. When the Old Uyghur texts are examined, the words that mean ‘mercury’, which appear in two different ways as könä suvı ‘mercury’ and zımıg ‘mercury’, are also used to transform worthless metals into gold, as well as to transform a worthless human into a divine body, as stated above. In addition, mercury is also included in various drug components for different purposes in medicine. This article aims to determine the words used for mercury in Old Uyghur, and the meanings and purposes of these words. Again, to show the reading differences in the text, and the movement over the read texts, the original texts are given in the article, and the text is transliterated again. So, the differences in reading and interpretation are reflected in the text.
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series Türkiyat Mecmuası
spelling doaj-art-c23432a74f934b96b520e3ec67c68b1e2025-08-20T03:53:01ZengIstanbul University PressTürkiyat Mecmuası2651-31882023-12-0133253556910.26650/iuturkiyat.1351136123456Mercury in Old UyghurHacer Tokyürek0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0008-1213Erciyes Üniversitesi, Kayseri, TurkiyeMercury, accepted as a harmful chemical today, is widely used in many fields by various nations as it was used in ancient times. Nations who believed in this element’s changing and transforming properties believed that it transformed worthless metals into gold, a precious metal, and thus placed mercury in an important place in alchemy. In addition, mercury, which has an essential place in the science of medicine, has been combined with various plants or mixture included in drug compositions and used for therapeutic purposes. Mercury, used in Āyurvedic medicine, especially Indian medicine, is also included in yogic practice, considered among the sub-branches of Āyurveda. When the Old Uyghur texts are examined, the words that mean ‘mercury’, which appear in two different ways as könä suvı ‘mercury’ and zımıg ‘mercury’, are also used to transform worthless metals into gold, as well as to transform a worthless human into a divine body, as stated above. In addition, mercury is also included in various drug components for different purposes in medicine. This article aims to determine the words used for mercury in Old Uyghur, and the meanings and purposes of these words. Again, to show the reading differences in the text, and the movement over the read texts, the original texts are given in the article, and the text is transliterated again. So, the differences in reading and interpretation are reflected in the text.https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/18655E0AD27C41E8B160F563EA82BB5Cold uyghuralchemyāyurvedakönä suvı ‘mercury’zımıg ‘mercury’
spellingShingle Hacer Tokyürek
Mercury in Old Uyghur
Türkiyat Mecmuası
old uyghur
alchemy
āyurveda
könä suvı ‘mercury’
zımıg ‘mercury’
title Mercury in Old Uyghur
title_full Mercury in Old Uyghur
title_fullStr Mercury in Old Uyghur
title_full_unstemmed Mercury in Old Uyghur
title_short Mercury in Old Uyghur
title_sort mercury in old uyghur
topic old uyghur
alchemy
āyurveda
könä suvı ‘mercury’
zımıg ‘mercury’
url https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/18655E0AD27C41E8B160F563EA82BB5C
work_keys_str_mv AT hacertokyurek mercuryinolduyghur