Tumurtogoo D., Cecegdari G. (ed.) Mongolian monuments in 'Phags-pa script

Introduction, transliteration, transcription and bibliography — Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, 2010. — ix, 279 p. (Language and Linguistics Monograph Series 42) — ISBN: 9789860250152The 'Phags-pa script represents one of the ancient scripts not only of Mongols but also of many oriental nations. When Khubilai Khan set up a great empire of Yuan dynasty in the 13th century, it comprised the Chinese, Jurchens, Mongols, Uighurs, Turks and Tibetans. The state policy of Khubilai Khan was directed to unify all these different people spoken by different languages and dialects through a new specific script that is able to serve equally to all of them. This new script is known as "'Phags-pa script" by the name of its creator. The 'Phags-pa script was in active use for about a hundred year during the Yuan period, and obviously with a collapse of the empire, it was pressed out of public use. Nonetheless, there are a great number of Chinese, Mongolian, Sanskrit and Tibetan sources on the subject of oriental cultures, histories and Buddhist literature written in 'Phags-pa script that has reached our days and attracts the attention of many scholars. Among them, the Mongolian sources written in 'Phags-pa script play a significant role being not only the monuments of Middle Mongolian language, but also being the precious documents of state policy, jurisdiction, Buddhism and many other issues of Yuan administration. The documents in 'Phags-pa script attracted the attention of many scholars starting at the end of the 19th century; the documents have began to be collected and studied in a form of inscriptions, manuscripts, xylographical fragments, and Paizi letters and eto.