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Islam Akhun




Islam Akhun was an Uyghur con-man who forged numerous Sino-Indian manuscripts on Birch Bark and passed them off as ancient Khotan ese manuscripts. Through George Macartney and Nikolai Petrovsky , the British and Russian consuls in Kashgar , his works found their way into museums in London and St. Petersburg and fooled some of the most brilliant Linguists of their time, including Dr. Rudolf Hoernle . Dr. Hoernle published papers based on these manuscripts and tried, unsuccessfully, to decipher these pseudo- Brahmi manuscripts.

Doubting the authenticity of the works, Sir Aurel Stein met with Islam Akhun in Khotan in the spring of 1901 . Stein questioned Akhun on the manuscripts and concluded that the manuscripts were fake. Eventually, he exposed Akhun for imitating Brahmi characters and inventing similar-looking characters.


REFERENCES

  • Baumer, Christoph (2000). Southern Silk Road: In the Footsteps of Sir Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin. Orchid Press. ISBN 974-8304-38-8.


  • Hopkirk, Peter (1980). Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 0-87023-435-8.