THE NAMES OF POSITIONS, RANKS AND TITLES IN THE OLD UYGHUR MONUMENTS

Abstract

Old Uyghur written monuments constitute an important part of the Old Turkic texts. The vast
number of the monuments and their various content provide them with a rich lexicon and lead them to
use interesting examples of various thematic word groups. Names of positions, ranks and titles are
among these thematic groups. These are common in the other Old Turkic written monuments,
especially in Orkhon-Yenisey Inscriptions, a lot of military ranks and titles were used in the
inscriptions. The use of these words in the Old Uyghur monuments which are of a religious content
and most of which are translations prove the ancient tradition of statehood of the Turks by showing
the stability of the military and official positions and titles. The use of these names of positions, ranks
and titles in the written monuments of the later periods and partly in the modern Turkic languages
shows that the Old Uyghur monuments played a transitional role in their development.