A treat for the scholar of under-represented languages and the history of Mongolia, this monumental work on the Old Turkic inscriptions of Mongolia remains the classic exploration of the field. Originally published in three volumes, this two volume set contains all of the original material. Radloff’s analysis of the the Orkhon Valley monuments includes presentations in the original Old Turkic, or Orkhom-Yenisey script, which may have its origins in the Syriac script. These monuments represent the earliest known Turkish language. The inscriptions derive from obelisks dated to the eighth century A.D. and they relate the legendary origins of the Turks, long before the sole association with Anatolia. Related are the period of cultural achievements, the troubles encountered with the Chinese, and their eventual liberation. The second and third volume continue the analysis with a grammatical outline of the language and the historical meaning of the inscriptions. The inscription from Tonyukuk is considered in the third volume, along with an examination of the role of Arabic sources in the larger picture of these fascinating records.

Vasilii Vasil’evich Radlov (1837-1918), also know as Wilhelm Radloff, was a Russian Orientalist, ethnographer, and Turkologist. He was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and helped to found the field of Turkology as well as the Ethnography Museum in St. Petersburg.