Gunnar Jarring

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How do you approach such a high-ranking man? A former diplomat, with posts in the Middle East, India, Washington and Moscow! Who has also been Swedish Ambassador for the United Nations and a special representative of the General Secretary.

Ambassador Gunnar Jarring and Margareta Hook in Gunnar Jarring's home in Sweden, 1998. Margareta is holding his latest book "Central Asian Turkic Place Names".

My question for him might seem simple: "How should I get my pronunciation of the 'back k - sound' in Uighur right?" This was in the mid-1980-s. My anxiety was unnecessary. Indeed he behaved and looked like a diplomat, but inside he was a humble and most pleasant man. He seemed pleased to meet someone else in Sweden interested in Uighur!

Outside the Uighur world Gunnar Jarring is probably the person who knows most of the Uighur language. Like all Swedish schoolchildren he had read the explorer Sven Hedin's book: "From Pole to Pole" and been fascinated by Central Asia.

One of his lecturers of linguistics at the University in Lund was the internationally acknowledged Uighur linguist Gustaf Raquette. Raquette had been a medical missionary at the Swedish Mission in East Turkestan. He inspired Jarring to study Uighur! So in l929 Jarring joined a group of Swedish missionaries travelling across Russia and the Pamir Mountains to Kashgar, where he stayed one year.

Jarring's love for the Uighur language has remained and has led to numerous publications. He has kindly given me several signed copies of the series Scripta Minora, like "Garments from Top to Toe - Eastern Turki Texts relating to articles of clothing, edited with translation, note and glossary". (Learn more about Uighur language)

Over the years he has collected all the texts that were printed at the Swedish Mission Printing Office in Kashgar from 1901 till l937. In 1991 he released a Bibliography about these texts: "Prints from Kashgar". He has donated his collection to the University Library of Lund. They have also received old manuscripts in Uighur.

By the way - when Gunnar Jarring was born 1907 into a farming family, his name was a very common Swedish name. Later on he changed to the Uighur word for "your friend" - Jarring!

For more information you can try to get hold of any of the following books or contact the Manuscript Department at the University Library in Lund.

Jarring, Gunnar
Prints from Kashghar. The printing office of the Swedish mission in
Eastern Turkestan. History and production with an attempt at a bibliography. - Stockholm,1991. ISBN 91-86884-04-2

Regarding the great collection of East Turkestan Manuscripts there is a short but rich description at: Ekstrom, P. & Ehrensvard, U.
"A Note on the Jarring Collection of Eastern Turki and Other Oriental Manuscripts in Lund University Library", page 187-191 in "Turcica et Orientalia. Studies in Honour of Gunnar Jarring on his eightieth birthday 12 October 1987". - Stockholm, 1988
ISBN 91-86884-02-6

The address of Manuscript Department of Lund University Library is MSS department, Lund University Library,
Box 3,S-221 00 LUND, Sweden.
Tel + 46 46 222 91 73, fax + 46 46 222 36 90,
e-mail: handskrift@lub.lu.se

Article added by Tughluk on Saturday, February 4, 2006