From Irena: “As always Friday’s cultural info provided by you was a delight. Ma’ani must have been quite a girl to have her own coat of arms.
“I tried to leave a comment on your site, but got caught out by the required Captcha phrase – I don’t know what this is.
Anyway, here is what I was going to say:
“A derivative of the Syrian/Aramaic script is still in use in Inner Mongolia (northern China). The Nestorians brought this script to Sogdiana (Samarkand), it was then adopted by the Uyghurs and through them by the Mongols. There is quite literally a twist to it though, as the Mongols turned it anti-clockwise so that it runs from top to bottom in order to emulate the Chinese script.
“I am attaching a couple of photos, the first one taken in Xanadu, the second was on the wall in a roadside restaurant.
Bye for now!
Irena. I’m putting in a great comment on ‘your’ posting from Erica Hunter herself:
“I read the comments about a derivative of the Syriac script in Mongolia – and that is the case. The use of vertical inscriptions is however not just influenced by Chinese but already occurs in inscriptions in south-east Turkey (the Tur abdin) in the first millennium”.