Islam Akhun

Akhoond

An akhoond is a Persian name for a Muslim cleric, common in Iran, Afghanistan and Azerbaijan. The Dungani word for imam "ahond", in Mandarin "阿訇", used in particular by the Dungans, also derives from this term....

was an Uyghur

Uyghur people

The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...

 con-man who forged numerous Sino-Indian manuscripts on birch bark

Birch bark document

A birch bark document is a document written on pieces of birch bark. Such documents existed in several cultures. For instance, some Gandharan Buddhist texts have been found written on birch bark and preserved in clay jars....

 and passed them off as ancient Khotan

Khotan

Hotan , or Hetian , also spelled Khotan, is the seat of the Hotan Prefecture in Xinjiang, China. It was previously known in Chinese as 于窴/於窴 and to 19th-century European explorers as Ilchi....

ese manuscripts. Through George McCartney and Nikolai Petrovsky

Nikolai Petrovsky

Nikolay Fyodorovich Petrovsky was the Russian consul-general in Kashgar from 1882 until 1902.Petrovsky's main adversary during his time in Central Asia was George McCartney, his English counterpart. The competition between their two countries for influence in Central Asia is known as the Great Game...

, the British

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

 and Russian consuls in Kashgar

Kashgar

Kashgar or Kashi is an oasis city with approximately 350,000 residents in the western part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Kashgar is the administrative centre of Kashgar Prefecture which has an area of 162,000 km² and a population of approximately...

, his works found their way into museums in London and St. Petersburg and fooled some of the most brilliant linguists

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

 of their time, including Dr. Rudolf Hoernle. Dr. Hoernle published papers based on these manuscripts and tried, unsuccessfully, to decipher these pseudo-Brahmi

Brāhmī script

Brāhmī is the modern name given to the oldest members of the Brahmic family of scripts. The best-known Brāhmī inscriptions are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka in north-central India, dated to the 3rd century BCE. These are traditionally considered to be early known examples of Brāhmī writing...

 manuscripts.

Doubting the authenticity of the works, Sir Aurel Stein

Marc Aurel Stein

Sir Marc Aurel Stein KCIE, FBA was a Hungarian archaeologist, primarily known for his explorations and archaeological discoveries in Central Asia. He was also a professor at various Indian universities.-Early life:Stein was born in Budapest into a Jewish family...

 met with Islam Akhun in Khotan

Khotan

Hotan , or Hetian , also spelled Khotan, is the seat of the Hotan Prefecture in Xinjiang, China. It was previously known in Chinese as 于窴/於窴 and to 19th-century European explorers as Ilchi....

 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.