A seminar was held to mark the millenarian anniversary of the birth of Uygur pundit Mahmud Kashghari on Tuesday in Kashi, a city in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The Turkish dictionary compiled by the linguist, Diwanu Lughat at-Turk, is regarded as a key document for the research of history, geography, art and tradition in Xinjiang and central Asian nations.

The scholar, born to a royal family of Qarakhanids, a Turkic dynasty that rolled in Transoxania in Central Asia in 999-1211, completed the lexicon 930 years ago.

Researchers attending the seminar said that Mahmud Kashghari spent 15 years touring

In the explanation to the word "Qin," or the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC), China's first united feudal regime, the lexicon pointed out that the China's central regions and its western territory were inseparable parts, and both the people in China's central regions and Qarakhanids were members of the big family of the Chinese nation.

Researchers said that studies on the lexicon is of great significance to the research of Mahmud Kashghari, as few other documents kept record about the Uygur scholar.

The tomb of the royal scholar is now open to researchers and tourists after a refit.

(Xinhua News Agency October 5, 2005)