The Mongol Empire at its height ruled an area of Eurasia stretching from eastern Europe to Korea, which posed very difficult administrative problems. One of these problems was communication. Kublai Khan considered himself the ruler of “All Under Heaven,” but not all of his subjects could communicate with one another.
So Kublai asked a Tibetan Buddhist monk named Drogön Chogyal Phagpa to devise a universal script that could render every language spoken in the empire. Phagpa modified the Tibetan alphabet; his 48-letter system could render any sound spoken under Mongol authority. The script was both an attempt at inclusion and a message to people considered disloyal that they’d better get on board. The new script, called Phagpa script (after its creator) or square script (because of its appearance), looked pretty cool:
Like his empire, Kublai’s attempt to create a universal writing system did not last long. The central government used the Phagpa script for about a hundred years, mostly in China, but the system never gained widespread acceptance among ordinary people. As the Mongol Empire crumbled, so did the new script’s influence.
So… what is Phagpa script, or something very much like it, doing on the wall of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua?
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