Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of History, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.

10.22059/jhss.2024.376209.473707

Abstract

Among various civilizational categorizations ever suggested, the Eastern-Western category is one the most accepted stereotypes. In the Eastern side of human civilization, without any doubt Iran and China, enjoying unique historical continuity, were indispensable pivots whose relations possessed meaningful connotations to the human civilization universally. Multiple authors have long investigated into the developments of Irano-Chinese relations yet the very matter of knowledge on China among the Iranians has not been individually studied so far. Thus, concentrating on the issue of the Iranian’s knowledge on China, this paper aims to trace out the stream of this knowledge down to the present day. To achieve to the mentioned end this study has employed “Historism” as its methodological approach for tracing, periodization and conceptualizing the developmental course of the Iranian’s knowledge on China. Our findings illustrate that the developmental course can be sequenced as follows: the era of Mythic-Epic Knowledge (the 7th to 14th centuries) where prominent classic authors like Tabari, Bal’ami or Dinwari display China as a far and powerful land in which all stuffs exist in its utopian perfection. The era of Interactive-Communicative Knowledge (the 14th to 16th centuries) where The Ilkhanid acknowledged the Chinese Ming dynasty as their elder brother. Books of Khawja Rashid al-Din Fazlallah, Bonakati, and Zakaria Qazvini contain firsthand information conveyed by the Chinese officials who visited Iran. The era of Reading Knowledge (the 19th to the first half of 20th century) where all authors owed to the western books and press all what they knew about China. Finally, the era of Academic Knowledge (the second half of 20th century) where following the establishment of modern state in the two countries and the inception of diplomatic dealings between them, the knowledge on China in Iran entered into the academic atmospheres and proceeded by figures like Abbas Iqbal, Ali Mazaheri and Abbas Tashakkori

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