China in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh

Abstract

As a country which dominated many regions and peoples with different cultures and was always at the center of attention due to its deep influence on the changes of world history, Iran has had very strong links with its neighbors. Indeed, its status in the world history and its share in the history of human being can be recognized only through its contact and interactions with great neighboring powers. Among such cultures is the culture and civilization of China. In the pre-Islamic period, Iran had contacts with Chinese culture and civilization in various situations and via different ways and, from a certain period, Iranian ambassadors travelled to China regularly. Such extensive relations affected different aspects of Iranian culture and civilization and Persian poetry is the manifestation of such influences. Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh is one of the important sources for understanding the relations between ancient Iran and China and the influences of such relations. In spite of such extensive cultural, economical and political relations between the two countries, Ferdowsi’s knowledge about China, its geographical situation and various aspects of its culture and civilization is incomplete. In fact, like his contemporaries and owners of information sources, he does not give us precise information. If Shahanmeh is divided into mythological and historical parts, it is hard to distinguish between China as an historical country and mythological region because he himself has seldom distinguished between Eastern Turkistan, China and Far East. For this reason, the present research aims to, first, identify the geographical status of China and Machin and, then, specify the similarities and differences between mythological and historical China in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.

Keywords

• Ferdowsi
• Shahnameh
• Iran
• China
• Machin