Iranian Sinology in Light of Qajar Translations

Prior to the establishment of the Qajar dynasty and during the entire 19th century political relations between Iran and China were non-existent; the reason has been ascribed to domestic crisis in both countries and their decline as a result of buckling under foreign powers due to their weak sea power. Nevertheless, a perusal of translated works on Chinese history and european written travel accounts along with the account of some Qajar dignitaries’ journey to China in the 19th century reveal inconsistent actions and practices. What concerns the current research is to study and analyze the resonation of Chinese history with official Qajar translations. Was the Iranian attitude toward China a continuation of ancient-civilizational thinking, or was it the fruit of modern developments and and roughly similar issues of the countries in the 19th century? Who ordered the translations, and, who read them? The findings suggest that the reason for Qajar Kings’ interest in the translation of the texts on China could be found in a common historical tie, manifested in the form of ancient civilization, the Imperial rule, guarded (Mahrousah)territories, social patterns and tranditions of life, commonalities in the two territories and the great appeal of Chinese medicine for Iranians on the one hand, and, the Chinese crackdown on Muslim movements in her territory on the other hand, piqued Nadir al-din Shah’s sensitivity to the issue of China.