Study of Kanji Script on Chinese Porcelain Pottery Recovered from Archeological Excavations at Alamut Castle of Qazvin

All the Esmailid castles in Alborz highlands are divided into two main groups, i.e. the castles whose footstone had been founded by Esmailids themselves and the ones that have been conquered by Fada'iyan and some other parts had been added to them. Alamut Castle is placed in the second group of castles, especially since the name of this castle can be observed alternately in historical sources up to the collapse of the Safavid dynasty. Alamut Castle was seized by the Mongol army in the middle of the seventh century AH. Consequently, the conquerors set off towards Baghdad and the losers who had given way to the Zaidiyyah Shiites of the Kiyaiyeh religion, continued their semi-independent life for two centuries. The areas under the control of Kia Family (780-1001 AH) also included Alamut and Taleghan except for Gilan. Indeed, Kia Family was founded by one of the students of Seyed Ghavam, namely Seyed Ali, under the influence of Mazandaran Marashian Movement (760-986 AH). The aforesaid government has been under the control of the Ajam Iraq since the time of Uzun Hassan, the fourth ruler of Aq Qoyunlu and was then overthrown by the Ghezelbash invasion (1001 AH) of the Safavid state. From that time onwards, the Safavids were the political decision-makers of Iran until the threshold of the industrial revolution. Thus, the conquest of Alamut Castle during the Mongol period did not mean the end of the castle's life. After that, it was used for a long time by the Esmailid survivors (New Government), Kiai Seyeds. Finally, it came under the control of the Safavid government and was used by this government as a place to keep the outcast (forgotten home). Alamut, as one of the homes of the northern coasts' trade route to the cities of Qazvin and Shahr-e-Rey and then toward Isfahan, has long played an important role in the transfer of Gilan silk to the central part of Iran. The Venetian merchants were the ones who first brought Chinese pottery made by the Ming to Iran from the east. Such type of pottery had a luxurious aspect at that time and later became very popular in the Safavid era. This claim is proven by the mass discovery of cultural artifacts from that period. For example, one can refer to a few blue and white pieces of porcelain made by the Ming empire with Chinese words (Kanji). In Japanese, Chinese script signs are referred to as Kanji. The current Kanji, as the conceptual logographic writing system, has been stabilized from the evolution of the first symbols and signs around 2000 to 2500 BC in the land of eastern China and then has entered the islands of Japan with the passage of time. In Iran, the blue-and-white pottery produced in the cities of Neyshabur during the Timurid empire and in Mashhad in the Safavid era has received the greatest influence from the contemporary motifs of the Ming dynasty in China. During this period, even the marks of the empire were sometimes imitated by Iranian potters. However, since these potters were not familiar with the Chinese script and writing system, the porcelains with Kanji, especially the ones obtained from various parts of Iran, including three pieces found during ancient archeological excavations at Alamut Castle should be considered as the imported ones. The purposes of this study are to re-read the Kanji text on porcelain potsherds and to date them, then, to determine their periods to analyze and understand the archaeological status of Alamut Castle after Mongols invasion. The research method in this study is descriptive-analytical. The material of this research comes from archaeological excavations and then translated into Persian by library method. The main question of the research is: these potsherds belong to which historical period and how must they be interpreted in archaeological and historical context? Some pieces of porcelain were discovered in Alamut Castle. These pieces in Chinese script (Kanji), representative of three emperors, namely " Chenghua (成化)", "Jiajing (嘉靖)", and "Wanli (萬曆帝)", are contemporary with Uzun Hassan (the ruler of Aq Qoyunlu), and two Safavid kings, i.e. Shah Tahmasp I, and Abbas the Great, respectively. The name of "Chenghua" can be observed in one of the pieces, while each of the other two pieces have four common auspicious words in the blue and white dishes of the "Jiajing" era and his grandchild, "Wanli". In addition, the crab relief is seen in the inner surface of one of the pieces as a common relief, favored by the artists of this period. Therefore, this finding, along with other cultural data obtained from Alamut Castle, indicates the continued resumption of political and social life in the region following the Mongol invasion, especially its trade relations during the reign of Aq Qoyunlu Turkmens and of the Safavids.