37_49 - Iranology in Japan

Concerning pre-modern Iranian history, there are two streams in studies in Japan. One is a part of Islamic studies which were imported from Europe or America after the World War Two. The other originated from traditional Asian historical studies in Japan about ninety years ago when Japanese scholars, who were good at reading Chinese classical sources, started studying on the political and institutional history of the Mongol Empire, based on the sources. Now, Japanese researchers have acquired new tools, Persian sources, and especially Persian chronicles, and deal with the history of Mongol and Turkic people, not only those of China and Central Asia but also those of Iran, who built most of ruling dynasties even there. These two streams, mingling, and sometimes repelling each other, thus characterize the studies of Japanese researchers. On the other hand, pre-Islamic Iranian elements have not been considered much in this field.