From the Silk Road to the Railroad (and Back): The Means and Meanings of the Iranian Encounter with China

Abstract

In view of the recent expansion of Indo-Persian studies, the neglect of the Sino-Persian nexus is a missed opportunity to place Iranian history on a larger Asian stage. While Iranian contact with China has continued episodically from antiquity to modernity, scholars have so far focused almost exclusively on the pre-modern phases of exchange. As a contribution to developing the field of Sino-Persian studies, this article situates two twentieth century Iranian travelers to China against the changing background of Chinese–Iranian exchange from the medieval to modern period. In so doing, it demonstrates the infrastructural and conceptual apparatus that enabled the modern Iranian encounter with China while asking how, if at all, twentieth century intellectuals were able to draw on a longer history of interaction to find meanings for Sino-Persian exchange.

Whither West Asia? Exploring North–South perspectives on Eurasia

“…Eileen Kane (2015), for example, has explored the "Russian Hajj" demonstrating the important role this event played for Russian Muslims and the imperial state. In similar terms, Nile Green (2013aGreen ( , 2013bGreen ( , 2013cGreen ( , 2015 has shown how developments in infrastructure and technology (especially in rail and steamships) at the turn of the 20th century increased contact between Muslims in Russia, West Asia, and South Asia, as well as between Muslims from all these realms and East Asia's societies. Although there have been some insightful discussions of the form taken by such connections in the contemporary period (e.g., Marsden, 2015;Marsden, 2016;Shami, 2000;Stephan-Emmrich, 2017), there remains an overwhelming tendency for images of West Asia's connections to Eurasia to be dominated either by geopolitical contests or security studies.…”

The languages of Indian Ocean studies: Models, methods and sources

“…For the Indian Ocean, a few pioneering researchers have already pursued such necessarily multilingual investigations (Daneshgar, 2020;Guillot, 2004;Peacock, 2018;Ricci, 2011;Riddell, 1990Riddell, , 2017. As scholars of geolinguistics have for other regions, developing a linguistic cartography of the Indian Ocean would help us go further in mapping the shared linguistic areas and crossroads that linguists term sprachbunds (Breton, 1991;Green, 2015). This would allow us to grapple with both the barriers and conduits that shaped the movement of the complex forms of cultural knowledge that lay beyond the remit of spoken pidgins.…”

“…See, for example,Cowan (1940),Damais (1968),Dewaraja (2006), andLambourn (2008).5 On these and other dimensions of modern "library history" in South Asia, see Amstutz (2020),Boyk et al (2020), andEhrlich (2020). On an important East African collection, seeBang (2014).6 As delineated in the bibliographical obituary byMarshall (2000), a similar trajectory was marked by the influential scholarship of Ashin Das Gupta (partly collected inGupta, 1994).7For critical engagements with the concept of the "Silk Road," seeGreen (2015) andRezakhani (2010).8 The exception is the exemplary work on Southeast Asia byVan der Putten (2002) andVersteegh (2001). However, despite the laudable ambitions of the editor, there is, for example, no chapter on the Indian Ocean or similarly regional linguistic interactions inConsidine (2019).…”

“…7 7 For critical engagements with the concept of the “Silk Road,” see Green (2015) and Rezakhani (2010). …”

Merchant identities, trading nodes, and globalization: Introduction to the Special Issue

“…Chin 2013), as well as to the changing cultural imaginaries of Asian nation-states (cf. Green 2015). New trade routes and recent political developments have powerfully challenged orientalizing narratives that habitually highlighted the peripherality of the region vis-à-vis Europe and the West.…”