Research of KharaKhota

2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 14310174
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Asian history
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: YOSHIDA Junichi Waseda University, Graduate School. of Letters, Arts and Sciences, 文学学術院, 教授 (70063716)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): UMEMURA Hiroshi Waseda University, School of Policy and Studies, 総合政策学部, 教授 (90124289) ; UNO Nobuhiro Waseda University, Faculty of Human Environmental Studies, 人間環境学部, 教授 (60310851) ; ISHIHAMA Yumiko Waseda University, Graduate School. Of Education, 教育・総合科学学術院, 助教授 (30221758) ; INOUE Osamu Waseda University, Faculty of Policy Studies, 総合政策学部, 助教授 (70287944) ; FUNADA Yoshiyuki Waseda University, Graduate School. Of Humanities, 大学院・人文科学研究院, 専任講師 (50404041)
• Project Period (FY): 2002 – 2005
• Keywords: KharaKhota / The Mongol Empire / Yuan Dynasty / Mongolian documents / Uighur documents / Tibetan documents / documents in Arabic script / documents in Syrian script

Research Abstract

In this study, we investigated documents written in the period of The Mongol Empire, in cooperation with Inner Mongolia University, except those by Ghinese character and Hsi-hsia character among about 3,000 materials excavated from the ruin of Kharakhota in the western part of Inner Mongolia, transcribed them into roman letters, translated into Japanese and put explanatory notes. There are some ambiguous points as to the sort and number of the materials. At present, 99 Mongolian documents, 7 Uighur documents, 11 documents Arabic script, 2 Tibetan documents and 11 documents Syrian script. We studied 69 Mongolian documents (those written in Uighur script and H'pags-pa Script) Those mainly include written contracts on lease of grain or livestock, and orders given to officers of the office of Esine circuit(lu). Some are probably parts of Buddhist literature and some are parts of Taoism sutras. We studied both sides of one Tibetan document, which seem Sanyig(gsanyig) of Tibetan Buddhism. 3 Uighur documents are useful for us to understand the movement of people and goods of Gan-zhou, Suzhou from Kharakhota to the Esine River. Others are one financial document, 2 Buddhist scriptures and one somewhat phonetic chart. Documents in connection with Arabic script are composed of 4 Arabic materials, 3 Persian, 3 Turkish, and one document written in Persia, Turkish and Chinese letters. Among them, a part of Sufiism written material, a part of a Persian epic "Khusraw and Shirin", a note at the end of the Chinese administrative material and so forth are included. As to Syrian documents, one of the longest sentences is the standard-typed Syrian, the content of which relates to Bible. The other 10 documents seem groups of united sentences, which in general include Syrian, and the contents relate to Christianity. It is for the first time that a great number of the said Mongolian, Arabic and Syrian documents are found. On the ground that the said various materials were used by people in,Kharakhota took a similar aspect to the Mongolian Empire which had multilingual and multinational society. Namely it became clear that Kharakhota was a microcosmes of the Mongolian Empire.