Military and Diplomacy in the Mongol and Post-Mongol Period as Seen from East and West materials

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00939
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 03010:Historical studies in general-related
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: MIYA Noriko 京都大学, 人文科学研究所, 助教 (60335239)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: モンゴル時代 / ポスト・モンゴル / 地理学 / 世界地図 / 明代 / 軍事 / 外交 / 数学史

Outline of Final Research Achievements

I extracted and translated important military and diplomatic articles from the history of the Mongolian Empire written in Farsi in the 14 century. The translation was annotated with materials of Chinese classics, European languages and images of the same period. In the course of this work, some remarkable facts have come to light. Of particular importance are the following.
Firstly In the middle of the 13th century, inspired by Arabic astronomy, Liu Ze, who was working at the observatory in Daidu (now Beijing), published a collection of problems on multivariate polynomial. Secondly, the Mongol Empire had an accurate grasp of the shape of the Scandinavian Peninsula and the Black Sea, as well as the political situation and customs of European countries. Thirdly, the Timurid princes learned Kublai Ka'an's "precepts" as an imperial learning material.

Free Research Field

モンゴル時代史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

中国山西省に建っていた碑石から、未知数三つの高次方程式を扱った『乾坤括嚢』の著者名、経歴、編纂時期が判明した。クビライ・カアンが作成させた「世界地図」の亜流たる「混一疆理歴代国都之図」「大明混一図」の西半分の地名を、ペルシア語の『集史』や地理書によって解読・分析することで、当時の軍事・商業の重要拠点がより明確に浮かび上がってきた。モンゴルは外交・諜報活動により、1300年頃までにヨーロッパの海図を入手しており、昨今注目されている黒海、クリミア半島のほかスカンジナビア半島の形状も正確に把握していた。これらの事実によって、歴史文献学から数学史・地理学へ提言が可能となり、新たな一頁を書き加えられる。