<研究ノート>十六世紀初頭の中国に関するイスラム史料 : アリ=エクベル著『中国記』の評価をめぐって

Abstract

アリ゠エクベル著『中国記』はH.Yule──H.CordierやG.Ferrandなどの東西交渉史の総括的研究書に取り上げられず、また十分に研究されないで二次的史料のようにみられてきたきらいがある。しかし、本書のオリジナリティは高く評価されてもよいと考える。テキストの全容はいまだ校刊されていないが、明代中期の中国事情を伝えるイスラム文献として興味深い。本稿は主としてオスマン゠トルコ語訳の一写本により、本書の旅行記的性格について述べると共に、文献的評価に関説する。

This (Khitay-name) is, not a travel-book, but a systematic description of China in Persian which was finished at Constantinople in A.D. 1516. But certainly the author, Ali Ekber, stayed in Peking. The present writer tries to confirm a few features of his travel according to the main accounts in twenty chapters of this book : for instance he went to Peking by way of the tribute route from Turkestan. This route is offered under the names of several cities written in the first part of the 9th chapter. In the 2nd chapter there is a description of the Imperial Parade of the state ceremony, Chiao-ssu 郊祀, dedicated to all the Gods of Heaven-and-Earth in the first month of years (A. D. 1421-1530) in Peking. And we have an account of the leopardhouse "Pārskhāna" in the 6th chapter. Probably it corresponds to Pao-fang 豹房 in Chinese, built by the Emperor Chêng-tê in the 2nd year of his reign (A. D. 1507), which means his own private Harem for lasciviousness. It is generally known that travellers to China were only treated as tribute envoys in the Celestial Empire during the period of Ming Dynasty. His descriptions report such important experiences with more or less limited and inaccurate informations as it were under those circumstances. This note is written on the basis of Turkish manuscript Esat Ef. No. 2107 in Süleymaniye Library, Istanbul, with the reports which have ever been published on the Persian text.