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11 Jan, 16 tweets, 5 min read
Thank you all for your support this week. It's been a blast! If you missed anything, here's a "thread of threads" of everything I talked about this week.

Please follow me at @IranChinaGuy for more posts like this! Also please check out my other project, @iranstudiesUS
1/ How far back can ties between ancient China and early Iranian societies in Central Asia be traced?

2/ On Sassanian-Tang relations, especially after the Muslim conquest of Persia.

A brief but important intervention by @sasanianshah!

3/ On important figures in Chinese history from Parthian or Sassanian backgrounds.

4/ On the "Li" family and a famous pair of siblings of Iranian descent, Li Xun and Li Shunxian.

5/ The history of Persian, Arab, and African pirates, slaves, and merchants in ancient and medieval China.

6/ On the history of the consumption of Chinese ceramics and blue-and-white wares in Iran and the Middle East.

7/ On the spread of Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Persian Islamic texts in China.

8/ On Persian as an administrative and religious language during the Yuan and Ming.

9/ On the story of the competition between the Greek and Chinese painters, as told by Rumi.

10/ On a new shared discourse of anti-colonial, Pan-Asian Sino-Iranian solidarity in the early 20th century...

11/ On the impact of the Iranian Constitution on Chinese intellectuals...

12/ On Sino-Iranian relations in the 1950s: Anti-Communism vs Socialist Solidarity

13/ On Iranian Maoism.

Thanks again and I hope you enjoyed! - B.F @IranChinaGuy

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More from @HistorianofIran

Historians of Iran Profile picture
11 Jan
1/ In 1965, a leftist Iranian student movement in Europe declared its support for Mao Zedong's theories. The Revolutionary Organization of the Tudeh Party (Sāzmān-e Enghelābi-ye Ḥezb-e Tūdeh) would become a major faction of the student opposition.

#IranChina by @IranChinaGuy ImageImageImage
2/ The ROTPI claimed “Comrade Mao has evolved Marxism, [and] we must solve issues from the point of view of Mao Zedong Thought." They began circulating translations of the works of Mao Zedong and other militant texts among Iranian students abroad. In pamphlets and periodicals... Image
3/ they extolled the virtues of andishe-ye māu se dūn (Mao Zedong Thought). They were an offshoot of the Tudeh, and bitterly opposed to its leadership. To them, the Tudeh were ineffective, disconnected from the situation in Iran, and excessively under Soviet influence. Image
Read 20 tweets
Historians of Iran Profile picture
9 Jan
1/ Persian was an important admin. and religious language during the Yuan and Ming, but declined under the Qing (1644-1912).

On the rise (and fall) of Persian language use in China and the decline of traditional Sino-Iranian ties by the 20th century.

#iranchina by @IranChinaGuy
2/ During the Yuan, China and Persia were linked by Mongol rule, and Persian was one of the official administrative languages. A few Persians held important status as members of the semuren (色目人), an administrative class made up of non-Mongol, non-Chinese subjects.
3/ For example, Sayyid Ajall Shams al-Din Omar al-Bukhari, a Persian Muslim from Bukhara, was appointed by Kublai as governor of Yunnan in 1274, a fact mentioned by Marco Polo. Chinese sources record him as Sàidiǎnchì Zhānsīdīng (赛典赤·赡思丁).

(Img: Tomb in modern Yunnan)
Read 17 tweets
Historians of Iran Profile picture
9 Jan
1/ Religion was another important link between #China and #Iran in both ancient and medieval times. This thread will briefly explore the Sino-#Iranian connection in the spread of three religions in China: #Buddhism, #Zoroastrianism, and #Islam.

#iranchina by @IranChinaGuy - B.F
2/ (Disclaimer: Each of these could be an entire topic, but as I am do this in my limited free time, I simply can't cover all three as well as I'd like. Please forgive anything left out, simplified, or overlooked. Follow me @IranChinaGuy and I will post more on each next week!)
3/ We have already discussed the Parthian origins of Buddhism in China via An Shigao. In general, Buddhism entered China via Central Asian contacts with Parthia, Kushan, and other Indian and Iranian cultures. Many of the early translators came from these areas, although...
Read 15 tweets
Historians of Iran Profile picture
8 Jan
1/ We've discussed Persia-in-China, but what about China-in-Persia? Before the Mongols, known sources record few Chinese ppl in Iran. However, Chinese products left a distinct mark. The most famous (and imitated) was Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. #iranchina - @IranChinaGuy
2/ Chinese ceramics were an important part of a global trade network that linked China and the Middle East to the world economic system. Many of these objects were transported overland in a series of trade networks, today called the "Silk Road". In addition to land routes...
3/ ...maritime trade flourished. Middle Eastern, African, and Chinese merchants flowed back and forth between important ports along the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, the coast of India, and the islands in the South China Sea. This has been called the "Maritime Silk Road".
Read 20 tweets
Historians of Iran Profile picture
7 Jan
1/ As I have mentioned, the story of #IranChina relations is not always a story of economic exchange and social integration. The lives of the elite were one thing, but this thread will look at the history of Persian slaves, merchants, and pirates in China. - by @IranChinaGuy
2/ Feng Ruofang is known to historians as a pirate who once made his base at Hainan, an island off the southern tip of China. In 742, a shipwrecked monk attested to his activities. Feng "seized two or three Persian merchant ships every year, taking the cargo for himself and...
3/ ...making the crew his servants. They were kept in an area three days’ journey going from north to south and five days’ journey going from east to west, where villages eventually developed."

Slavery in China, like in much of the ancient world, was not chattel slavery, but...
Read 15 tweets
Historians of Iran Profile picture
6 Jan
Between the 5th and 13th century, there were a number of Chinese families of Iranian descent surnamed Li who left their mark on history. Let's begin with two famous siblings: Li Xun and Li Shunxian, a brother and sister who were both accomplished poets, and more. 1/

#iranchina
2/ Li Xun (~855-930 CE) was a Chinese poet of Persian descent, and an accomplished physician. Exact details of his early life are not known, but his surname marked him by his ethnic background. Li (李) was a royal surname associated with the founders of the Tang dynasty...
3/ by adopting this royal surname, Persians found an effective way of integrating into Chinese society. Li's family emigrated from Persia around 880, settling in Chengdu, where Li built up a literary reputation despite being a non-native speaker. This was not to last, however...
Read 14 tweets

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