실크로드 문화지도 텍스트 DB 구축과 페르시아어 사료의 특수성

Abstract

This article introduces and analyzes the several problems that we meet in the process of extracting historical records from Persian historical works for constructing text DB of Silk Road cultural map. First of all, we find some problems in the course of selecting historical works for extracting DB, and other problems on account of some spatio-temporal standards given to this whole work in order to classify the extracted DB. In spite of those problems, I think this work is still meaningful in that we can find some expected effects from the results of this work. First, when we make a list of Persian historical writing in order to use in this work, we have to know some historical, and historiographic knowledge about regions that Persian historical writing has presented. This region is so large that it can be divided into several cultural areas. On the other hand, the Persian historical documents that could be easily obtained are the genre of Tārīkh, whose contents are full of chronological, political events. And other documents which contain a lot of socio-cultural things are now about to be published or not yet published. So historical documents that would be used for our DB work are mostly chronological history. Second, some standards that would be used for dividing articles ―seven phases of periodization, 110 Silk Road cities, 11 cultural elements― are not appropriate for Persian historical documents. In case of periodization, the first three phases applied to ancient, middle Persian, and in the 4th phase there was no ‘modern Persian historiography’ in Persian speaking and writing areas such as Iran, Central Asia, Afghanistan and so on. Moreover, the starting points of the 6th and 7th phase(1500 and 1700 CE) do not correspond to the Persian periodization. And, ‘110 selected Silk Road cities’ sometimes do not match up with nomadic rulers’ living spaces, whose chronicles were written about rulers’ activities in summer and winter pastures or battlefield far from famous Silk Road city. Moreover, so many cultural elements are found not in the name of city, but in the name of larger area. In spite of those problems, we can think about several advantages of this work. First, if there is some spatio-temporal information about extracted articles, it is helpful to read Persian historical documents that are really literary and full of narrative. Second, if this DB system is completed, we can apprehend the spatio-temporal tendency of certain cultural elements. So it might be useful not only for scholars who want to know about other regions or periods, but also for unprofessional people who want to read some primary materials.