“Māchin” and “Khίtā” in the Geographical Conception of Muslims

Persians, as cultural and economic mediators between the east and west, caused cultural exchanges between China and the western world. Up to the 16th century, Chinese culture and civilization was introduced to the west from Persians’ points of view. Persian merchants travelled to China regularly and played the main role in the cultural and economic exchanges between these two countries. Travellers and merchants’ information entered geographical, historical, and literary texts and was transferred from generation to generation for centuries. One of the most important aspects of this cultural exchange are Chinese toponyms which were transferred to western texts through Persian and Arabic texts. Most of these toponyms went through phonetic and semantic changes and entered western texts in Persian or Arabic forms. On the other hand, Chinese toponyms, because of their phonetic features, were recorded with different spellings, so these toponyms were recorded in various forms in Islamic texts. This has caused difficulties for researchers; therefore, any information about the location of Chinese toponyms is of crucial importance. “Māchin” and “Khίtā” are two of these toponyms. They are often used in Islamic text and are key terms in Muslims’ geography. In spite of the extensive use of these two toponyms in historical, geographical, and literary texts, no research has been done on them and, thus, Muslim geographers and historians’ understanding of them remains unclear. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to study the geographical, historical, and astronomical texts of Muslims in order to examine their geographical conception of these two toponyms.