AIM OF PROJECT: a. Japan has a number of researchers who are studying Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal history. However, they are scattered throughout Japan, so it is difficult to exchange information. The project offers researchers an opportunity to see each other and to exchange research information. In this sense, a researcher from abroad will be welcome to exchange research information. The project will contribute to develop this field of study.
b. The project aims at a synthesis of the studies. Although some excellent individual studies concerning these empires have been done in the past ten years, there has been little effort to create a synthesis of them. We will try to put these individual studies in wider context.
c. The project is designed as comparative study. The circumstances of Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal studies were quite different. The Ottoman studies are based on extensive archives, while the Safavid studies still rely on narrative sources such as court chronicles. New Safavid sources are edited and published constantly while Mughal sources are rarely published. However, these empires inherited a tradition of Turk-Mongol statecraft as well as Persian system of bureaucracy. Therefore, information on one empire will help with analysis of the other empires.