Islamic - Chinese Cultural Exchange: Chinese Influence on Islamic Art, 13th - 16th Centuries CE

This research project aims to address the intercultural interactions between the Islamic Middle East and China from the 13th to 16th centuries CE. The period from the 13th to 16th centuries CE witnessed a second wave of Chinese influence on Islamic material culture.

The continuous active engagement of Muslims in the exploration of and exchange with foreign lands, such as with China through Mongol khanates in Eurasia, enabled some Chinese artworks and artistic elements to be known and appreciated by courts, noble patrons and general people in the Islamic Middle East.

Islamic artists started to incorporate these Chinese artistic elements into their artworks, though sometimes in markedly revised form.

New techniques and decorative motifs were invented based on inspirations from these Chinese elements to suit the aesthetic interests and tastes of local Islamic patrons and to fit the principles of Islam.

This project aims to tackle the following questions: through whom and under what historical and social context were Chinese artworks exchanged to the Islamic Middle East? Who were the patrons for these Chinese artworks and Islamic artworks with Chinese artistic elements? Where were they consumed, in a court or another context?

Was there a gender difference in the exchange, patronage and consumption? How were these Chinese elements incorporated and adapted in local Islamic art?

How were these Chinese elements perceived at that time in the Islamic Middle East; were their original symbolic meanings retained in the local context?

This project will devise interdisciplinary research of material cultures with a synthesis of methodologies and approaches of art history and archaeology.

It will set up two datasets of Chinese artworks found in the Islamic Middle East and Islamic artworks with Chinese influence, 13th - 16th centuries CE, with a priority of those found from archaeological excavations and those with a detailed context.