Sharing about chinese-islamic calligraphy art in china

The arrival of islam to China  was via merchants and sailors entering through GuangDong and fujian and also bringing the muslims to China through northwest via Silk Road. And so great cultural influx benefited China by the foreign art, new ideas and religions and new lifestyles.

And there it started Chinese Islamic calligraphy.'Sini' is a Chinese Islamic calligraphic form for the Arabic script. In the Islamic world it takes the place of iconography, being widely used in the decorative schemes of buildings, scrolls, ceramics, Quran, pottery and many more.

Scrolls

 * Verses from the Qur’an are shown in the form of a mihrab, or prayer niche.

 * Arabic calligraphy is shaped into the popular Chinese character for “longevity.” in China

 * The Chinese islamic Script which form the shape of dish and sword, contain phrases of  Quran.

* These scrolls were normally hung as a set in Chinese islamic homes. 




Porcelain

 * Impaired by the Persian art, Chinese potters began to decorate their wares with Islamic inscription.






Quran







* Quran in China

Design Method 3 - Project 2 field trip

1. The initial statement of IAMM is to conserve, preserve and propogate the knowledge of islamic art & culture.

2. The audiences get to know more in depth about islamic art & culture from around the world. By walking through all the galleries, audiences would also get to see how's the development process of the artworks from olden ages. There are many artifacts that look very unique in their design and sculpture such as flyswatter from india. We didn't know that it's a flyswatter until we read the information. I think that this was a good experience for us to explore more interesting idea and design.

3.The architectural style of the museum is modern and the Islamic design is imparted through details. The flow of light from the big windows that surround the musuem and big space that retain throughout the whole musuem make it an airy and harmonious ambience.What caught my eyes is the inverted domes on the ceiling, they are beatifully design and sculptured with islamic patterns and geometry shapes. What can be improve in the musuem is the information of some artifacts are not display and some lighting could be better because some lightning of artifacts are quite dark and people could hardly see the details of the artifacts.

4. The lifestyle and practice of marriage of people in central asia and how important is jewellery to them?

As what i got from research, Community in central asia were categorized into settled and unsettled urban communities and jewellery are the things that marked the social status of a person. Unlike the lifestyle of settled urban communities, the lifestyle of unsettled one were brutal and there happened aridity of landscapes and intertribal warfare. Due to the unsettled nature of lifestyle, all their possessions had to be portable.So they stored their wealth in the form of jewellery. Jewellery also represents important life events like birth, coming of age and marriage.The practice of marriage in central asia is unique too, they needed to wear jewelleries like bridal crown, belt bucket, pectoral plate and many more along the day until the end of ceremony. These jewelleries were very heavy as they are pure silver, gold and brass ornamentation and they were scuptured in details and beautifully designed.

5. The impression that I have towards Islamic Art is the floral patterns shapes in the interior design of the musuem and logo of IAMM which is in the pattern of square kufic, arabic words with the meaning of islamic art of musuem.

Questions1: What does the floral pattern symbolize in islamic art? Why is it used?
Questions2: Why is there don't have any images of human in islamic art?
Questions3: How does islamic art built?
Questions4: Why do people use animals parts(e.g. tiger's teeth)to make weapon?
Questions5: How does islamic art come into china?