Vase with Arabic Inscription

China, 17th century (Qing Dynasty)
Bronze
18.5 cm high, 10 cm diameter
Stock no: A5990

Provenance: Inherited from a Dutch private collection; probably purchased in Indonesia in the 1950s.

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Both the form and decoration of this bronze vase embody a cross-over of ideas between the Islamic Middle East and China. The chief decoration consists of two ogival panels on either side of the vessel. Their shape resembles patterns used in decorative tilework in mosques, or on silk brocades, or illuminated manuscripts including Qur’ans.[1] They have been called ogival panels, cloud or ruyi-shaped cartouches[2] and their original derivation came from Islamic design. Within the panels is a deeply recessed Arabic inscription on a punched ground that reads: لا اله الا الله القدوس ['there is no god but God the Holy']). The inscriptions are rendered in sini-thuluth font, a unique blend of Arabic script employed by Chinese artisans, its elongated final letters and tapered points said to derive from Chinese brushwork.

The shape of the vessel is Chinese and it probably originally formed a pair with another vase, to be used together on an altar or shrine. In fact, an almost identical example (19 cm tall, 10 cm diameter) is held in the Durham Oriental Museum collections (DUROM.1973.1). It has the same 4-character Xuande mark on the base and identical Arabic inscription.[3] The current vase has an elegant, pear-shaped body, a tall flaring neck, a straight base and two handles in the form of kui dragons. Those beasts refer to China’s ancient past, when they figured on bronze vessels and had auspicious meanings associated with bringing rain for crops. Round the neck is a band of key-fret, another pattern derived from archaic bronze. A second inscription adorns the base, a reign mark in historic seal script reading 'made in the Xuande period [1426–1435]'. In reality the piece dates to later than this time, for bronze-casters in China viewed that early 15th century reign as being pre-eminent, and used the mark as a homage. The seal script characters and the heavy brassy bronze indicate a date in the 16th-18th century.[4]

Many items associated with Chinese life and ritual but bearing Arabic inscriptions were made for the domestic market, as there is no evidence of such goods being exported to the Middle East. The fashion prevailed during the reign of the 16th century Emperor Zhengde (r. 1506–1521), when Muslim administrators held considerable power at court and even influenced the Emperor to convert to Islam.[5] Non-Muslim scholars were also interested in such bronzes, being fascinated by the exotic foreign script. Arabic inscriptions continued to be used on artefacts during the 17th and 18th centuries, when Muslims in China became increasingly isolated from the rest of the Islamic world. The Manchu rulers of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), however, permitted worship at many mosques in large cities, with particularly important ones in Beijing, Xi’an, Hangzhou and Guangzhou.[6]

[1] See examples in Khalili, Nasser D. The Timeline History of Islamic Art and Architecture. London: Worth Press, 2005, pp. 34–35.
[2] Ruyi means 'as you wish' in Chinese, so they have a good-luck connotation in East Asia.
[3] Can be viewed https://discover.durham.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991010503862307366&context=L&vid=44DUR_INST:VU1&lang=en&search_scope=MUSECOLL&adaptor=Local Search Engine&tab=MUSECOLL&query=any,contains,DUROM.1973.1
[4] For a vessel cast in a similar copper-zinc alloy and with seal script Xuande reign mark in the Victoria and Albert Museum, dated 16th–18th century, see Kerr, Rose. Later Chinese Bronzes. London: Bamboo Publishing, 1990, pp. 34–36.
[5] Harrison-Hall, Jessica. Ming Ceramics in the British Museum. London: The British Museum Press, 2001, pp. 192–199.
[6] Hung, Tak Wai. Redefining Heresy and Tolerance: Governance of Muslims and Christians in the Qing Empire before 1864. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2024.

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