In June, Yih-chuen conducted a field trip to the U.K. to gather data from Persianate manuscripts made with Chinese papers, which were decorated with different techniques. This corpus of manuscripts has previously been studied by renowned scholars, including Professor Dr. Ilse Sturkenboom, the lead investigator of our research project. However, many questions remain open and deserve further investigation.
The first stop of her trip was the Bodleian Library at the picturesque University of Oxford. The Bodleian Library is a very welcoming environment for researchers and advocates interdisciplinary research.
Yih-chuen extensively examined a copy of Kullīyāt-i Saʻdī made in 1437 A.D., the earliest known example of a Persianate manuscript made with decorated Chinese paper. Gazing at the luxuriously gold decorations on glossy papers not only offered a very sensory experience, but also allowed her to better understand the production and the binding of the manuscript. We are grateful for the help from Dr. Alasdair Watson and the Conservation Department.
Her next stop was the British Library in London to view two manuscripts. One of the requested manuscripts, a copy of Hafiz’s Diwan, is currently on view in the exhibition rotation. This manuscript was made with colored Chinese paper.
However, with the very generous help of the curator, Dr. Ursula Sims-Williams, and the Collection Management team, it was temporarily removed from display for study purposes. She also spent some time in the reading rooms to work through the archives and catalogs for more related materials. We extend our sincere gratitude to the British Library for its support.
Her final stop was the British Museum, where she studied a group of time-contemporary Chinese objects that would provide contexts to better understand the paper-making process in China. Reflecting on these objects enables one to consider the holistic picture of how exchanges between China and the Persinate worlds took shape. We would like to thank Dr. Yu-ping Luk and the Collection Management team at the British Library for their generous and prompt help.
The intensive codicological and empirical research that Yih-chuen conducted in London and Oxford was a rewarding experience for the research project. The link to East Asia in the field of Islamic Art has traditionally been considered somewhat peripheral and has only increasingly gained more visibility thanks to the contribution of generations of scholars who have previously worked on this topic. The continuous investigation of Persianate manuscripts made with decorated Chinese paper is an important area that would hopefully engender new findings in the future.