Islam has a long history in the People's Republic of China, dating to the seventh century. The earliest Muslims in China were traders who came to the south eastern ports as part of the Indian Ocean trade as well as along the Silk Route. Muslims of China are generally divided into two groups. The first group consists of descendents of Arab, ...

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Calligraphy, from the Greek kallos (beauty) and graphein (to write) is the art of beautiful writing. The script in which the Qur'an was written developed over the centuries and provided Islamic art with its most constant decorative character. The art of calligraphy was not limited to the Qur'an. Literary texts and albums of portraits, textiles, tiles, ceramics, and objects in daily ...

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"Students of world history remind us how Central Asia, a thousand years ago, "led the world" in trade and investment, in urban development, in cultural and intellectual achievement. This was the place that leading thinkers from around the known world would look to for leadership. What were the latest breakthroughs in astronomy or mathematics, in chemistry or medicine, in philosophy or ...

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"The ground on which we stand has been a centre of cultural history for a very long time. It was nearly seven centuries ago, for example, when the Sufi Saint, Nizamuddin Auliya, walked these paths and shared his teachings of universal love. That same message of tolerance and humanity would soon infuse the splendid Mughal empire - also centred here... From ...

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Rashid al-Din Sinan, the greatest of the medieval Nizari Ismaili da'is in Syria, was born into a Twelver Shi'i family in Basra, Iraq, around 1133. He worked as a schoolmaster, eventually converting to Nizari Ismailism in his youth. Sinan subsequently went to Alamut, the central headquarters of the Ismaili da'wa, to further study Ismaili doctrines, where he met Imam Hasan Ala ...

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Nizari Ismailism spread on the Indian subcontinent beginning around the 11th century, although the earliest phase of Nizari activities in the subcontinent remain obscure due to the lack of reliable sources. The earliest representatives, or pirs, sent by Imams residing in Persia (modern-day Iran) initially concentrated their efforts in Sind.Areas in which pirs were active. Photo: The Ismailis: An Illustrated History ...

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Fearful that Persia's history would be forgotten, Abu'l-Qasim Firdawsi (940-1020) composed the Shahnama (Book of Kings), comprising more than 60,000 rhyming couplets, telling the story of Persia (modern-day Iran) from the time of creation to its conquest by Muslims in the seventh century. Partly legend, partly historic, it is also a manual on kingship, a collection of heroic tales, and a ...

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