Early Abbasid-Chinese ceramic trade: New discoveries Dr Wen Wen, Barker Langham

Event details

York Islamic Art Circle

This presentation shows the distribution of five main types of Chinese wares found at sites in the core area of the early Abbasid Empire. Not all Chinese ceramics found in the Islamic world were luxurious wares only afforded by a small group of elites, nor were they the sole result of trade between the Chinese Tang and Muslim Abbasid empires. Besides, new archaeological finds excavated by Chinese archaeologists in recent years demonstrate a two-way influence between Chinese ceramics and their Islamic counterparts, rather than a one-way one of Chinese ceramics on early Abbasid glazed wares.

Wen Wen

Dr Wen Wen studied Arabic language and world history at Peking University, graduating in 2014. She then transferred to University College London, studying for an MA in Asian Archaeology, achieving a distinction. She obtained a DPhil in archaeology at the University of Oxford, with her thesis on Chinese ceramics from the Islamic World, 8th-10th centuries. She is now working on curation and research for several museums, cultural organisations and exhibitions in Arabia, UK and China.