East of Mecca

Blog Entry # 3

After reading the first article, I am kind of perplexed as I couldn’t quite grasp the whole idea that the author describes God in terms of three levels: “Real One”, Numerical One” and the “Embodied One” . Anyway, Neo-Confucianism is an interesting new way of thought; it combines and synthesizes diverse influences and traditions into one new belief.

As for the two other articles on the mosques and Islamic calligraphy, I read them with great interest, mainly because I really like Islamic and Chinese art. Mosques in China carry a distinguished style with a mixture of both Islamic and Chinese architecture.

I particularly enjoyed the article and appreciated the images of Islamic Calligraphy in China. It was intriguing to learn about the different styles of Arabic writing such as Kufic and Naskh. Practicing Chinese calligraphy myself, it was with a renewed interest that I discovered the richness of Arabic calligraphy and I found once again how fascinating this art of writing can be from one language to another. I believe China has a great influence not only on Islamic calligraphy, but also painting and pottery as well.