Part 3
Distant Domains—Styles and Characteristics
The Islamic jade in the National Palace Museum collection comes from Central, South, and West Asia, even from as far as Eastern Europe.
Central Asia starts from the Caspian Sea in the west and stretches,to Xinjiang. The Kunlun Mountains, with their rich jade deposits, cross the southern part of Xinjiang, and it is in the rivers that flow down their northern slopes, in the Khotan region, where most of it is gathered. Consequently, the art of jade-carving has long been practiced in this region.
The Mughal Empire of South Asia was centered in northern India, and at its height its territory extended into Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Deccan Plateau in central India. During the reign of Shah Jahan, the art of jade-carving reached its highest peak in the imperial workshops. This is still the most plentiful type of Islamic jade preserved today, as well as the best in terms of quality.
Although Shah Jahan’s successor, Aurangzeb, had little interest in art, other regional states in India outside of his empire had their own jade workshops, which produced works blending the Mughal style with their own local styles. They even mixed in stylistic elements from Turkey and China. The royal house of the Ottoman Empire, which stretched across West Asia and Eastern Europe, was Turkic in origin and closely related to the Mughal Empire royal house. The Ottoman rulers originally preferred dark green jade objects that were heavily inlaid with gold wire and gemstones, but probably through the influence of Mughal jades, after the 17th century the Ottoman Empire also produced light-colored jade objects with flower and leaf patterns in low relief, though the style of the decorative patterns was somewhat stiffer. However, not many of these jades have been preserved.
Central Asian jades
Central Asia refers to the central region of the Eurasian land mass. Since most of Central Asia is desert or steppe, many nomadic tribes in this region, for thousands of years, fought with one another for supremacy. The strongest among them were the Mongols and the Turks, and to this day they are still dominant in Central Asia. From written records we know that the production of work in jade in Central Asia began in the 5th century.
After the Mongol Empire disintegrated in the late 14th century, Timur, who had both Mongol and Turkic bloodlines, made Samarkand his capital and established the Timurid Empire (1370-1506). The main jade-producing region, Khotan, sometimes lay within the empire’s territory, sometimes within the territory of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, with which it had close relations.
In the mid 18th century, the Great Qing Empire annexed the Dzungar Khanate and the Muslim region and called them Xinjiang, the “new territory.” Afterward, the Muslim region presented a steady stream of jade objects as tribute. Some of these, once they were taken into the palace, were inscribed with the emperor’s poems and placed in important palace halls. However, even more of these were placed in “Muslim wrappers” and put into storage—stacked in a small room on the north side of Duanning Palace in the Forbidden City. Most of these are smooth and unadorned bowls and plates, and their bases make them clearly unlike Chinese bowls and plates. Some of these have thick walls and a matte finish, and the workmanship is crude; they also bear the scars from long-term use.
South Asia: Classic Mughal jades
1In 1506, the weakened Timurid Empire was destroyed by the Uzbeks. In 1526, a sixth-generation descendant of Timur, Babur, led his army into India, where he established the Mughal Empire. On his mother’s side, he was a descendant of Genghis Khan--the name “Mughal” is only an Indian transliteration of “Mongol.”
In the 17th century, when the Mughal Empire’s power reached its height, its territory spanned present-day India, Pakistan, and the eastern part of Afghanistan. Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) and his son Shah Jahan strongly encouraged and supported artistic work. Shah Jahan recruited artists and craftsmen from far and wide, and as a result the imperial workshops during his reign blended the traditions of China, Central Asia, India, and Europe to create a new style. During this period, the decorative motifs of jade objects were derived mostly from nature: flowers and leaves, gourds, rams’ heads, horses’ heads, and so on. The craftsmen were able to take cold, hard, durable raw jade and use it to depict the soft pliancy of leaves and flowers, the bountifulness of gourds, and the spirited, fiery nature of animals.
Most of the Mughal jades are food-related utensils, like bowls, cups, plates, ladles, pots, vases, containers, boxes, and so on, but there are also a small number of miscellaneous items like ink-water bottles, knife and dagger handles, gunpowder container, mirror backs, Qur’an stands, crutches, small personal adornment items, rings, and so on.
South Asia: Non-Mughal Indian jades
What we call “Non-Mughal Indian jades” may be divided into two main categories: The first category includes jades produced on the Indian peninsula in areas outside the territory of the Mughal Empire, such as the local governments on the Deccan Plateau, which developed their own jade-carving art under Mughal Empire influence. However, these jade carvings are either relatively small, or the ornamentation is relatively dense and tidy, or two-handled objects become single-handled objects, or the vessels are out of proportion, and so on. Most of the decorative motifs on Mughal jades are of flowers that grow on land, such as clematis and anemone, but the decorative motifs on jades produced in the workshops of Indian regional states often consist of realistic depictions of lotuses or passion flowers, though with exaggerated stamens and pistils.
The second category includes jades designed to imitate those made in Turkey or China. The former may have one after another bouquet of flowers and leaves arrayed in an “open window” structure; the latter may have leaves and stems in a circle around the base of the vessel and may even imitate the shape of the ancient Chinese bronze jue cup. However, a poppy flower still rises from the base, with the four broad, beautiful petals embraced by the vessel walls and three feet.
West Asia to East Europe: Ottoman jades
Since the Mongol tribes had taken control of the main basins in Northeast Asia, the Turkic tribes moved from Central to West Asia, made West Asia their base, and extended themselves into Eastern Europe. They established the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922), which reached into Europe, Asia, and Africa when its power was at its height. Later on, its territory gradually shrank until it developed into the present-day Republic of Turkey.
In other words, the ancestors of the ruling houses of both the Ottoman and Mughal Empires had come from Central Asia—they were more or less like cousins. Once you understand their historical background, you can also understand why Turkey and India, which are far apart geographically, developed similar forms of jade art.
Through the influence from the Mughal Empire, the Ottoman Empire during the 17th century developed light-colored jade vessels with flower and leaf decorative patterns that were also not inlaid with gold thread and gemstones. Not many such objects have been preserved, but they also have their unique style. Although the jade carving is neatly done, with symmetrical leaf and flower patterns, the patterns are comparatively stiff. Narrow, unevenly edged acanthus leaves, for example, become broad and smooth-edged. The leaf and flower decorations around the belly of a vessel often are arrayed in a continuous “open window” pattern. Most of the handles hang down vertically or are level. Occasionally one sees pod-shaped bases. In addition, in Ottoman jades, each petal or leaf is ground into a round or oval-shaped recess, i.e., they are made with the “shallow scooping technique,” which creates the special effects of thinness, transparency, and lightness.
