Sini (script)

[5] It is also characterized by its thick horizontal and fine vertical strokes, a result that is due to the use of a brush rather than a qalam, which is the traditional writing pen for Islamic calligraphy.

[4] Examples of diamond-shaped Sini calligraphy can be found at the Great Mosque of Xi'an on columns flanking the prayer hall.

The David Collection in Copenhagen includes examples of bronze objects including a double-handed vessel with Chinese imagery dating to the seventeenth century and a bronze incense burner made during the reign of Ming emperor Zhengde, both inscribed with Sini calligraphy.

For example, the tails of letters ra, za, waw as well as the terminals nun and sad rendered below the baseline extend further horizontally.

More decorative Sini calligraphy can be seen on the roundels exhibited on the double pages which precede each juz or section of the Qur'an.

During this era, the majority of the Muslim migrants consisted of soldiers employed by the Mongol rulers or craftspeople who were forced to relocate to China.

[9] Further into the Yuan Era, in an attempt to prevent Chinese subjects from holding positions of power, Mongol rulers appointed intermediary government officials called semu guan, many of whom were Muslims from West and Central Asia.

[9] As a result, the semu guan became overseers of the commercial exchange of goods between Central and West Asia and China.

Additionally, with their newfound wealth, Muslim officials became patrons of not only Chinese Qur'ans but of mosques upon which forms of Arabic calligraphy were inscribed.

Despite this attempt of assimilation and acculturation, Muslim communities were able to retain the traditional Islamic art styles, drawing off of Ilkhanid archetypes particularly of Qur'ans, while creating a new hybridized derivation of Arabic and Chinese calligraphy.

[11] Despite this, certain twentieth and twenty-first century artists such as Hajji Noor Deen Mi Quangjiang have tried to perpetuate this art form.