Music, Faith and Diplomacy Along the Silk Road

The centuries of cultural exchange along the Silk Road have played a central role in constructing the cultures of Asia and Europe.

The selection of objects shown are from SOAS’s own collections include a rich array of manuscripts which vividly illustrate the cultural exchanges involved across parts of Asia and musical instruments celebrating the musical contacts between the Middle East and the West that date back to the arrival of Arab culture in eighth-century Spain, which brought various Middle Eastern instruments to Western Europe.