KUALA LUMPUR Malaysians can now get a glimpse into the history of Islam's development in the Far East at an exhibition at the Islamic Arts Museum of Malaysia, IRNA reported.

The six centuries of Islamic art in China introduces the 10 Muslim Chinese minorities in the country -- the Hui, Uyghur, Salar, Dongxiang, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Uzbek, Bao'an, Tajik and Tatar.

Each community has a distinct identity and the 200 artifacts on display reflect their special Islamic culture.

Among the priceless items are traditional costumes, rare copies of the Qoran including a leaf from a Qing dynasty Qoran, and a three-legged incense burner with Arabic calligraphic inscriptions made in the 1400s.

Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, when opening the three-month exhibition on Saturday, said Muslims would be more advanced today if they had obeyed Prophet Mohammad's injunction to seek knowledge even in China.

The prime minister said Westerners had become more advanced today because they had gone to China earlier to acquire knowledge and the sciences developed by the Chinese.

"The Chinese (then) had already learned how to make explosives although at that time they used it not to destroy people, but instead to make as much noise as possible in order to chase away evil spirits.

"This knowledge and other subjects developed by the Chinese people were worthy of being studied and learned," he said.

The show also featured art objects and cultural artifacts of Chinese Muslims from the 14th to the 20th century A.D., which aimed to provide an insight of the coming of the Islamic religion to China and its influence on Chinese culture.