Islamic metalwork histories often focus on West Asia, Iran, Egypt, and India, but Islamic worlds also extend across the Indian Ocean, East Africa, the Gulf, Yemen, Southeast Asia, and diasporas. Port cities, pilgrimage, trade, marriage, scholarship, and migration connected metal objects, coins, jewelry, coffee ware, weapons, architectural fittings, and ritual objects.

Southeast Asian and Indian Ocean metalwork may include brass trays, bronze vessels, silver jewelry, kris fittings, coins, mosque lamps, incense burners, betel and hospitality objects, and imported or locally adapted wares. Local traditions should be described on their own terms while also showing connections to Arabic, Persianate, Ottoman, Indian, and Chinese routes.

Because museum coverage can be uneven, this page should combine museum examples, community knowledge, ethnographic caution, and living craft. It should actively identify gaps in the archive: absence from major museum collections does not mean absence from history.