ČĪNĪ (lit. “Chinese”; borrowed in Arabic as ṣīnī), generic term
for Chinese ceramic wares, including porcelain, a translucent,
white-bodied ware fired at very high temperatures. From at least
as early as the Tang period (618-907 c.e.), ceramics were being
fired at high temperatures in China; that they were also
exported to Persia is clear from both literary sources and
archeological finds. Tang period. Among the earliest specific
references to Chinese porcelain is that of the merchant Solaymān
al-Tājer al-Sīrāfī, who in 243/851 described his journeys from
the Persian Gulf to India and China. He recorded, for example,
that “[The Chinese) have a fine clay, from which they make
drinking cups fine as glasses, through which you can see the
gleam of water, though they are made of clay” (Sauvaget, p. 16;
Kahle, 1956a, p. 335). This remarkable description of
translucency, the classic property of porcelain, could apply
only to the finer Tang white wares. Solaymān’s contemporary Ebn
Ḵordāḏbeh (p. 69) mentioned the foll