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CHINESE-IRANIAN RELATIONS x. China in Medieval Persian Literature In medieval writings Čīn may mean either China proper or eastern Turkestan (Ebn al-Balḵī, p. 94; Ebn Ḵordāḏbeh, p. 26; Ebn Qotayba, p. 667; Masʿūdī, Morūj, ed. Pellat, I, pp. 154-73); when it refers to the latter China proper is sometimes called…

CHINESE-IRANIAN RELATIONS xi. Mutual Influence of Chinese and Persian Ceramics Chinese influence on Persian ceramics. Chinese ceramics were the single most important stimulus to the development of fine pottery in the Islamic world, arriving first in the 3rd/9th century. Previously Islamic potters had produced mainly simple kitchen and storage wares,…

CHINESE-IRANIAN RELATIONS xii. Mutual Influences in Painting In the Chinese cultural sphere Persian artistic influence was at its peak under the Tang dynasty (618-906 c.e.), contemporary with the end of the Sasanian period (30/651) and the first centuries after the Islamic conquest. The reciprocal influence of Chinese art in Persia…

CHINESE-IRANIAN RELATIONS xiii. EASTERN IRANIAN MIGRATIONS TO CHINA Communities of Sogdian and Bactrian immigrants settled in many cities of Northern China in pre-Islamic times. There are two different stages in the history of Eastern Iranian migrations to China: the first, still extremely obscure, is dominated by Bactrian immigrants, coming from…

CHINESE-IRANIAN RELATIONS xiv. THE INFLUENCE OF EASTERN IRANIAN ART Chinese civilization has provided vast influences beyond its borders in Asia and more recently in Europe. The output of Chinese artisanship, especially in bronze, jade, ceramics, and silk textiles is unparalleled in Asia, and influences from non-Chinese sources were quickly assimilated…

CHINESE-IRANIAN RELATIONS xv. THE LAST SASANIANS IN CHINA Information on those Sasanians who avoided the submission to the Arabs and lived in Central Asia or at the Tang court can be found in the works of Muslim authors and in Chinese sources. According to Masʿudi, Yazdegerd III (r. 632-51) had…

CHINESE-IRANIAN RELATIONS xvi. Impact of the Constitutional Revolution in Iran The Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-11 attracted the attention of the Chinese constitutionalists and revolutionaries immediately upon breaking out. The earliest reports on the revolution were published in two famous Chinese periodicals, Zhengyi tongbao (Journal of politics and Art) and…

CHINKARA or Chikara (Gazella bennetti, Indian gazelle; Figure 1, Figure 2), a small antelope of slender build; its tawny coat has poorly marked facial and body stripes. A full-grown male measures about 65 cm at the shoulder and weighs about 23 kg. In body size and weight the chinkara resembles Gazella…

CHIONITES (Lat. Chionitae, probably from Pahl. Xyōn/Hyōn [cf. Werner, pp. 525-29; Bailey, 1930-32a, p. 945], Av. X’iiaona [Hyaona]), a tribe of probable Iranian origin that was prominent in Bactria and Transoxania in late antiquity. The first mention of the Chionites is by the 4th-century Greek historian Ammianus Marcellinus (16.9.4), the chief…

CHITRAL (Čitrāl), river valley in the upper Indus system. i. Geography. ii. Languages. i. Geography The Chitral river drains the eastern Hindu Kush in the north and a spur of the Hindu Raj on the south and east. With its deeply incised bed and braided stream channels it constitutes the…

CHLORITE (Pers. sang-e sabz), a mineral consist­ing of a group of closely related hydrous magnesium aluminum silicates of exceedingly varied chemical com­positions owing to isomorphous substitutions (particularly the heavy atoms Fe, Mn, Cr for the lighter atoms Mg, Si, Al). Because it is widely available in Persia and easily worked,…

CHOAMANI, name of an eastern Iranian tribe (perhaps located in western Bactria), mentioned only by Pomponius Mela (1.13; ca. mid-1st century c.e.) in an enumeration of the inhabitants of the interior lands (interiora terrarum): Gandari et Pariani et Bactri, Sugdiani, Pharmacotrophi, Chomarae (i.e., the Bactrian Chomaroi; Ptolemy, 6.11.6), Choamani, Ropanes,…

CHOANA (attested only as Gk. Khóana; etymology in dispute), the name of two Iranian towns mentioned by Ptolemy. 1. Choana in Media (Ptolemy, 6.2.14) was situated about four degrees east of Ecbatana (Hamadān) and therefore presumably in the district of Chōromithrēnḗ (Ptolemy, 6.2.6). The town was traditionally identified with Chaúōn,…