ABSTRACT
Al-Harith goes with Salim and Aisha to a workshop in Basra to purchase glazed pottery. The owner, Abu Zayd, shows them a consignment of recently completed tin-glazed wares painted with cobalt and with lustre. They discuss how these are made. The satirist, al-Jahiz, enters the workshop and the conversation moves to the relative status of artisans working in different media and the ethical reasons for not eating or drinking from vessels made of precious metal.
