finjan

plural finjans · alternative findjan · alternative fingan

1. In the Levant, a small coffee cup without a handle, held instead in a zarf.

   The coffee-shops were already crowded with lean and hungry customers, the pipes were filled and lighted, and the coffee smoked in the finjans.

   1854 (date written), Bayard Taylor, “Kiutahya, and the Ruins of Œzani”, in The Lands of the Saracen; or, Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam & Co., […], published 1855, →OCLC, page 290

   2 more examples

   On each side is a tray, covered with a snoy napkin, the edges worked with gold and silver flowers, upon one are handsome finjans in filigree, silver coffee-cups, and sugar-basins; on the other, cut-glass saucers full of delicious candied sweetmeats, of which the orange- flower, violet and rose are the most fragrant.

   1853, Habeeb Risk Allah Effendi, The thistle and the cedar of Lebanon, page 21

   Luis spooned Turkish coffee and sugar into a finjan and, after lighting the stoves in an accomplished manner, he cooked the eggs and boiled the coffee three times.

   1961, R. Leslie Gourse, With gall and honey, page 76