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al-Jahiz

Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Kinānī al-Baṣrī (Arabic: أبو عثمان عمرو بن بحر الكناني البصري), commonly known as al-Jāḥiẓ (Arabic: الجاحظ, The Bug Eyed, born 776 – died December 868/January 869) was a prose writer and author of works of literature, theology, zoology, and politico-religious polemics.[2][3][4][5] He described himself as a member of the Arabian tribe Banu Kinanah. He has been credited with describing certain principles related to natural selection.[6]

al-Jahiz
Syrian stamp of al-Jahiz from 1968
Born
Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Kinānī al-Baṣrī

776
DiedDecember 868/January 869
Basra, Abbasid Caliphate
EraMedieval era
RegionIslamic Philosophy
SchoolAristotelianism
Main interests
Arabic literature
Personal
ReligionIslam
CreedMu'tazila[1]

Ibn al-Nadim lists nearly 140 titles attributed to al-Jahiz, of which 75 are extant. The best known are Kitāb al-Ḥayawān (The book of Animals), a seven-part compendium on an array of subjects with animals as their point of departure; Kitāb al-Bayān wa-l-tabyīn (The book of eloquence and exposition), a wide-ranging work on human communication; and Kitāb al-Bukhalāʾ (The book of misers), a collection of anecdotes on stinginess.[7] Tradition claims that he was smothered to death when a vast amount of books fell over him.[8]

Life Edit

He was Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Bahr ibn Maḥbūb, a protégé of Abū al-Qallamas[n 1] ‘Amr ibn Qal‘ al-Kinānī, then al-Fuqaymī, a.k.a. ‘Amr ibn Qal‘ al-Kinānī al-Fuqaymī [n 2] whose ancestor was one of the Nasah (Nasa’ah).[13] The grandfather of al-Jāḥiẓ was a Black jammāl (cameleer)  – or ḥammāl (porter); the manuscripts differ. – of ‘Amr ibn Qal‘ named Maḥbūb, nicknamed Fazārah, or Fazārah was his maternal grandfather, and Maḥbūb his paternal. The names may however have been confused. Al-Jāḥiẓ died 250 [A.D. 869], during the caliphate of al-Mu‘tazz. Al-Nadīm reports that al-Jāḥiẓ said he was about the same age as Abū Nuwās[n 3] and older than al-Jammāz.[n 4][13] Not much is known about al-Jāḥiẓ's early life, but his family was very poor. Born in Basra early in 160/February 776, he asserted in a book he wrote that he was a member of the Arabian tribe Banu Kinanah.[14][15] His nephew also reported that al-Jāḥiẓ's grandfather was a black cameleer.[16]

He sold fish along one of the canals in Basra to help his family. Financial difficulties, however, did not stop al-Jāḥiẓ from continuously seeking knowledge. He used to gather with a group of other youths at Basra's main mosque, where they would discuss different scientific subjects. During the cultural and intellectual revolution under the Abbasid Caliphate books became readily available, and learning accessible. Al-Jāḥiẓ studied philology, lexicography and poetry from among the most learned scholars at the School of Basra, where he attended the lectures of Abū Ubaydah, al-Aṣma’ī, Sa'īd ibn Aws al-Anṣārī and studied ilm an-naḥw (علم النحو, i.e., syntax) with Akhfash al-Awsaṭ (al-Akhfash Abī al-Ḥasan).[17] Over a twenty-five-year span studying, al-Jāḥiẓ acquired a considerable knowledge of Arabic poetry, Arabic philology, pre-Islamic Arab history, the Qur'an and the Hadiths. He read translated books on Greek sciences and Hellenistic philosophy, especially that of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Al-Jahiz was also critical of those who followed the Hadiths of Abu Hurayra, referring to his Hadithist opponents as al-nabita ("the contemptible").[18]

Career Edit

 
A giraffe from a reproduction of Kitāb al-Hayawān (Book of the Animals) by al-Jāḥiẓ.

While still in Basra, al-Jāḥiẓ wrote an article about the institution of the Caliphate. This is said to have been the beginning of his career as a writer, which would become his sole source of living. It is said that his mother once offered him a tray full of notebooks and told him he would earn his living from writing. He went on to write two hundred books in his lifetime on a variety of subjects, including on the Quran, Arabic grammar, zoology, poetry, lexicography, and rhetoric. Al-Jāḥiẓ was also one of the first Arabic writers to suggest a complete overhaul of the language's grammatical system, though this would not be undertaken until his fellow linguist Ibn Maḍāʾ took up the matter two hundred years later.[19]

Al-Nadīm cited this passage from a book of al-Jāḥiẓ:[20]

When I was writing these two books, about the creation of the Qur’ān, which was the tenet given importance and honour by the Commander of the Faithful,[n 5] and another about superiority in connection with the Banū Hāshim, the ‘Abd Shams, and Makhzūm.[n 6] What was my due but to sit above the Simakān, Spica and Arcturus, or on top of the ‘Ayyūq,[n 7] or to deal with red sulphur, or to conduct the ‘Anqā by her leading string to the Greatest King.[n 8][24] [25]

Al-Jāḥiẓ moved to Baghdad, then the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, in 816 AD, because the caliphs encouraged scientists and scholars and had just founded the library of the Bayt al-Ḥikmah. But al-Nadim suspected a claim by al-Jāḥiẓ that the caliph al-Ma’mūn had praised his books on the imamate and the caliphate, for his eloquent phraseology, and use of market-place speech, and that of the elite and of the kings,[26] was exaggerated self-glorification and doubted that al-Ma’mūn could have spoken these words.[n 9] Al-Jāḥiẓ was said to have admired the eloquent literary style of the director of the library, Sahl ibn Hārūn (d. 859/860) and quoted his works.[28] Because of the caliphs' patronage and his eagerness to establish himself and reach a wider audience, al-Jāḥiẓ stayed in Baghdad.

Al-Nadīm gives two versions[n 10][29] of an anecdote which differ in their source: his first source is Abū Hiffān[n 11] and his second is the grammarian al-Mubarrad,[13] – and retells the story of al-Jāḥiẓ's reputation for being one of the three great bibliophiles and scholars – the two others being al-Fatḥ ibn Khāqān and judge Ismā’īl ibn Isḥāq[n 12] – such that “whenever a book came into the hand of al-Jāḥiẓ he read through it, wherever he happened to be. He even used to rent the shops of al-warrāqūn[n 13] for study.”[31]

Al-Jāḥiẓ replaced Ibrāhīm ibn al-‘Abbās al-Ṣūlī in the government secretariat of al-Ma’mūn but left after just three days.[32] [33] Later at Samarra he wrote a huge number of his books. The caliph al-Ma'mun wanted al-Jāḥiẓ to teach his children, but then changed his mind when his children were frightened by al-Jāḥiẓ's boggle-eyes (جاحظ العينين). This is said to be the origin of his nickname.[34] He enjoyed the patronage of al-Fath ibn Khaqan, the bibliophile boon companion of Caliph al-Mutawakkil, but after his murder in December 861 he left Samarra for his native Basra, where he lived on his estate with his “concubine, her maid, a manservant, and a donkey.” [35][36]

Selected books Edit

Kitāb al-Ḥayawān (كتاب الحيوان) 'book of the animals' Edit

 
A page from a reproduction of al-Jāḥiẓ's Kitāb al-Hayawān depicting an ostrich (Struthio camelus) in a nest with eggs. Basra.

Kitāb al-Ḥayawān is an extensive compendium in seven volumes[n 14] consisting of anecdotes, poetic descriptions and proverbs describing over 350 species of animals.[37] Composed in honour of Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Mālik al-Zayyāt, who paid him five thousand gold coins (5., dīnār). [38] The 11th-century scholar al-Khatib al-Baghdadi dismissed it as "little more than a plagiarism" of Aristotle's Kitāb al-Hayawān – a charge of plagiarism was levelled against Aristotle himself with regard to a certain "Asclepiades of Pergamum".[39] Later scholars have noted that there was only a limited Aristotelian influence in al-Jāḥiẓ's work, and that al-Baghdadi may have been unacquainted with Aristotle's work.[40]

Conway Zirkle, writing about the history of natural selection science in 1941, said that an excerpt from this work was the only relevant passage he had found from an Arabian scholar. He provided a quotation describing the struggle for existence, citing a Spanish translation of this work:

The rat goes out for its food, and is clever in getting it, for it eats all animals inferior to it in strength", and in turn, it "has to avoid snakes and birds and serpents of prey, who look for it in order to devour it" and are stronger than the rat. Mosquitos "know instinctively that blood is the thing which makes them live" and when they see an animal, "they know that the skin has been fashioned to serve them as food". In turn, flies hunt the mosquito "which is the food that they like best", and predators eat the flies. "All animals, in short, can not exist without food, neither can the hunting animal escape being hunted in his turn. Every weak animal devours those weaker than itself. Strong animals cannot escape being devoured by other animals stronger than they. And in this respect, men do not differ from animals, some with respect to others, although they do not arrive at the same extremes. In short, God has disposed some human beings as a cause of life for others, and likewise, he has disposed the latter as a cause of the death of the former."[41]

According to Frank Edgerton (2002), the claim made by some authors that al-Jahiz was an early evolutionist is "unconvincing", but the narrower claim that Jahiz "recognized the effect of environmental factors on animal life" seems valid.[42] Rebecca Stott (2013) writes of al-Jahiz's work:

Jahiz was not concerned with argument or theorizing. He was concerned with witnessing; he promoted the pleasures and fascinations of close looking and told his readers that there was nothing more important than this. ...Here and there amid the close looking there are visions, glimpses of brilliant insight and perception about natural laws,but the overt purpose of Living beings was to persuade the reader to fulfil his moral obligation to God,an obligation enjoined by the Qu'ran:to look closely and search for understanding. ... If certain historians have claimed that Jahiz wrote about evolution a thousand years before Darwin and that he discovered natural selection, they have misunderstood. Jahiz was not trying to work out how the world began or how species had come to be. He believed that God had done the making and that he had done it brilliantly. He took divine creation and intelligent design for granted. … There was, for him, no other possible explanation. ......What is striking, however, about Jahiz’s portrait of nature in Living Beings is his vision of interconnectedness, his repeated images of nets and webs. He certainly saw ecosystems, as we would call them now, in the natural world. He also understood what we might call the survival of the fittest[43]

Like Aristotle, al-Jahiz believed in spontaneous generation. He frequently used metaphors of webs and nets to express the interconnectedness of the natural world.[6]

Kitāb al-Bukhalā’ (البُخلاء) 'the book of misers' (a.k.a. 'avarice and the avaricious') Edit

A collection of stories about the greedy. Humorous and satirical, it is the best example of al-Jāḥiẓ' prose style. Al-Jāḥiẓ ridicules schoolmasters, beggars, singers and scribes for their greedy behavior. Many of the stories continue to be reprinted in magazines throughout the Arabic-speaking world. The book is considered one of the best works of al-Jāḥiẓ.[citation needed] The book has two English translations: One by Robert Bertram Serjeant titled The Book of Misers, and another by Jim Colville titled Avarice and the Avaricious. Editions: Arabic (al-Ḥājirī, Cairo, 1958);[44] Arabic text, French preface. Le Livre des avares. (Pellat. Paris, 1951)[45]

Kitāb al-Bayān wa-al-Tabyīn 'The Book of eloquence and demonstration' Edit

al-Bayan wa al-Tabyin was one of al-Jāḥiẓ's later works, in which he wrote on epiphanies, rhetorical speeches, sectarian leaders, and princes. Though he was neither a poet nor a philologist in the proper sense – al-Jāḥiẓ took a keen interest in almost any imaginable subject – the book is considered to have started Arabic literary theory in a formal, systemic fashion.[46] Al-Jāḥiẓ's defining of eloquence as the ability of the speaker to deliver an effective message while maintaining it as brief or elaborate at will was widely accepted by later Arabic literary critics.[47]

Fakhr al-Sūdān ala al-Bīḍān (فَخْر السُودان على البيضان) 'pride of blacks over whites' Edit

This book is composed as an imaginary debate between black people and white people as to which group is superior.[48] Al-Jāḥiẓ mentions that Blacks have an oratory and eloquence of their own culture and language.[49]

Editions and translations Edit

  • al-Jahiz, Fakhr El Soudan Ala Al Bidhan (Beirut: Dar al-Guiel, 1991).
  • al-Jāḥiẓ, “The Boasts of the Blacks Over the Whites,” trans. Tarif Khalidi, Islamic Quarterly, 25, no. 1 (1981): 3–51.

On the Zanj ("Swahili coast") Edit

Concerning the Zanj, he wrote:

Everybody agrees that there is no people on earth in whom generosity is as universally well developed as the Zanj. These people have a natural talent for dancing to the rhythm of the tambourine, without needing to learn it. There are no better singers anywhere in the world, no people more polished and eloquent, and no people less given to insulting language. No other nation can surpass them in bodily strength and physical toughness. One of them will lift huge blocks and carry heavy loads that would be beyond the strength of most Bedouins or members of other races. They are courageous, energetic, and generous, which are the virtues of nobility, and also good-tempered and with little propensity to evil. They are always cheerful, smiling, and devoid of malice, which is a sign of noble character.

The Zanj say that God did not make them black to disfigure them; rather it is their environment that made them so. The best evidence of this is that there are black tribes among the Arabs, such as the Banu Sulaim bin Mansur, and that all the peoples settled in the Harra, besides the Banu Sulaim are black. These tribes take slaves from among the Ashban to mind their flocks and for irrigation work, manual labor, and domestic service, and their wives from among the Byzantines; and yet it takes less than three generations for the Harra to give them all the complexion of the Banu Sulaim. This Harra is such that the gazelles, ostriches, insects, wolves, foxes, sheep, asses, horses and birds that live there are all black. White and black are the results of environment, the natural properties of water and soil, distance from the sun, and intensity of heat. There is no question of metamorphosis, or of punishment, disfigurement or favor meted out by Allah. Besides, the land of the Banu Sulaim has much in common with the land of the Turks, where the camels, beasts of burden, and everything belonging to these people is similar in appearance: everything of theirs has a Turkish look.[50]

Mu‘tazilī theological debate Edit

Al-Jāḥiẓ intervened in a theological dispute between two Mu’tazilītes, and defended Abū al-Hudhayl[n 15] against the criticism of Bishr ibn al-Mu‘tamir.[51] Another Mu‘tazilite theologian, Ja‘far ibn Mubashshir,[n 16] wrote a “refutation of al-Jāḥiẓ”.[52]

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, he was "part of the rationalist Mu’tazilite school of theology supported by the caliph al-Maʾmūn and his successor. When Muʿtazilism was abandoned by the caliph al-Mutawakkil, al-Jāḥiẓ remained in favour by writing essays such as Manāqib at-turk (Eng. trans., “Exploits of the Turks”).[53]

Death Edit

Al-Jāḥiẓ returned to Basra with hemiplegia after spending more than fifty years in Baghdad. He died in Basra in the Arabic month of Muharram in AH 255/December 868 – January 869 AD.[54] His exact cause of death is not clear, but a popular assumption is that al-Jāḥiẓ died in his private library after one of many large piles of books fell on him, killing him instantly.[8]

See also Edit

References Edit

Notes Edit

  1. ^ The ancestor of ‘Amr ibn Qal‘ was Abū al-Qallamas;[9] the first of the Nasāh[10] of the Banū Kināna who were overseers of observance of the religious holy months, when warfare was forbidden.
  2. ^ An akhbār cited by al-Anbārī. The tribes of Kināna[11] and Fuqaym.[12]
  3. ^ Abū Nuwās al-Ḥasan ibn Hāni’ (d. 810), licentious poet and court companion of Hārūn al-Rashīd.
  4. ^ al-Jammāz Muḥammad ibn ‘Amr, Abū ‘Abd Allāh (d. 868/869) a satirist and storyteller at the court of al-Mutawakkil
  5. ^ Probably the Caliph al-Ma’mūn, who made a special point of the doctrine of the creation of the Qur’ān.[21] Al-Jāḥiẓ wrote numerous books about the caliphs, and which two books he refers to is unknown.
  6. ^ Dodge notes that al-Jāḥiẓ’s praise for the ‘Abbāsid lineage, and promotion of their ancestors, the Banū Hāshim, over the ‘Abd Shams, ancestors of the Umayyads, and the Banū Makhzūm, is evidentially political expedience.
  7. ^ The Simakān were two stars: al-Simāk al-A‘zal or Spica, and al-Simāk al-Rāmiḥ or Arcturus. The ‘Ayyūq was either Aldebaran in the constellation of Taurus, or else Capella.[22][23]
  8. ^ The ‘Anqā was a fabled bird, also called Simurgh, that reigned as queen on Mount Qāf. The Ṣūfīs sometimes used the bird as an allegorical symbol of divine truth, so that the “Greatest King” probably refers to God.
  9. ^ Bayard Dodge in his editorial notes that he books about the caliphate undoubtedly tried to prove that it was the ‘Abbāsid caliphs who had the divine right to rule the Islamic theocracy and that al-Jāḥiẓ had put these words into the caliph’s mouth in an attempt to boast of his erudition and clarity of style.[27]
  10. ^ Compare “al-Fihrist” (ed. Dodge, 1970), Ch. III, §.2, near n. 12; Ch. V, §.1.
  11. ^ Abū Hiffān 'Abd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥarb al-Mihzamī was a secretary and poet who died in Baghdād in 871.
  12. ^ Ismā’īl ibn Isḥāq ibn Ismā’īl ibn Ḥammād, al-Qāḍī (d. 895/896) a jurist of Baṣrah who became a judge at Baghdād.
  13. ^ A copiest of MSS, or stationer, or bookshop owner. Bookshops were often meeting places for scholarly debate. [30]
  14. ^ Al-Fihrist gives a list of the first and last sentences of each section of the Kitāb al-Ḥayawān.
  15. ^ Abū al-Hudhayl al-ʿAllāf (d. ca. 841) Muʿtazilī theologian from Baṣrah
  16. ^ Ja‘far ibn Mubashshir al-Thaqafī, Abū Muḥammad, (d. 848/49) a Mu‘tazilah of Baghdād.

Citations Edit

  1. ^ "al-Jāḥiẓ". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. 7 March 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  2. ^ Yāqūt 1907, pp. 56–80, VI (6).
  3. ^ Baghdādī (al-) Khaṭīb 2001, pp. 124–132, 14.
  4. ^ Pellat 1953, p. 51.
  5. ^ Nadīm (al-) 1970, pp. 397–409.
  6. ^ a b "Darwin's Ghosts, By Rebecca Stott". independent.co.uk. 31 May 2012. from the original on 4 June 2012. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
  7. ^ Blankinship (2020). "Giggers, Greeners, Peyserts, and Palliards: Rendering Slang in al-Bukhalāʾ of al-Jāḥiẓ". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 140 (1): 17. doi:10.7817/jameroriesoci.140.1.0017. S2CID 219100706.
  8. ^ a b Pellat, C. (1990). "al-Jahiz". In Ashtiany, Julia; Johnstone, T.M.; Latham, J.D.; Serjeat, R.B.; Rex Smith, G. (eds.). Abbasid Belles Lettres. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 81. ISBN 9780521240161. Retrieved 10 January 2017. A late tradition clams that Jahiz...was smothered to death under an avalanche of books.
  9. ^ Mas’ūdī (al-) 1864, p. 116.
  10. ^ Bīrūnī (al-) 1878, p. 12, l.1.
  11. ^ Watt 1986, p. 116.
  12. ^ Durayd (Ibn) 1854, p. 150.
  13. ^ a b c Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 398.
  14. ^ Al-Jahiz messages, Alwarraq edition, page 188; Yāqūt, Irshād al-arīb ilá ma`rifat al-adīb, ed. Iḥsān `Abbās, 7 vols (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1993), 5:2102.
  15. ^ Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam. Chuo cha Uchunguzi wa Lugha ya Kiswahili (1974). Kiswahili. East African Swahili Committee. p. 16.; Yāqūt, Irshād al-arīb ilá ma`rifat al-adīb, ed. Iḥsān `Abbās, 7 vols (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1993), 5:2102.
  16. ^ Al-Jubouri, I. M. N. (12 October 2010). Islamic Thought: From Mohammed to September 11, 2001. ISBN 9781453595855.
  17. ^ Yāqūt 1907, p. 56.
  18. ^ Zaman, Muhammad Qasim (1997). Religion and Politics Under the Early 'Abbasids: The Emergence of the Proto-Sunni Elite. Leiden: E.J. Brill. p. 55. ISBN 978-9-00410-678-9.
  19. ^ Shawqi Daif, Introduction to Ibn Mada's Refutation of the Grammarians, pg. 48. Cairo, 1947.
  20. ^ Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 401.
  21. ^ Hitti, Philip K (1970). History of The Arabs (10th ed.). Hong Kong: MacMillan Education Ltd. p. 429. ISBN 0-333-09871-4.
  22. ^ Richardson, John (1852). A dictionary, Persian, Arabic, and English. London: W.H. Allen. p. 1040.
  23. ^ Lane, E. W. (1874). An Arabic English Lexicon Book-i, Part-v. London: Williams & Norgate. p. 2199.
  24. ^ Richardson 1852, p. 1032.
  25. ^ Browne, Edward G. (1964). Literary History of Persia. Vol. II. Cambridge: University Press. p. 33 n. 3.
  26. ^ Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 400, I, ch.5 §1.
  27. ^ Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 400 n.108.
  28. ^ Nadīm (al-) 1970, pp. 262–3.
  29. ^ Nadīm (al-) 1970, pp. 255, 398.
  30. ^ Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 929.
  31. ^ Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 255.
  32. ^ Yāqūt 1907, p. 58, VI (6).
  33. ^ Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 399.
  34. ^ Khallikān (Ibn) 1843b, p. 405, ii.
  35. ^ Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 402.
  36. ^ Kennedy 2006, p. 252.
  37. ^ "Islam's evolutionary legacy". TheGuardian.com. March 2009.
  38. ^ Nadīm (al-) 1970, pp. 402–4.
  39. ^ F. E., Peters (1968). Aristotle and the Arabs: The Aristotelian Tradition in Islam. New York University Press. p. 133.
  40. ^ Mattock, J. N. (1971). "Review: Aristotle and the Arabs: The Aristotelian Tradition in Islam by F. E. Peters". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 34 (1): 147–148. doi:10.1017/s0041977x00141722. JSTOR 614638. S2CID 223939666. ...there is much more in al-Jāḥiẓ, enough to indicate that he used a version of Aristotle (or an epitome), but still not very much. If al-Baghdadi thought that the Kitab al-hayawan was a plagiarism of the Aristotelian work he was either a fool or unacquainted with Aristotle.
  41. ^ Zirkle C (1941). "Natural Selection before the 'Origin of Species'". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 84 (1): 71–123.
  42. ^ Edgerton, Frank N. (2002). "A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 6: Arabic Language Science: Origins and Zoological Writings". Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 83 (2): 142–146. JSTOR 20168700.
  43. ^ Stott, Rebecca (2013). Darwin's Ghosts. Bloomsbury. p. 50. ISBN 9781408831014.
  44. ^ Jāḥiẓ (al-), Abū ‘Uthman ‘Amr ibn Bahr (1958). al-Ḥājirī, Ṭāhā (ed.). Kitāb al-Bukhalā' (in Arabic). Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif.
  45. ^ Jāḥiẓ (al-), Abū ‘Uthman ‘Amr ibn Bahr (1951). Pellat, C. (ed.). Kitāb al-Bukhalā' (Tr. Le Livre des avares) (in Arabic and French). Paris: Maisoneuve.
  46. ^ G. J. H. Van Gelder, Beyond the Line: Classical Arabic Literary Critics on the Coherence and Unity of the Poem, pg. 2. Volume 8 of Studies in Arabic literature: Supplements to the Journal of Arabic Literature. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1982. ISBN 9789004068544
  47. ^ G.J. van Gelder, "Brevity in Classical Arabic Literary Theory." Taken from Proceedings of the Ninth Congress of the Union Européenne Des Arabisants et Islamisants: Amsterdam, 1 to 7 September 1978, pg. 81. Ed. Rudolph Peters. Volume 4 of Publications of the Netherlands Institute of Archaeology and Arabic Studies in Cairo. Leiden: Brill Archive, 1981. ISBN 9789004063808
  48. ^ Sharawi, Helmi, 'The African in Arab culture: Dynamics of Inclusion and Exclusion', in Imagining the Arab Other, How Arabs and Non‐Arabs View Each Other, ed. by Tahar Labib (New York: I. B. Tauris, 2008), pp. 92-156 (p. 99); ISBN 9781845113841.
  49. ^ Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 35.
  50. ^ "Medieval Sourcebook: Abû Ûthmân al-Jâhith: From The Essays, c. 860 CE". Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  51. ^ Nadīm (al-) 1970, pp. 390–1.
  52. ^ Nadīm (al-) 1970, p. 397.
  53. ^ . www.britannica.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015..
  54. ^ al-Ṣūlī, Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyá (1998). Kniga listov. Sankt-Peterburg: T͡Sentr "Peterburgskoe vostokovedenie". p. 392.

Sources Edit

External links Edit

  • Plessner, M. (2008) [1970–80]. "Al-Jāḥith, Abū 'Uthmān 'Amr Ibn Baḥr". Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Encyclopedia.com.
  • Kitāb al-Hayawān (Book of Animals), by al-Jāḥiẓ (Full Arabic text)

jahiz, abū, ʿuthman, ʿamr, baḥr, kinānī, baṣrī, arabic, أبو, عثمان, عمرو, بن, بحر, الكناني, البصري, commonly, known, jāḥiẓ, arabic, الجاحظ, eyed, born, died, december, january, prose, writer, author, works, literature, theology, zoology, politico, religious, p. Abu ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al Kinani al Baṣri Arabic أبو عثمان عمرو بن بحر الكناني البصري commonly known as al Jaḥiẓ Arabic الجاحظ The Bug Eyed born 776 died December 868 January 869 was a prose writer and author of works of literature theology zoology and politico religious polemics 2 3 4 5 He described himself as a member of the Arabian tribe Banu Kinanah He has been credited with describing certain principles related to natural selection 6 al JahizSyrian stamp of al Jahiz from 1968BornAbu ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al Kinani al Baṣri776Basra Abbasid CaliphateDiedDecember 868 January 869Basra Abbasid CaliphateEraMedieval eraRegionIslamic PhilosophySchoolAristotelianismMain interestsArabic literaturePersonalReligionIslamCreedMu tazila 1 Ibn al Nadim lists nearly 140 titles attributed to al Jahiz of which 75 are extant The best known are Kitab al Ḥayawan The book of Animals a seven part compendium on an array of subjects with animals as their point of departure Kitab al Bayan wa l tabyin The book of eloquence and exposition a wide ranging work on human communication and Kitab al Bukhalaʾ The book of misers a collection of anecdotes on stinginess 7 Tradition claims that he was smothered to death when a vast amount of books fell over him 8 Contents 1 Life 2 Career 3 Selected books 3 1 Kitab al Ḥayawan كتاب الحيوان book of the animals 3 2 Kitab al Bukhala الب خلاء the book of misers a k a avarice and the avaricious 3 3 Kitab al Bayan wa al Tabyin The Book of eloquence and demonstration 3 4 Fakhr al Sudan ala al Biḍan ف خ ر الس ودان على البيضان pride of blacks over whites 3 4 1 Editions and translations 4 On the Zanj Swahili coast 5 Mu tazili theological debate 6 Death 7 See also 8 References 8 1 Notes 8 2 Citations 8 3 Sources 9 External linksLife EditHe was Abu ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Bahr ibn Maḥbub a protege of Abu al Qallamas n 1 Amr ibn Qal al Kinani then al Fuqaymi a k a Amr ibn Qal al Kinani al Fuqaymi n 2 whose ancestor was one of the Nasah Nasa ah 13 The grandfather of al Jaḥiẓ was a Black jammal cameleer or ḥammal porter the manuscripts differ of Amr ibn Qal named Maḥbub nicknamed Fazarah or Fazarah was his maternal grandfather and Maḥbub his paternal The names may however have been confused Al Jaḥiẓ died 250 A D 869 during the caliphate of al Mu tazz Al Nadim reports that al Jaḥiẓ said he was about the same age as Abu Nuwas n 3 and older than al Jammaz n 4 13 Not much is known about al Jaḥiẓ s early life but his family was very poor Born in Basra early in 160 February 776 he asserted in a book he wrote that he was a member of the Arabian tribe Banu Kinanah 14 15 His nephew also reported that al Jaḥiẓ s grandfather was a black cameleer 16 He sold fish along one of the canals in Basra to help his family Financial difficulties however did not stop al Jaḥiẓ from continuously seeking knowledge He used to gather with a group of other youths at Basra s main mosque where they would discuss different scientific subjects During the cultural and intellectual revolution under the Abbasid Caliphate books became readily available and learning accessible Al Jaḥiẓ studied philology lexicography and poetry from among the most learned scholars at the School of Basra where he attended the lectures of Abu Ubaydah al Aṣma i Sa id ibn Aws al Anṣari and studied ilm an naḥw علم النحو i e syntax with Akhfash al Awsaṭ al Akhfash Abi al Ḥasan 17 Over a twenty five year span studying al Jaḥiẓ acquired a considerable knowledge of Arabic poetry Arabic philology pre Islamic Arab history the Qur an and the Hadiths He read translated books on Greek sciences and Hellenistic philosophy especially that of the Greek philosopher Aristotle Al Jahiz was also critical of those who followed the Hadiths of Abu Hurayra referring to his Hadithist opponents as al nabita the contemptible 18 Career Edit nbsp A giraffe from a reproduction of Kitab al Hayawan Book of the Animals by al Jaḥiẓ While still in Basra al Jaḥiẓ wrote an article about the institution of the Caliphate This is said to have been the beginning of his career as a writer which would become his sole source of living It is said that his mother once offered him a tray full of notebooks and told him he would earn his living from writing He went on to write two hundred books in his lifetime on a variety of subjects including on the Quran Arabic grammar zoology poetry lexicography and rhetoric Al Jaḥiẓ was also one of the first Arabic writers to suggest a complete overhaul of the language s grammatical system though this would not be undertaken until his fellow linguist Ibn Maḍaʾ took up the matter two hundred years later 19 Al Nadim cited this passage from a book of al Jaḥiẓ 20 When I was writing these two books about the creation of the Qur an which was the tenet given importance and honour by the Commander of the Faithful n 5 and another about superiority in connection with the Banu Hashim the Abd Shams and Makhzum n 6 What was my due but to sit above the Simakan Spica and Arcturus or on top of the Ayyuq n 7 or to deal with red sulphur or to conduct the Anqa by her leading string to the Greatest King n 8 24 25 Al Jaḥiẓ moved to Baghdad then the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate in 816 AD because the caliphs encouraged scientists and scholars and had just founded the library of the Bayt al Ḥikmah But al Nadim suspected a claim by al Jaḥiẓ that the caliph al Ma mun had praised his books on the imamate and the caliphate for his eloquent phraseology and use of market place speech and that of the elite and of the kings 26 was exaggerated self glorification and doubted that al Ma mun could have spoken these words n 9 Al Jaḥiẓ was said to have admired the eloquent literary style of the director of the library Sahl ibn Harun d 859 860 and quoted his works 28 Because of the caliphs patronage and his eagerness to establish himself and reach a wider audience al Jaḥiẓ stayed in Baghdad Al Nadim gives two versions n 10 29 of an anecdote which differ in their source his first source is Abu Hiffan n 11 and his second is the grammarian al Mubarrad 13 and retells the story of al Jaḥiẓ s reputation for being one of the three great bibliophiles and scholars the two others being al Fatḥ ibn Khaqan and judge Isma il ibn Isḥaq n 12 such that whenever a book came into the hand of al Jaḥiẓ he read through it wherever he happened to be He even used to rent the shops of al warraqun n 13 for study 31 Al Jaḥiẓ replaced Ibrahim ibn al Abbas al Ṣuli in the government secretariat of al Ma mun but left after just three days 32 33 Later at Samarra he wrote a huge number of his books The caliph al Ma mun wanted al Jaḥiẓ to teach his children but then changed his mind when his children were frightened by al Jaḥiẓ s boggle eyes جاحظ العينين This is said to be the origin of his nickname 34 He enjoyed the patronage of al Fath ibn Khaqan the bibliophile boon companion of Caliph al Mutawakkil but after his murder in December 861 he left Samarra for his native Basra where he lived on his estate with his concubine her maid a manservant and a donkey 35 36 Selected books EditMain article al Jahiz bibliography Kitab al Ḥayawan كتاب الحيوان book of the animals Edit nbsp A page from a reproduction of al Jaḥiẓ s Kitab al Hayawan depicting an ostrich Struthio camelus in a nest with eggs Basra Kitab al Ḥayawan is an extensive compendium in seven volumes n 14 consisting of anecdotes poetic descriptions and proverbs describing over 350 species of animals 37 Composed in honour of Muḥammad ibn Abd al Malik al Zayyat who paid him five thousand gold coins 5 dinar 38 The 11th century scholar al Khatib al Baghdadi dismissed it as little more than a plagiarism of Aristotle s Kitab al Hayawan a charge of plagiarism was levelled against Aristotle himself with regard to a certain Asclepiades of Pergamum 39 Later scholars have noted that there was only a limited Aristotelian influence in al Jaḥiẓ s work and that al Baghdadi may have been unacquainted with Aristotle s work 40 Conway Zirkle writing about the history of natural selection science in 1941 said that an excerpt from this work was the only relevant passage he had found from an Arabian scholar He provided a quotation describing the struggle for existence citing a Spanish translation of this work The rat goes out for its food and is clever in getting it for it eats all animals inferior to it in strength and in turn it has to avoid snakes and birds and serpents of prey who look for it in order to devour it and are stronger than the rat Mosquitos know instinctively that blood is the thing which makes them live and when they see an animal they know that the skin has been fashioned to serve them as food In turn flies hunt the mosquito which is the food that they like best and predators eat the flies All animals in short can not exist without food neither can the hunting animal escape being hunted in his turn Every weak animal devours those weaker than itself Strong animals cannot escape being devoured by other animals stronger than they And in this respect men do not differ from animals some with respect to others although they do not arrive at the same extremes In short God has disposed some human beings as a cause of life for others and likewise he has disposed the latter as a cause of the death of the former 41 According to Frank Edgerton 2002 the claim made by some authors that al Jahiz was an early evolutionist is unconvincing but the narrower claim that Jahiz recognized the effect of environmental factors on animal life seems valid 42 Rebecca Stott 2013 writes of al Jahiz s work Jahiz was not concerned with argument or theorizing He was concerned with witnessing he promoted the pleasures and fascinations of close looking and told his readers that there was nothing more important than this Here and there amid the close looking there are visions glimpses of brilliant insight and perception about natural laws but the overt purpose of Living beings was to persuade the reader to fulfil his moral obligation to God an obligation enjoined by the Qu ran to look closely and search for understanding If certain historians have claimed that Jahiz wrote about evolution a thousand years before Darwin and that he discovered natural selection they have misunderstood Jahiz was not trying to work out how the world began or how species had come to be He believed that God had done the making and that he had done it brilliantly He took divine creation and intelligent design for granted There was for him no other possible explanation What is striking however about Jahiz s portrait of nature in Living Beings is his vision of interconnectedness his repeated images of nets and webs He certainly saw ecosystems as we would call them now in the natural world He also understood what we might call the survival of the fittest 43 Like Aristotle al Jahiz believed in spontaneous generation He frequently used metaphors of webs and nets to express the interconnectedness of the natural world 6 Kitab al Bukhala الب خلاء the book of misers a k a avarice and the avaricious Edit A collection of stories about the greedy Humorous and satirical it is the best example of al Jaḥiẓ prose style Al Jaḥiẓ ridicules schoolmasters beggars singers and scribes for their greedy behavior Many of the stories continue to be reprinted in magazines throughout the Arabic speaking world The book is considered one of the best works of al Jaḥiẓ citation needed The book has two English translations One by Robert Bertram Serjeant titled The Book of Misers and another by Jim Colville titled Avarice and the Avaricious Editions Arabic al Ḥajiri Cairo 1958 44 Arabic text French preface Le Livre des avares Pellat Paris 1951 45 Kitab al Bayan wa al Tabyin The Book of eloquence and demonstration Edit al Bayan wa al Tabyin was one of al Jaḥiẓ s later works in which he wrote on epiphanies rhetorical speeches sectarian leaders and princes Though he was neither a poet nor a philologist in the proper sense al Jaḥiẓ took a keen interest in almost any imaginable subject the book is considered to have started Arabic literary theory in a formal systemic fashion 46 Al Jaḥiẓ s defining of eloquence as the ability of the speaker to deliver an effective message while maintaining it as brief or elaborate at will was widely accepted by later Arabic literary critics 47 Fakhr al Sudan ala al Biḍan ف خ ر الس ودان على البيضان pride of blacks over whites Edit This book is composed as an imaginary debate between black people and white people as to which group is superior 48 Al Jaḥiẓ mentions that Blacks have an oratory and eloquence of their own culture and language 49 Editions and translations Edit al Jahiz Fakhr El Soudan Ala Al Bidhan Beirut Dar al Guiel 1991 al Jaḥiẓ The Boasts of the Blacks Over the Whites trans Tarif Khalidi Islamic Quarterly 25 no 1 1981 3 51 On the Zanj Swahili coast EditConcerning the Zanj he wrote Everybody agrees that there is no people on earth in whom generosity is as universally well developed as the Zanj These people have a natural talent for dancing to the rhythm of the tambourine without needing to learn it There are no better singers anywhere in the world no people more polished and eloquent and no people less given to insulting language No other nation can surpass them in bodily strength and physical toughness One of them will lift huge blocks and carry heavy loads that would be beyond the strength of most Bedouins or members of other races They are courageous energetic and generous which are the virtues of nobility and also good tempered and with little propensity to evil They are always cheerful smiling and devoid of malice which is a sign of noble character The Zanj say that God did not make them black to disfigure them rather it is their environment that made them so The best evidence of this is that there are black tribes among the Arabs such as the Banu Sulaim bin Mansur and that all the peoples settled in the Harra besides the Banu Sulaim are black These tribes take slaves from among the Ashban to mind their flocks and for irrigation work manual labor and domestic service and their wives from among the Byzantines and yet it takes less than three generations for the Harra to give them all the complexion of the Banu Sulaim This Harra is such that the gazelles ostriches insects wolves foxes sheep asses horses and birds that live there are all black White and black are the results of environment the natural properties of water and soil distance from the sun and intensity of heat There is no question of metamorphosis or of punishment disfigurement or favor meted out by Allah Besides the land of the Banu Sulaim has much in common with the land of the Turks where the camels beasts of burden and everything belonging to these people is similar in appearance everything of theirs has a Turkish look 50 Mu tazili theological debate EditAl Jaḥiẓ intervened in a theological dispute between two Mu tazilites and defended Abu al Hudhayl n 15 against the criticism of Bishr ibn al Mu tamir 51 Another Mu tazilite theologian Ja far ibn Mubashshir n 16 wrote a refutation of al Jaḥiẓ 52 According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica he was part of the rationalist Mu tazilite school of theology supported by the caliph al Maʾmun and his successor When Muʿtazilism was abandoned by the caliph al Mutawakkil al Jaḥiẓ remained in favour by writing essays such as Manaqib at turk Eng trans Exploits of the Turks 53 Death EditAl Jaḥiẓ returned to Basra with hemiplegia after spending more than fifty years in Baghdad He died in Basra in the Arabic month of Muharram in AH 255 December 868 January 869 AD 54 His exact cause of death is not clear but a popular assumption is that al Jaḥiẓ died in his private library after one of many large piles of books fell on him killing him instantly 8 See also EditShu ubiyya Ajam Al Jahiz crater List of Arab scientists and scholarsReferences EditNotes Edit The ancestor of Amr ibn Qal was Abu al Qallamas 9 the first of the Nasah 10 of the Banu Kinana who were overseers of observance of the religious holy months when warfare was forbidden An akhbar cited by al Anbari The tribes of Kinana 11 and Fuqaym 12 Abu Nuwas al Ḥasan ibn Hani d 810 licentious poet and court companion of Harun al Rashid al Jammaz Muḥammad ibn Amr Abu Abd Allah d 868 869 a satirist and storyteller at the court of al Mutawakkil Probably the Caliph al Ma mun who made a special point of the doctrine of the creation of the Qur an 21 Al Jaḥiẓ wrote numerous books about the caliphs and which two books he refers to is unknown Dodge notes that al Jaḥiẓ s praise for the Abbasid lineage and promotion of their ancestors the Banu Hashim over the Abd Shams ancestors of the Umayyads and the Banu Makhzum is evidentially political expedience The Simakan were two stars al Simak al A zal or Spica and al Simak al Ramiḥ or Arcturus The Ayyuq was either Aldebaran in the constellation of Taurus or else Capella 22 23 The Anqa was a fabled bird also called Simurgh that reigned as queen on Mount Qaf The Ṣufis sometimes used the bird as an allegorical symbol of divine truth so that the Greatest King probably refers to God Bayard Dodge in his editorial notes that he books about the caliphate undoubtedly tried to prove that it was the Abbasid caliphs who had the divine right to rule the Islamic theocracy and that al Jaḥiẓ had put these words into the caliph s mouth in an attempt to boast of his erudition and clarity of style 27 Compare al Fihrist ed Dodge 1970 Ch III 2 near n 12 Ch V 1 Abu Hiffan Abd Allah ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥarb al Mihzami was a secretary and poet who died in Baghdad in 871 Isma il ibn Isḥaq ibn Isma il ibn Ḥammad al Qaḍi d 895 896 a jurist of Baṣrah who became a judge at Baghdad A copiest of MSS or stationer or bookshop owner Bookshops were often meeting places for scholarly debate 30 Al Fihrist gives a list of the first and last sentences of each section of the Kitab al Ḥayawan Abu al Hudhayl al ʿAllaf d ca 841 Muʿtazili theologian from Baṣrah Ja far ibn Mubashshir al Thaqafi Abu Muḥammad d 848 49 a Mu tazilah of Baghdad Citations Edit al Jaḥiẓ Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica inc 7 March 2012 Retrieved 22 June 2020 Yaqut 1907 pp 56 80 VI 6 Baghdadi al Khaṭib 2001 pp 124 132 14 Pellat 1953 p 51 Nadim al 1970 pp 397 409 a b Darwin s Ghosts By Rebecca Stott independent co uk 31 May 2012 Archived from the original on 4 June 2012 Retrieved 19 June 2012 Blankinship 2020 Giggers Greeners Peyserts and Palliards Rendering Slang in al Bukhalaʾ of al Jaḥiẓ Journal of the American Oriental Society 140 1 17 doi 10 7817 jameroriesoci 140 1 0017 S2CID 219100706 a b Pellat C 1990 al Jahiz In Ashtiany Julia Johnstone T M Latham J D Serjeat R B Rex Smith G eds Abbasid Belles Lettres Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press p 81 ISBN 9780521240161 Retrieved 10 January 2017 A late tradition clams that Jahiz was smothered to death under an avalanche of books Mas udi al 1864 p 116 Biruni al 1878 p 12 l 1 Watt 1986 p 116 Durayd Ibn 1854 p 150 a b c Nadim al 1970 p 398 Al Jahiz messages Alwarraq edition page 188 Yaqut Irshad al arib ila ma rifat al adib ed Iḥsan Abbas 7 vols Beirut Dar al Gharb al Islami 1993 5 2102 Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam Chuo cha Uchunguzi wa Lugha ya Kiswahili 1974 Kiswahili East African Swahili Committee p 16 Yaqut Irshad al arib ila ma rifat al adib ed Iḥsan Abbas 7 vols Beirut Dar al Gharb al Islami 1993 5 2102 Al Jubouri I M N 12 October 2010 Islamic Thought From Mohammed to September 11 2001 ISBN 9781453595855 Yaqut 1907 p 56 Zaman Muhammad Qasim 1997 Religion and Politics Under the Early Abbasids The Emergence of the Proto Sunni Elite Leiden E J Brill p 55 ISBN 978 9 00410 678 9 Shawqi Daif Introduction to Ibn Mada s Refutation of the Grammarians pg 48 Cairo 1947 Nadim al 1970 p 401 Hitti Philip K 1970 History of The Arabs 10th ed Hong Kong MacMillan Education Ltd p 429 ISBN 0 333 09871 4 Richardson John 1852 A dictionary Persian Arabic and English London W H Allen p 1040 Lane E W 1874 An Arabic English Lexicon Book i Part v London Williams amp Norgate p 2199 Richardson 1852 p 1032 Browne Edward G 1964 Literary History of Persia Vol II Cambridge University Press p 33 n 3 Nadim al 1970 p 400 I ch 5 1 Nadim al 1970 p 400 n 108 Nadim al 1970 pp 262 3 Nadim al 1970 pp 255 398 Nadim al 1970 p 929 Nadim al 1970 p 255 Yaqut 1907 p 58 VI 6 Nadim al 1970 p 399 Khallikan Ibn 1843b p 405 ii Nadim al 1970 p 402 Kennedy 2006 p 252 Islam s evolutionary legacy TheGuardian com March 2009 Nadim al 1970 pp 402 4 F E Peters 1968 Aristotle and the Arabs The Aristotelian Tradition in Islam New York University Press p 133 Mattock J N 1971 Review Aristotle and the Arabs The Aristotelian Tradition in Islam by F E Peters Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 34 1 147 148 doi 10 1017 s0041977x00141722 JSTOR 614638 S2CID 223939666 there is much more in al Jaḥiẓ enough to indicate that he used a version of Aristotle or an epitome but still not very much If al Baghdadi thought that the Kitab al hayawan was a plagiarism of the Aristotelian work he was either a fool or unacquainted with Aristotle Zirkle C 1941 Natural Selection before the Origin of Species Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 84 1 71 123 Edgerton Frank N 2002 A History of the Ecological Sciences Part 6 Arabic Language Science Origins and Zoological Writings Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 83 2 142 146 JSTOR 20168700 Stott Rebecca 2013 Darwin s Ghosts Bloomsbury p 50 ISBN 9781408831014 Jaḥiẓ al Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr 1958 al Ḥajiri Ṭaha ed Kitab al Bukhala in Arabic Cairo Dar al Ma arif Jaḥiẓ al Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr 1951 Pellat C ed Kitab al Bukhala Tr Le Livre des avares in Arabic and French Paris Maisoneuve G J H Van Gelder Beyond the Line Classical Arabic Literary Critics on the Coherence and Unity of the Poem pg 2 Volume 8 of Studies in Arabic literature Supplements to the Journal of Arabic Literature Leiden Brill Publishers 1982 ISBN 9789004068544 G J van Gelder Brevity in Classical Arabic Literary Theory Taken from Proceedings of the Ninth Congress of the Union Europeenne Des Arabisants et Islamisants Amsterdam 1 to 7 September 1978 pg 81 Ed Rudolph Peters Volume 4 of Publications of the Netherlands Institute of Archaeology and Arabic Studies in Cairo Leiden Brill Archive 1981 ISBN 9789004063808 Sharawi Helmi The African in Arab culture Dynamics of Inclusion and Exclusion in Imagining the Arab Other How Arabs and Non Arabs View Each Other ed by Tahar Labib New York I B Tauris 2008 pp 92 156 p 99 ISBN 9781845113841 Nadim al 1970 p 35 Medieval Sourcebook Abu Uthman al Jahith From The Essays c 860 CE Retrieved 2 October 2014 Nadim al 1970 pp 390 1 Nadim al 1970 p 397 al Jahiz biography Muslim theologian and scholar Britannica com www britannica com Archived from the original on 6 September 2015 al Ṣuli Muḥammad ibn Yaḥya 1998 Kniga listov Sankt Peterburg T Sentr Peterburgskoe vostokovedenie p 392 Sources Edit Baghdadi al Khaṭib Abu Bakr Aḥmad ibn Ali 2001 6622 Tarikh Baghdad aw madinat al salam in Arabic Vol 14 Beirut Dar al Gharb al Islami pp 124 132 Biruni al Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad 1878 Sachau Eduard ed Chronologie orientalischer Volker von Alberuni in Arabic Leipzig Brockhaus p 12 l 1 Durayd Ibn Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn al Ḥasan 1854 Wustenfeld F ed Kitab al Ishtiqaq Ibn Doreid s genealogisch etymologisches Handbuch in Arabic Gottingen Dieterich p 150 Jaḥiẓ Pellat C Hawke D M 1969 The life and works of Jahiz Transl of selected texts Berkeley and Los Angeles Univ of California Press OCLC 488398998 Khallikan Ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad 1843 Ibn Khallikan s Biographical Dictionary tr Wafayat al A yan wa al Anba Abna al Zaman Vol i Translated by McGuckin de Slane William London W H Allen pp 61 74 Khallikan Ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad 1843b Ibn Khallikan s Biographical Dictionary tr Wafayat al A yan wa al Anba Abna al Zaman Vol ii Translated by McGuckin de Slane William London W H Allen pp 405 410 Khallikan Ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad 1972 Wafayat al A yan wa Anba Abna al Zaman in Arabic Vol III Beirut Dar Ṣadar pp 470 475 506 Mas udi al Abu al Ḥasan Ali ibn al Ḥusayn 1864 Meynard de C Barbier Courteille de A Pavet eds Kitab al Muruj al Dhahab wa Ma adin al Jawhar tr Les Prairies d or in Arabic and French Vol iii Paris Imprimerie imperiale p 116 Montgomery James 2013 Al Jaḥiẓ In Praise of Books Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press ISBN 978 0748683321 Nadim al Abu al Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥaq Abu Ya qub al Warraq 1970 Dodge Bayard ed The Fihrist of al Nadim a tenth century survey of Muslim culture Vol ii New York amp London Columbia University Press pp 397 409 Pellat Charles 1953 Le milieu baṣrien et la formation de Gaḥiẓ Doctoral dissertation Universite de Paris Librairie d Amerique et d Orient in French Paris Adrien Maisonneuve OCLC 7049520 Pellat Charles Kilani Ibrahim 1961 al Ǧaḥiẓ fi al Baṣrah wa Baḡdad wa Samiraʻ in Arabic Damas Dar El Yakaza Watt Watt W Montgomery 1986 Kinana in Bosworth CE Donzel E van Lewis B Pellat C eds Encyclopedia of Islam vol 5 New ed Leiden Brill p 116 a href Template Citation html title Template Citation citation a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Kennedy Hugh 2006 When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World The Rise and Fall of Islam s Greatest Dynasty Cambridge MA Da Capo Press ISBN 978 0 306814808 Kennedy Hugh N 2010 2007 Al Jahiz and the Construction of Homosexuality at the Abbasid Court In Harper April Proctor Caroline eds Medieval Sexuality A Casebook Second ed London u a Routledge pp 175 188 doi 10 4324 9780203935026 ISBN 978 1 135 86634 1 Yaqut Shihab al Din ibn Abd Allah al Ḥamawi 1907 Margoliouth D S ed Irshad al Arib ala Ma rifat al Adib Yaqut s Dictionary of Learned Men in Arabic vol VI Leiden Brill pp 56 80 Yaqut Shihab al Din ibn Abd al Ḥamawi 1913 Margoliouth D S ed Irshad al Arib ala Ma rifat al Adib in Arabic Vol VI 7 Leiden Brill Yaqut Shihab al Din ibn Abd al Ḥamawi 1993 Abbas Ihsan ed Irshad al Arib ala Ma rifat al Adib in Arabic Beirut Dar Gharib al Islam i pp 2101 2122 872 External links Edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Al Jahiz Plessner M 2008 1970 80 Al Jaḥith Abu Uthman Amr Ibn Baḥr Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography Encyclopedia com Kitab al Hayawan Book of Animals by al Jaḥiẓ Full Arabic text Arabic literature Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Al Jahiz amp oldid 1177219372, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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