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Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Kinānī al-Baṣrī ( ar, أبو عثمان عمرو بن بحر الكناني البصري), commonly known as al-Jāḥiẓ ( ar, links=no, 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. He described himself as a member of the Arabian tribe
Banu Kinanah The Kinana ( ar, كِنَاَنَة, Kināna) were an Arab tribe based around Mecca in the Tihama coastal area and the Hejaz mountains. The Quraysh of Mecca, the tribe of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, was an offshoot of the Kinana. A number of mod ...
. A thousand years before Darwin, Al-Jahiz came to the conclusion that there must be some mechanisms that influence the evolution of animals. He writes about three main mechanisms; the
struggle for existence The concept of the struggle for existence concerns the competition or battle for resources needed to live. It can refer to human society, or to organisms in nature. The concept is ancient, and the term ''struggle for existence'' was in use by the ...
, the transformation of species into each other, and the environmental factors. He is therefore credited with outlining the principles of
natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charl ...
.
Ibn al-Nadim Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Nadīm ( ar, ابو الفرج محمد بن إسحاق النديم), also ibn Abī Ya'qūb Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Warrāq, and commonly known by the ''nasab'' (patronymic) Ibn al-Nadīm ...
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. Tradition claims that he was smothered to death when a vast amount of books fell over him.


Life

He was Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Bahr ibn Maḥbūb, a protégé of Abū al-Qallamas ‘Amr ibn Qal‘ al-Kinānī, then al-Fuqaymī, a.k.a. ‘Amr ibn Qal‘ al-Kinānī al-Fuqaymī whose ancestor was one of the Nasah (Nasa’ah). 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 .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 and older than al-Jammāz. Not much is known about al-Jāḥiẓ's early life, but his family was very poor. Born in
Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...
early in 160/February 776, he asserted in a book he wrote that he was a member of the Arabian tribe
Banu Kinanah The Kinana ( ar, كِنَاَنَة, Kināna) were an Arab tribe based around Mecca in the Tihama coastal area and the Hejaz mountains. The Quraysh of Mecca, the tribe of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, was an offshoot of the Kinana. A number of mod ...
.; Yāqūt, ''Irshād al-arīb ilá ma`rifat al-adīb'', ed. Iḥsān `Abbās, 7 vols (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1993), 5:2102. His nephew also reported that al-Jāḥiẓ's grandfather was a
black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have of ...
cameleer. 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 A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
books became readily available, and learning accessible. Al-Jāḥiẓ studied
philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as the ...
,
lexicography Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...
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'' (, i.e.,
syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency ...
) with Akhfash al-Awsaṭ (al-Akhfash Abī al-Ḥasan). Over a twenty-five-year span studying, al-Jāḥiẓ acquired a considerable knowledge of
Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ar, الشعر العربي ''ash-shi‘ru al-‘Arabīyyu'') is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, but oral poetry is believed to predate that. Arabic poetry ...
, Arabic philology, pre-Islamic Arab history, the
Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
and the
Hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
s. He read translated books on Greek sciences and
Hellenistic philosophy Hellenistic philosophy is a time-frame for Western philosophy and Ancient Greek philosophy corresponding to the Hellenistic period. It is purely external and encompasses disparate intellectual content. There is no single philosophical school or cu ...
, especially that of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Al-Jahiz was also critical of those who followed the
Hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
s of Abu Hurayra, referring to his Hadithist opponents as ''al-nabita'' ("the contemptible").


Career

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
notebook A notebook (also known as a notepad, writing pad, drawing pad, or legal pad) is a book or stack of paper pages that are often ruled and used for purposes such as note-taking, journaling or other writing, drawing, or scrapbooking. History ...
s 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 The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
,
Arabic grammar Arabic grammar or Arabic language sciences ( ar, النحو العربي ' or ar, عُلُوم اللغَة العَرَبِيَّة ') is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities wit ...
,
zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...
, poetry, lexicography, and
rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate partic ...
. Of his writings, only thirty books survive. 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 Abu al-Abbas Ahmad bin Abd al-Rahman bin Muhammad bin Sa'id bin Harith bin Asim al-Lakhmi al-Qurtubi, better known as Ibn Maḍāʾ ( ar, ابن مضاء; 1116–1196) was an Arab Muslim polymath from Córdoba in Islamic Spain.Kees Versteegh, ...
took up the matter two hundred years later. Al-Nadīm cited this passage from a book of al-Jāḥiẓ:
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 Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...
, and another about superiority in connection with the Banū Hāshim, the ‘Abd Shams, and Makhzūm. What was my due but to sit above the Simakān, Spica and Arcturus, or on top of the ‘Ayyūq, or to deal with red sulphur, or to conduct the ‘Anqā by her leading string to the Greatest King.
Al-Jāḥiẓ moved to
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
, then the capital of the
Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
, 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, was exaggerated self-glorification and doubted that al-Ma’mūn could have spoken these words. 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. Because of the caliphs'
patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...
and his eagerness to establish himself and reach a wider audience, al-Jāḥiẓ stayed in Baghdad. Al-Nadīm gives two versions of an anecdote which differ in their source: his first source is Abū Hiffān and his second is the grammarian
al-Mubarrad Al-Mubarrad () (al-Mobarrad), or Abū al-‘Abbās Muḥammad ibn Yazīd (c. 826c. 898), was a native of Baṣrah. He was a philologist, biographer and a leading grammarian of the School of Basra, a rival to the School of Kufa. In 860 he was ...
, and retells the story of al-Jāḥiẓ's reputation for being one of the three great bibliophiles and scholarsthe two others being al-Fatḥ ibn Khāqān and judge Ismā’īl ibn Isḥāq 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'' for study.” Al-Jāḥiẓ replaced Ibrāhīm ibn al-‘Abbās al-Ṣūlī in the government secretariat of al-Ma’mūn but left after just three days. Later at
Samarra Samarra ( ar, سَامَرَّاء, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The city of Samarra was founded by Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim for his Turkish professional ar ...
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 (). This is said to be the origin of his nickname. He enjoyed the patronage of al-Fath ibn Khaqan, the bibliophile boon companion of Caliph
al-Mutawakkil Abū al-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Muʿtaṣim bi-ʾllāh ( ar, جعفر بن محمد المعتصم بالله; March 822 – 11 December 861), better known by his regnal name Al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh (, "He who relies on God") was t ...
, 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.” He died there in late 868, according to one story, when a pile of books from his private library collapsed on him.


Most important books


Kitāb al-Ḥayawān () 'book of the animals'

''Kitāb al-Ḥayawān'' is an encyclopedia in seven volumes of
anecdote An anecdote is "a story with a point", such as to communicate an abstract idea about a person, place, or thing through the concrete details of a short narrative or to characterize by delineating a specific quirk or trait. Occasionally humorous ...
s, poetic descriptions and proverbs describing over 350 species of animals. Composed in honour of Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Mālik al-Zayyāt, who paid him five thousand gold coins (5., dīnār). The 11th-century scholar Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi dismissed it as "little more than a
plagiarism Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and though ...
" of Aristotle's ''
Kitāb al-Hayawān The ''Kitāb al-Ḥayawān'' ( ar, كتاب الحيوان, , ''LINA saadouni'') is an Arabic translation for hayawan (Arabic: , maqālāt). ''Historia Animalium'': treatises 1–10; '' De Partibus Animalium'': treatises 11–14; '' De Generation ...
''a charge of plagiarism was levelled against Aristotle himself with regard to a certain "Asclepiades of Pergamum". 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. "Environmental factors influence organisms to develop new characteristics to ensure survival, thus transforming them into new species. Animals that survive to breed can pass on their successful characteristics to their offspring."
Conway Zirkle Conway Zirkle (October 28, 1895 – March 28, 1972) was an American botanist and historian of science. Zirkle was professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. He was highly critical of Lamarckism, Lysenkoism and Marxian biology.Joravsky ...
, writing about the history of
natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charl ...
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 The concept of the struggle for existence concerns the competition or battle for resources needed to live. It can refer to human society, or to organisms in nature. The concept is ancient, and the term ''struggle for existence'' was in use by the ...
, 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."
Al-Jahiz recognized eco-systems, and like Aristotle, believed in
spontaneous generation Spontaneous generation is a superseded scientific theory that held that living creatures could arise from nonliving matter and that such processes were commonplace and regular. It was hypothesized that certain forms, such as fleas, could arise f ...
. He frequently used metaphors of webs and nets to express interconnectedness in the book.


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

A collection of stories about the
greed Greed (or avarice) is an uncontrolled longing for increase in the acquisition or use of material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions); or social value, such as status, or power. Greed has been identified as undes ...
y. Humorous and
satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
, it is the best example of al-Jāḥiẓ' prose style. Al-Jāḥiẓ ridicules schoolmasters,
beggars Begging (also panhandling) is the practice of imploring others to grant a favor, often a gift of money, with little or no expectation of reciprocation. A person doing such is called a beggar or panhandler. Beggars may operate in public plac ...
, singers and
scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promin ...
s 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. The book has two English translations: One by
Robert Bertram Serjeant Robert Bertram Serjeant, FBA (23 March 1915 – 29 April 1993) was a British scholar, traveller, and one of the leading Arabists of his generation. Background and career He was born and raised in Edinburgh and studied at the University of ...
titled ''The Book of Misers'', and another by Jim Colville titled ''Avarice and the Avaricious''. Editions: Arabic (Al-Ḥājirī, Cairo, 1958); Arabic text, French preface. ''Le Livre des avares''. (Pellat. Paris, 1951)


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

''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. 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.


Fakhr Al-Sūdān Ala Al-Bīḍān () 'pride of blacks over whites'

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


On the Zanj ("Swahili coast")

Concerning the
Zanj Zanj ( ar, زَنْج, adj. , ''Zanjī''; fa, زنگی, Zangi) was a name used by medieval Muslim geographers to refer to both a certain portion of Southeast Africa (primarily the Swahili Coast) and to its Bantu inhabitants. This word is als ...
, he wrote:


Mu‘tazilī theological debate

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


Death

Al-Jāḥiẓ returned to
Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...
with
hemiplegia Hemiparesis, or unilateral paresis, is weakness of one entire side of the body ('' hemi-'' means "half"). Hemiplegia is, in its most severe form, complete paralysis of half of the body. Hemiparesis and hemiplegia can be caused by different medi ...
after spending more than fifty years in
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
. He died in Basra in the Arabic month of
Muharram Muḥarram ( ar, ٱلْمُحَرَّم) (fully known as Muharram ul Haram) is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year when warfare is forbidden. It is held to be the second holiest month after R ...
in AH 255/December 868 – January 869 AD. His exact cause of death is not clear, but a popular assumption is that al-Jāḥiẓ died in his
private library A private library is a library that is privately owned. Private libraries are usually intended for the use of a small number of people, or even a single person. As with public libraries, some people use bookplates – stamps, stickers or ...
after one of many large piles of books fell on him, killing him instantly.


See also

*
Shu'ubiyya ''Shu'ubiyya'' ( ar, الشعوبية) was a literary-political movement which opposed the privileged status of Arabs within the Muslim community. The vast majority of the Shu'ubis were Persian. Terminology The name of the movement is derived f ...
* Ajam * Al-Jāhiz (crater) *
List of Arab scientists and scholars This is a list of Arab scientists and scholars from the Muslim World, including Al-Andalus (Spain), who lived from antiquity up until the beginning of the modern age, consisting primarily of scholars during the Middle Ages. For a list of conte ...


References


Notes


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * * * * Montgomery, James (2013). ''Al-Jāḥiẓ: In Praise of Books.'' Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. . * * * ** * * *


External links

*
Kitāb al-Hayawān (Book of Animals), by Al-Jāḥiẓ (Full Arabic text)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jahiz Darwinism 776 births 860s deaths 8th-century Arabs 9th-century Arabs Mu'tazilites 9th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Arab writers Medieval Arabic literature 9th-century Arabic writers People from Basra Zoologists of the medieval Islamic world 9th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate Scholars from the Abbasid Caliphate