Al-Jahiz

Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Basri (Arabic: أبو عثمان عمرو بن بحر الكناني البصري, romanized: Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Kinānī al-Baṣrī; c. 776–868/869), commonly known as al-Jahiz (Arabic: الجاحظ, romanized: al-Jāḥiẓ, lit. 'the bug eyed', [al.dʒaː.ħɪðˤ]), was a Muslim theologian, intellectual, and litterateur known for his Arabic prose works. A polymath who lived during the Abbasid Caliphate, he was the author of works of literature (including theory and criticism), theology, zoology, philosophy, grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, philology, linguistics, and politico-religious polemics. His extensive zoological work has been credited with describing principles related to natural selection, ethology, and the functions of an ecosystem.

From about 815 CE, he rose to become one of the literary figures around the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833 CE). Although he held no official posts, he received funding from several Abbasid prime ministers, while also working as a scribe and a teacher. Al-Jahiz was part of the rationalist Mu'tazilite school of theology supported by al-Ma'mun and his two successors, Al-Mu'tasim (r. 833–842 CE) and Al-Wathiq (r. 842–847 CE).

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. Known for his significant engagement with religious and scholarly texts, al-Jahiz was one of the earliest Muslims to make use of biblical material in Arabic translation. Tradition claims that he was smothered to death when a vast number of books fell over him.