al-Jahiz

al-JAHIZ, Abu 'Uthman 'Amr b. Bahr al-Fuqaymi al-Basri, was a famous Arab prose writer,the author of works of adab, Mu'tazili theology and politico-religious polemics. Born at Basraabout 160/776 in an obscure family of mawali from the Banu Kinana and probably of Abyssinianorigin, he owes his sobriquet to a malformation of the eyes (jahiz = with a projecting cornea).Little is known of his childhood in Basra, except that from an early age an invincible desire forlearning and a remarkably inquisitive mind urged him towards a life of independence and,much to his family's despair, idleness. Mixing with groups which gathered at the mosque(masdhidiyyun) to discuss a wide range of questions, attending as a spectator the philologicalenquiries conducted on the Mirbad [q.v.] and following lectures by the most learned men of theday on philology, lexicography and poetry, namely al-Asma'i, Abu 'Ubayda, Abu Zayd, he soonacquired real mastery of the Arabic language along with the usual and traditional culture. Hisprecocious intelligence won him admittance to Mu'tazili circles and bourgeois salons, whereconversation, often light, was also animated by problems confronting the Muslim conscience atthat time: in the realm of theology, harmonizing faith and reason and, in politics, the thornyquestion of the Caliphate which was constantly brought up by the enemies of the 'Abbasids, theconflicts between Islamic sects and the claims of the non-Arabs. His penetrating observation ofthe various elements in a mixed population increased his knowledge of human nature, whilstreading books of all kinds which were beginning to circulate in Basra gave him some outlook onto the outside world. It is quite certain that the intellectual resources offered by his home townwould have been fully adequate to give al-Jahiz a broad culture but the 'Iraqi metropolis, thenat its apogee, had a decisive influence in helping to form his mind. It left its rationalist andrealist imprint so clearly on him, that al-Jahiz might be considered not only one of the mosteminent products of his home town, but its most complete representative, for the knowledge hesubsequently acquired in Baghdad did not modify to any noticeable degree his turn of mind as ithad been formed at Basra; Basra is the continuous thread running through all his works.Although he probably began writing earlier, the first proof of his literary activity dates fromroughly t00/815-6; it relates to an event which had a decisive effect on his subsequent career.Some works (the plural is no longer in doubt) on the imamate, a very characteristic subject, wonhim the compliments of al-Ma'mun and thereby that consecration by the capital coveted by somany provincials eager to have their talent recognized and so reach the court and establishthemselves. From then on, without completely abandoning Basra, al-Jahiz frequently stayed forlong periods in Baghdad (and later Samarra) devoting himself to literary work of which anappreciable part, fortunately, has been spared the ravages of time.In spite of some slender indications, it is not really known on what we relied for his income inBasra. In Baghdad, we know, he discharged for three days the functions of scribe and was verybriefly assistant to Ibrahim b. al-'Abbas al-‘uli at the Chancellery; it is also probable that he wasa teacher, and he records himself an interview he claims to have had with al-Mutawakkil who,anxious to entrust him with the education of his children, finally dismissed him because of hisugliness. Although information about his private and public life is not readily forthcoming fromeither his biographers or himself, it appears from what knowledge we have that al-Jahiz heldno official post and took on no regular employment. He admits, however, that he receivedconsiderable sums for the dedications of his books and we know that for a time at least he wasmade an allowance by the diwan. These fragmentary indications are indeed confusing and tendto suggest that al-Jahiz who otherwise, unlike some of his fellow countrymen, does not appearto have led the life of a courtier, acted the part of an eminence grise, so to speak, or of unofficialadviser at least. We have seen already that the writings which won him the recognition of thecapital dealt with the Caliphate and were certainly intended to justify the accession to power ofthe 'Abbasids; they were the prelude of a whole series of opuscules addressed to the authorities, ifnot inspired by them, and relating to topical events; notwithstanding some degree of artifice inrisalas beginning: 'Thou hast asked me about such and such a question .... I answer thee that...', it may be presumed that in many cases the question had in fact been asked and he had beenrequested to reply in writing. For, if he was never admitted to the intimacy of the Caliphs, hewas in continuous contact with leading political figures and it is rather curious that he shouldhave attached himself successively to Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Malik al-Zayyat [q.v.], then after thelatter's fall from favour (t33/847) which almost proved fatal to both men, to the qadi al-qudat (d.t40/854) Ahmad b. Abi Du'ad [q.v.] and to his son Muhammad (d. t39/853) and finally toal-Fath b. khaqan [q.v.] (d. t47/861).He nevertheless retained ample independence and was able to take advantage of his newposition to further his intellectual training and to travel (particularly to Syria; but al-Mas'udi,Murudh, i, t06, was to criticize him for having attempted to write a geography book--now almostentirely lost--without having traveled enough). In Baghdad also he found a rich store oflearning in the many translations from Greek undertaken during the Caliphate of al-Ma'mumand studying the philosophers of antiquity--especially Aristotle (cf. al-HadhiÜi, Takhridh nususaristataliyya min K. al-Hayawan, in Madhallat kulliyyat al-adab, Alexandria, 1953 ff.)--enabled him tobroaden his outlook and perfect his own theological doctrine, which he had begun to elaborateunder the supervision of the great Mu'tazilis of the day, of whom al-Nazzam and øhumama b.Ashras [qq.v.], who seems to have had a strong influence on him, should be placed in the firstrank.Towards the end of his life, suffering from hemiplegia, he retired to his home town, where hedied in Muharram t55/December 868-January 869.Like many Arabic writers, al-Jahiz had a very great output. A catalogue of his works (seeArabica, 1956/t) lists nearly t00 titles of which only about thirty, authentic or apocryphal, havebeen preserved, in their entirety; about fifty others have been partially preserved, whilst the restseem irremediably lost. Brockelmann (S I, t41 ff.) has attempted to classify his works accordingto real or supposed subjects and gives us some idea of the breadth and variety of his interests.Considering only the extant works, which now for the most part are available in editions ofvarying quality, two broad categories may be distinguished: on the one hand, works comingunder the head of Jahizian adab, that is to say intended in a rather entertaining manner toinstruct the reader, with the author intervening only insofar as he selects, presents andcomments on documents; on the other hand, original works, dissertations where his ability as awriter and to some extent his efforts as a thinker are more clearly shown.His chief work in the first category is K. al-Hayawan (ed. Harun, Cairo n.d, 7 vols..) which is not somuch a bestiary as a genuine anthology based on animals, leading off sometimes ratherunexpectedly into theology, metaphysics, sociology etc.; one can even find embryonic theories,without it being possible to say how far they are original, of the evolution of species, theinfluence of climate and animal psychology, which were not to be developed till the nineteenthcentury. Following K. al-Hayawan, which was never completed, came K. al-Bighal (ed. Pellat, Cairo1955). K. al-Bayan wa 'l-tabyin (ed. Harun, Cairo 1367/1948-50, 4 vols, and other editions) seemsfundamentally to be an inventory of what have been called the 'Arabic humanities', designedto stress the oratorical and poetic ability of Arabs; he attempts to justify his choice by positingthe bases of an art of poetry, but he does so in an extremely disorderly fashion, as was pointedout by Abu Hilal al-'Askari, K. al-‘ina'atayn, 5, who decided to write a more systematic treatise.Another quality of the Arabs, generosity, is emphasized in K. al-Bukhala (ed. al-Hadhiri, Cairo1948 and other editions; Ger. tr. O. Rescher, Excerpti ..; Fr. tr. Ch. Pellat, Paris 1951), which isat the same time a portrait gallery, an attack on non-Arabs and an analysis of avarice, theequivalent of which is not to be found anywhere in Arabic literature. His acute powers ofobservation, his light-hearted scepticism, his comic sense and satirical turn of mind fit himadmirably to portray human types and society; he uses all his skill at the expense ofseveral social groups (schoolmasters, singers, scribes etc.) generally keeping within the bounds ofdecency; only K. Mufakharat al-dhawari wa 'l-ghilman (ed. Pellat, Beirut 1957), dealing with a delicatesubject, is marred by obscenity, whilst K. al-qiyan (ed. Finkel), which is about slave-girl singers,contains pages of remarkable shrewdness. But this work really belongs to the second category,which includes the dissertations assembled by Kraus and Hadhiri: al-Ma'ad wa 'l-ma'ash, al-Sirr wahifz al-lisan, al-Jidd wa 'l-hazl, Fasl ma bayn al-'adawa wa 'l-hasad, and several other texts publishedeither by al-Sandubi or in the 11 Risala. One might also add the politico-religious works, now forthe most part lost, perhaps even deliberately destroyed when Sunnism finally triumphed overMu'tazilism. Of those still extant, the most voluminous is K. al-'Uthmaniyya (ed. Harun, Cairo1374/1955; see Arabica, 1956/3) in which al-Jahiz asserts the legitimacy of the first threeCaliphs, attacks the claims of the Shi'a and thereby justifies the accession of the 'Abbasids topower. No less important is K. Taswib 'Ali fi tahkim al-hakamayn (ed. Pellat, in Machriq, July 1958),unfortunately incomplete and defective but clearly directed against the outdated partisans of theUmayyads, who again were enemies of the 'Abbasids. In this respect Risala fi 'l-Nabita (or fi BaniUmayya) is interesting also (see Pellat's translation, in AIEO Alger, 195t), for it is nothing short ofa report by al-Jahiz to the son of Ahmad b. Abi Du'ad on the political situation, the causes ofdivision in the community and the danger presented by the nabita, that is the neo-hashwiyya, whowere reviving Mu'awiya for their own ends and using the kalam to support their theses; Risala finafyi 'l-tashbih (ed. Pellat, in Machriq, 1953) is in the same manner. Revealing of thecorrespondences between government policy and al-Jahiz's activity are K. al-Radd'ala 'l-Nasara (see Allouche's translation, in Hesp., 1939) and Risala fi manaqib al-Turk, dealingrespectively with measures taken against the Jimmis and the forming of the Turkish guard.Generally speaking, in politics al-Jahiz shows himself irresolute Mu'tazili, that is an apologist ofthe 'Abbasids against the pro-Umayyad movement of the Nabita, the Shu'ubis and the Shi'a; buthis highly personal manner of presenting facts tends to mislead his readers and in all probabilitythe pro-'Alid al-Mas'udi in Murudh, vi, 55 ff. misunderstood the true significance of his writings. Ifthe chronology of al-Jahiz's work could be established, one would probably see that afterwarning the authorities against the regression that might be the result of abandoningMu'tazilism, he gave up the struggle once Sunni reaction had won the day and from then onrestricted himself to purely literary activity; the fact that he wrote K. al-Bukhala' in the latter partof his life supports this hypothesis.As in politics so in theology al-Jahiz was a Mu'tazili, though his doctrine appears to offer hardlyany original features; as the writings where he expounded are for the most part lost, one has tomake do with occasional annotations in al-khayyat, K. al-Intisar, translated and edited by A. N.Nader, Beirut 1957, and with data supplied by the heresiographers (al-Baghdadi, Farq, 160 ff.;Ibn Hazm, Fisal, iv, 181, 195; al-Shahrastani, on the margin of Ibn Hazm, i, 95-6; etc.; see also,Horten, Die phil. Systeme der spekulativen Theologen im Islam, 3t0 ff.; L. Gardet and M. M. Anawati,Introd. a la Theologie musulmane, index; A. N. Nader, Le Systemeqphilosophique des Mu'tazila, Beirut1956, index) which summarize or indicate points where al-Jahiz differs from other Mu'tazilis.Too little is known of the doctrine itself for one to be able to do more at this stage than simplyrefer to the article mu'tazila, pending the completion of a thesis specifically concerned with thequestion.Meanwhile, even though Jahiz's place in the development of Muslim thought is far fromnegligible, he is chiefly interesting as a writer and an adib, for with him form is neverovershadowed by content; even in purely technical works. If he is not the first of the great Arabprose writers, if in rhetoric 'Abd Allah b. al-Muqaffa' [q.v.] and Sahl b. Harun [q.v.], to name buttwo, are his masters, nevertheless he gave literary prose its most perfect form, as was indeedrecognized first by politicians who made use of his talent for the 'Abbasid cause and then byArab critics who were unanimous in asserting his superiority and making his name the verysymbol of literary ability.Al-Jahiz's writing is characterized by deliberately contrived disorderliness and numerousdigressions; the individuality of his alert and lively style lies in a concern for the exact term--aforeign word if necessary--picturesque phrases and sentences which are nearly alwaysunrhymed, but balanced by the repetition of the same idea in two different forms; what wouldbe pointless repetition to our way of thinking, in the mind of a 3rd/9th century writer simplyarose from the desire to make himself clearly understood and to give ordinary prose thesymmetry of verse; though difficult to render and appreciate in a foreign language, the flow ofhis sentences is perfectly harmonious and instantly recognizable. Nevertheless, for the majorityof literate Arabs al-Jahiz remains, if not a complete buffoon, at least something of a jester; hisplace as such in legend can undoubtedly be attributed in part to his fame and his ugliness, whichmade him the hero of numerous anecdotes; but it must also be attributed to a characteristic ofhis writing which could not but earn him the reputation of being a joker in a Muslim worldinclined towards soberness and gravity; for he never fails, even in his weightiest passages, to slipin anecdotes, witty observations and amusing comments. Alarmed at the dullness and boredomenshrouding the speculations of a good many of his contemporaries, he deliberately aimed at alighter touch and his sense of humour enabled him to deal entertainingly with serious subjectsand help popularize them. But he realized he was doing something rather shocking and onecannot help being struck by the frequency with which he feels it necessary to plead the cause ofhumour and fun; the best example is in K. al-Tarbi' wa 'l-tadwir (ed. Pellat, Damascus 1955) amasterpiece of ironic writing, as well as a compendium of all the questions to which hiscontemporaries whether through force of habit, imitative instinct or lack of imagination offeredtraditional solutions or gave no thought at all. Without stepping outside the boundaries of thefaith--this itself was something of a strain--he takes for granted the right to submit to scrutinyaccepted attitudes to natural phenomena, ancient history and legends handed down as truths,to restate problems and skilfully suggest rational solutions. Nor is that all; for at a time whenmediaeval Arabic culture was taking shape, he brought together what seemed of most value tohim, drawing either on the Arab heritage, of which he was a passionate defender, or on Greekthought,qalways careful however to curb the intrusion of the Persian tradition, which heconsidered too dangerous for the future of Islam, into the culture he longed to bestow on hisco-religionists. This vast undertaking, based on the spirit of criticism and systematic doubt ineverything not directly concerned with the dogma of Islam, was unfortunately to be to aconsiderable extent narrowed and side-tracked in the centuries to follow. It is true that al-Jahizwas to have admirers as noteworthy as Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, imitators and evencounterfeiters, who made use of his name to ensure greater success for their works; but posterityhas only kept a deformed and shrunken image of him, seeing him at the most as a master ofrhetoric (see Pellat, in al-And., 1956/t, t77-84), the founder of a Mu'tazili school--whosedisciples no one bothers to enumerate--and the author of compilations to be drawn upon forthe elaboration of works of adab, a sizeable share of recorded information on jahiliyya and theearly centuries of Islam.(Ch. Pellat)The main biographies are those of khatib Baghdadi, xii, t1t-ttIbn 'Asakir, in MMIA, ix, t03-17Yaqut, Irshad, vi, 56-80. A general outline is to be found in manuals of Arabic literature, asalso in: Sh. Jabri, al-Jahiz mu'allim al-'aql wa 'l-adab, Cairo 1351/193tkh. Mardam, al-Jahiz, Damascus 1349/1930t. Kayyali, al-Jahiz, [Damascus] n.d.H. Fakhuri, al-Jahiz, Cairo [1953]M. Kurd 'Ali, Umara' al-bayan, Cairo 1355/1937H. Sandubi, Adab al-Jahiz, Cairo 1350/1931Ch. Pellat, Le Milieu basrien et la formation de Gahiz, Paris 1953idem, Gahiz a Bagdad et a Samarra, in RSO, 195t, 47-67idem, Gahiziana in Arabica, 1954/t, 1955/3 and mainly 1956/t: Essai d'inventaire de l'aeuvreÆahizienne, with an account of mss, editions and translations (one should add to thebibliography: A. J. Arberry, New material on the Kitab al-Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim, in Isl. ResearchAssoc. Miscellany, i, 1948, which gives the notice from Fihrist on Jahiz, missing in theeditionsand also: F. Gabrieli, in Scritti in onore di G. Furlani, Rome 1957, on the R. fi manaqib al-Turkthe Tunisian review al-Fikr, Oct. 1957 and March 1958, on the R. al-qiyan)J. Jabre, al-Jahiz et la societe de son temps (in Arabic, Beirut 1957 (?), not consulted here). Itshould be pointed out that in addition to the editions quoted in the course of the article, thefollowing collections have been published: G. van Vloten, Tria opuscula, Leyden 1903J. Finkel, Three essays, Cairo 19t6P. Kraus and M. T. Hadhiri, Madhmu' rasa'il al-Jahiz, Cairo 1943 (a French translation ofthese texts is being prepared)H. Sandubi, Rasa'il al-Jahiz, Cairo 135t/1933Ihda 'ashrata risala, Cairo 13t4/1906O. Rescher, Excerpte und Übersetzungen aus den Schriften des ... Gahiz, Stuttgart 1931 (analyticaltranslation of a good many texts). The texts in the three manuscript collections: DamadIbrahim Pasha 949Br. Mus. 11t9 and Berlin 503t (see Oriens, 1954, 85-6) have in a good many cases beenpublishedthose not yet published, along with some other texts of less importance, will be included in ourNusus Gahiziyya ghayr manshura. K. al-'Urdhan, etc. has been recently discovered in Morocco, butis of no great interest.