Al-Jahiz
Also known as Jahiz
Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Basri (; ), commonly known as al-Jahiz (, ), was an Arab Muslim theologian, intellectual, and litterateur known for his individual Arabic prose. 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.
AI overview
Al-Jahiz was a brilliant Arab Muslim scholar of the 9th century who wrote extensively on subjects ranging from theology and philosophy to zoology and literary criticism. His zoological writings are particularly notable for containing early descriptions of concepts similar to natural selection and animal behavior, making him an important figure in the history of scientific thought.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Born
- ca. 776
- Died
- 868
- Works
- 180
Top works
- Salwat al-ḥirrīf bi-munāẓarat al-rabīʻ wa-al-kharīf
- Qiṣṣat al-Kindī
- The book of misers
- Book of the Glory of the Black Race
- The life and works of Jāhiz
via Open Library + Wikidata
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- Reproducible, interactive, scalable and extensible microbiome data science using QIIME 2
· 2019 · cited 20,048x
Article
19 sectionsContents
- Life
- Career
- Selected books
- Kitāb al-Ḥayawān ({{lang|ar|كتاب الحيوان}}) 'Book of the Animal'
- Kitāb al-Bukhalā’ ({{lang|ar|البُخلاء}}) 'The Book of Misers' (a.k.a. 'Avarice and the Avaricious')
- Kitāb al-Bayān wa-al-Tabyīn 'The Book of Eloquence and Demonstration'
- Al-Radd ʿalā al-Naṣārā
- Fakhr al-Sūdān ala al-Bīḍān ({{lang|ar|فَخْر السُودان على البيضان}}) 'The Boast of blacks Over the Whites'
- Editions and translations
- On the Zanj ("Swahili coast")
- Mu‘tazilī theological debate
- Death
- See also
- References
- Notes
- Citations
- Sources
- Further reading
- External links
Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Basri (; ), commonly known as al-Jahiz (, ), was an Arab Muslim theologian, intellectual, and litterateur known for his individual Arabic prose. 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).