al-Jahiz

Depiction of al-Jahiz

ʿAmr ibn Bahr al-Jāhiz ( Arabic عمرو بن بحر الجاحظ, DMG ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Ǧāḥiẓ ; born around 776 in Basra ; died 869 ) was an Arab man of letters who wrote a large number of Adab works and who belonged to the rationalist faith of the Muʿtazila . As a creator of Arabic prose, he advocated an Arabic culture that combined Arabic tradition with Greek philosophy . He left behind more than two hundred works, of which a good fifty have survived. The French Arabist Charles Pellat did a great job of making his works accessible to Western readers.

Life

Little is known about al-Jahiz's childhood. He grew up in poor conditions and sold fish on the Basra canals to support his family. He met a group of young people from Basra's main mosque, discussed scientific issues with them, and helped in class on philology , lexicography and poetry .

Al-Jahiz became a student of the theologian al-Nazzam (775-846), who fought against the dualists and materialistic “physicists” ( dahriyya ).

Al-Jahiz continued his studies for 25 years, during which he acquired in-depth knowledge of Arabic poetry and philology, the pre-Islamic history of Arabs and Persians, as well as the Koran and the hadith . He also studied scientific and philosophical texts translated from the Greek, in particular the works of Aristotle . His education was facilitated by the fact that the Abbassid caliphate was undergoing cultural and intellectual upheaval, which encouraged the circulation of books.

Religious and political views

In many of his writings, al-Jahiz defended the policies of the Abbasid caliphs against their adversaries. For example, he expressed understanding for the Mihna and justified it as a necessary state policy measure. He urged the addressees of his writings, which belonged to the Shiite Rāfidīya , to convert to the Muʿtazila. The treatise al-ʿUthmānīya ("The ʿUthmānids") is also directed against the Rāfidīya . In it he defended the legitimacy of the Abbasid caliphate against this group, rejected their view that ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib had already granted the caliphate after the death of the Prophet, and emphasized the preference of Abū Bakr over all other Muslims.

In his writing al-Radd alā al-Naṣārā ( Refutation of the Christians ) he complains that Christians “make themselves in the money and intelligence professions”, while Jews are active “in dirty and despised trades” and leads the higher esteem for the Christian of the Jewish religion by "the simple-minded Muslim people".

Literary works

The "Book of Animals"

The "Book of Animals" (Kitāb al-Ḥayawan) is an encyclopedia on animals in seven volumes, which covers more than 350 animal species in the form of anecdotes , poetic descriptions and proverbs . It is considered the most important work by al-Jahiz. Although the scholar al-Chatib al-Baghdadi al-Jahiz accused of plagiarism and claimed that the majority of the work goes back to the Kitāb al-hayawān of Aristotle , the Book of Animals also contains independent material. In particular, al-Jahiz speculated on the influence of the environment on animals, which can be viewed as a precursor to the theory of evolution . Al-Jahiz looked at the effect of the environment on an animal's likelihood of survival and described the struggle for survival , a forerunner of natural selection . Al-Jahiz wrote:

“Animals are in a struggle for existence; to resources , to avoid being eaten, to reproduce. Environmental influences influence the organism, so that new properties will develop that ensure survival, with the result that new species emerge. "

Character studies and portraits of social groups

"Book of Miser" (Kitab al-Buḫalāʾ)

This is a collection of stories about greed . The stories carry satirical trains and form the best example of the prose style of the author. It is a delicate study of human psychology . Al-Ǧāḥiẓ scoffed at teachers , beggars and singers for their greedy behavior. The book is considered to be one of the best works by Al-ḥāẓiẓ, and many of the stories are regularly published in magazines in the Arab world .

The following text example, which illustrates the subtle observations and humorous presentation of al-Jahiz in this work, is about recycling :

“Abu Sa'id had forbidden his servant to take the garbage out of the house and even told her to collect it from the tenants' apartments [...]. From time to time he would sit down and the servant would come with a basket and pour the garbage apart in piles in front of him, which he then searched one by one [...] Clothes rags were sold to people who dealt in plates and household utensils , Pomegranate peels to dyers and tanners , bottles to glaziers, date kernels to people who kept young gazelles , peach kernels to planters and nails and pieces of iron to blacksmiths [...] Pieces of bones were used as fuel, potsherds were used in new ovens and stones were collected for a building . […] If the pure earth remained and he wanted to make bricks out of it […] , he did not incur any costs for water, but gave all house residents the instruction to only perform ritual cleaning on this clay […] ”

"The Book of Concubines and Ephebe " (Kitab Mufāḫarat al-Ǧawārī wa-l-ġilmān)

In Arabic, jawari is the plural of jariya , which means a female servant in the sense of concubine . There were two types of servants, one type for household chores and daily chores and the other type, called qina , which could also sing and was of higher value. In fact, their price was so high that only princes and wealthy merchants could afford them. The word ghilman is the plural of ghoulam , which denotes a male servant and also denotes eunuch and ephebe . For most scholars, this work on concubines and ephebes is a lavish book on sensuality, and al-Jahiz tells stories of an erotic nature in it.

"Treatise on the superiority of blacks over whites" (Risālat mufāḫarat as-sūdān ʿalā l-bīḍān)

Al-Ǧāḥiẓ wrote:

“We ( Ethiopians ) conquered the land of the Arabs as far as Mecca and ruled them. We defeated Yusuf Asʾar Yathʾar (Dhu Navas) and killed all the princes of the Himyars , while you white peoples never conquered our land. Our people, the Zenghs, revolted forty times on the Euphrates and drove the people from their homes and made a bloodbath of Oballah. [...] Blacks are physically stronger than any other people. A single one of them can lift stones of such weight and carry such loads that several whites together could not lift or carry. […] They are brave, strong and generous, as their dignity and the lack of any malice testify […] Nevertheless, the desert is full of our men who have married your wives and defended you against your enemies. "

"On the praise of the merchants and the rebuke of the public offices" (Risāla fī madḥ at-tuǧǧār wa-ḏamm ʿamal as-sulṭān)

Al-Jahiz emphasizes in this publication that merchants are less dependent than civil servants.

literature

expenditure

• Charles Pellat: Livre des mulets / Abū-ʿUthmān ʿAmr Ibn-Baḥr al Jāḥiẓ. Bibliothèque Jàhizienne. Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, Le Caire 1955.
• G. van Vloten: Le livre des beautés et des antithèses attribué à Abu Othman ibn Bahr al-Djahiz al-Basra. Leiden 1898.
• G. van Vloten: Tria opuscula auctore Abu Othman Amr ibn Bahr al-Djahiz Basrensi. Leiden 1903.

Translations

• Oskar Rescher: Excerpts and translations from the writings of the philologist and dogmatist Ǧâḥiẓ from Baçra (150–250 H.) together with unpublished original texts. Amr Ibn Bahr-al-Gahiz. Ed. U. Translated by Oskar Rescher. Stuttgart 1931.
• Charles Pellat : Arab Spiritual World. Selected and translated texts by Al-Gahiz (777–869). Based on the original Arabic texts, translated from French by Walter W. Müller. Library of the Orient . Artemis Verlag, Zurich and Stuttgart 1967.

Studies

• Josef van Ess : Theology and society in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Hijra. A History of Religious Thought in Early Islam . 6 vols. Berlin: De Gruyter 1991–97. Vol. IV, pp. 96-118.
• DM Hawke: The life and works of Djahiz. London 1969. (textes choisis trad. Du français)
• Charles Pellat : Le milieu baṣrien et la formation de Ǧāḫiẓ. Adrien-Maisonneuve, Paris 1953.
• Susanne Enderwitz: Social rank and ethnic legitimation. The Arab writer Abu "Utman al - Gahiz (d. 868)" on the Africans, Persians and Arabs in Islamic society. Schwarz, Berlin 1979.
• Lale Behzadi : Language and Understanding: al-Ǧāḥiẓ on the Perfection of Expression , Wiesbaden 2009.

Web links

• Literature by and about Al-Jahiz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Jean-Marc Warszawski
• Ibrahim ibn Sayyar al-Nazzam (short biography)
• Darwin's Islamic ancestors , July 2, 2017, Fabian Köhler, telepolis

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. van Ess III 464.
2. ↑ Cf. van Ess IV 96.
3. ↑ See the German partial translation in Pellat: Arabische Geisteswelt 119–135.
4. ↑ Theresia Hainthaler : Ǧāḥiẓ and his work 'Refutation of Christians': An approximation. In: Sidney H. Griffith, Sven Grebenstein (ed.): Being a Christian in the Islamic World. Festschrift for Martin Tamcke on his 60th birthday. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2015. pp. 243-256.
5. ^ Gotthard Strohmaier : Avicenna. Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-41946-1 , p. 135.
6. ↑ FE Peters : Aristotle and the Arabs: The Aristotelian Tradition in Islam. New York University Press, NY, 1968.
7. ^ Conway Zirkle: Natural Selection before the "Origin of Species" ; Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 84/1 (1941), pp. 71-123.
8. ↑ Mehmet Bayrakdar: Al-Jahiz And the Rise of Biological Evolutionism ; The Islamic Quarterly; London, 1983; Online resource
9. ^ Gary Dargan: Intelligent Design ; Encounter, ABC .
10. ↑ quoted from Pellat, Arabische Geisteswelt, 403–405
11. ↑ Yosef AA Ben-Jochannan: African Origins of Major Western Religions ; P. 238; see also Aksumite Empire and Ella Asbeha
12. ↑ Jewish King of Yemen
13. ↑ Blacks on the African east coast , see also Zanj