Al-Jahiz
At a glance:
- Series: Dictionary of World Biography: Middle Ages
- Categories: Literature, Publishing, Language, Linguistics, Philology
- Subcategories: Authors, Writers, Theology, Theologians, Islam, Muslims, Mosques
- Curriculum: Middle Eastern History
Article abstract: As the first important Arabic prose writer, al-Jahiz employed his vast erudition and innovative stylistic technique to free the Arabic language from its theological and philological restraints, making it a tool for the long-term cultural cohesion of the diverse cultures of Islam.
Early Life
Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Bahr ibn Mahbūb al-Jahiz may have been the child of East African slaves, who were numerous in southern Iraq in the eighth and ninth centuries. His ancestry is uncertain, however. The sobriquet al-Jahiz (goggle-eyed) refers to...
[The entire page is 1762 words long]