Thomas Hefter
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780748692743
- eISBN:
- 9781474400961
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748692743.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
The ninth century essayist, theologian and encyclopedist ‘Amr b. Baḥr al-Jāḥiẓ is one of our richest sources on the intellectual and social life of the early centuries of Islam. He has long been ...
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The ninth century essayist, theologian and encyclopedist ‘Amr b. Baḥr al-Jāḥiẓ is one of our richest sources on the intellectual and social life of the early centuries of Islam. He has long been acknowledged as a master of early Arabic prose writing, and his rhetorical inventiveness and provocative introductions, in particular, have been celebrated by readers and scholars alike. Yet only passing notice has been given to the fact that many of his most engaging writings are presented as letters to individuals, even though they are clearly intended to find a broader readership. Passages in which al-Jāḥiẓ is either quoting a letter he purports to have received from an addressee are often cited as direct statements in the author’s own voice and even al-Jāḥiẓ’s replies are not understood as part of a strategically-constructed dialogue with the addressee. This study takes a new approach in interpreting some of al-Jāḥiẓ’s ‘epistolary monographs’, focusing on the varying ways in which he shapes his conversations with the addressee as presented on the page, in order to guide or manipulate his actual readers and encourage them to actively engage with his complex materials.Less
The ninth century essayist, theologian and encyclopedist ‘Amr b. Baḥr al-Jāḥiẓ is one of our richest sources on the intellectual and social life of the early centuries of Islam. He has long been acknowledged as a master of early Arabic prose writing, and his rhetorical inventiveness and provocative introductions, in particular, have been celebrated by readers and scholars alike. Yet only passing notice has been given to the fact that many of his most engaging writings are presented as letters to individuals, even though they are clearly intended to find a broader readership. Passages in which al-Jāḥiẓ is either quoting a letter he purports to have received from an addressee are often cited as direct statements in the author’s own voice and even al-Jāḥiẓ’s replies are not understood as part of a strategically-constructed dialogue with the addressee. This study takes a new approach in interpreting some of al-Jāḥiẓ’s ‘epistolary monographs’, focusing on the varying ways in which he shapes his conversations with the addressee as presented on the page, in order to guide or manipulate his actual readers and encourage them to actively engage with his complex materials.
