Al-Jahiz
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Al-Jahiz (in Arabic الجاحظ) (real name Abu Uthman Amr Ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri) (born in Basra, 776 - 869) was a famous Arab scholar probably of Abyssinian descent. He was an Arabic prose writer, historian, and author of works of adab, Mu'tazili theology, and politico-religious polemics.
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Early life
Not much is known about Al-Jahiz's early life, but his family was very poor. He used to sell fish along one of the Basran canals to help his family. Yet, despite his difficult financial troubles, that didn't stop him from seeking knowledge since his youth. He used to gather with a group of other youths at the main mosque of Basra, where they discussed various subjects of sciences. He also attended various lectures done by the most learned men in philology, lexicography, and poetry.
Education
Al-Jahiz continued his studies, and over a span twenty-five years, he had acquired great knowledge about Arab poetry, Arab philology, history of the Arabs and Persians before Islam, and he studied the Holy Qura'an and the Prophet Muhammad's(PBUH) Hadiths. He also read translated books of Greek sciences and Hellenestic philosophy, especially that of Greek philosipher Aristotle. His education was highly facilitated due to the fact that the Islamic Caliphate was in a period of cultural, and intellectual revolutions. Books became readily available, and this made learning easily available.
His Career
While still in Basra, Al-Jahiz wrote an article about the institution of the Caliphate. This is said to have been the beginning of his career as a writer, which would become his sole source of living. It's said that his mother once offered him a tray full of notebooks and told him that he'll earn his living from writing. Since then, he had authored two hundred books throughout his lifetime that discuss a variety of subjects including: Arabic grammar, zoology, poetry, lexicography, and rhetoric. The staggering number of books though, haven't all reached us, only thirty books survived.
Moving to Baghdad
He moved to Baghdad, the capital of the Arab Islamic Caliphate at the time, in 816 AD, because the Abbasid Caliphs encouraged scientists and scholarship. Since, at the time, "House of Wisdom" has just been built in it. Due to the Caliphs' patronage, his eagerness to reach a wider audience, and establish himself, al-Jahiz stayed in Baghdad(and later Samarra) where he wrote a huge number of his books. The Caliph al-Ma'mun wanted al-Jahiz to teach his children, but then changed his mind when his children got afraid of his boggle-eyes(جاحظ العينين), it's said that this is where he got his nickname.
Most important books
Risalat mufakharat al-sudan 'ala al-bidan (Treatise on the Superiority of Blacks over Whites). Abu Uthman Al-Jahiz
Famous Islamic scholar Al-Jihaz (778-868) [ Abu Uthman Amr bin Basr al-Fuqaymi al-Basri al-Jahiz ] wrote of the physical superiority of the Africans nations over all other nations.
Created School of Thought: Jahizite - The Bayt al Hikma (House of Wisdom), Baghdad
"We Blacks have conquered the country of the Arabs as far as Mecca and governed them. The desert swarm with the number of our men who married your women and who became chiefs and defended you against your enemies. You even have sayings in your language which vaunt the deeds of our kings - deeds which you often placed above your own; this you would not have done had you not considered them superior to your own. We defeated Dhu Nowas (Jewish ruler of Yemen) and killed all the Himyarite princes, but the Arabs and Whites (from Europe) have never conquered our country. Our people, the Zinges (an African race), revolted forty times in the Euphrates, driving the inhabitants from their homes... Blacks are physically stronger. A single one of them can lift stones of great weight and carry burdens such as several whites could not lift nor carry between them. They are brave, strong... - these good traits are the gifts of God." - Abu Uthman Al-Jahiz [Excerpt taken from the book - The Superiority of the blacks over the whites].
Note: Al-Jahiz wrote of great African men such as Bilal, whom he says Muhammad claimed was worth one-third of Islam. He also wrote about the wise stories of Lokman, whom many present scholars of history believe Aesop's fables are based or copied from. He also wrote of Muhammad's grandfather Mutalib, who "fathered ten sons, all black as night". Al-Jahiz also discussed the strength and bravery of Blacks, their intellectual capacity and how Black monarchs ruled with just hearts and fairness.
Kitab al-Hayawan(Book of Animals)
The al-Hayawan is an incomplete seven volume collection of anecdotes, poetic descriptions and proverbs describing over 350 varieties of animals. Much of the work was considered by the scholar Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi to be little more than plagarism of the Historia animalium of Aristotle.Template:Ref In the work al-Jahiz speculates on the influence of environment on animals, a concept considered by some to be a precursor to evolution.
kitab al-Bukhala(Book of Misers)
Kitab al-Bayan wa al-Tabyin(The Book of Elucidation and Exposition)
His death
Al-Jahiz returned to Basra after spending more than fifty years in Baghdad. He died in Basra in 868 AD. His exact cause of death is not clear, but a popular assumption is that an accident, where the books piling up his private library, toppled over and crushed him, caused his death. He died at the age of 93.
References
- Al-Jahiz
- Arabic literature
- Template:NotePeters, F. E., Aristotle and the Arabs: The Aristotelian Tradition in Islam, New York University Press, NY, 1968.