The Great Influence of Al-Jahiz on Arabic Literature

The works of Al-Jahiz differ in number depending on the scholar you put the question forth to. Some say he wrote one hundred and forty works, others cite the number three hundred as an estimated figure, and still others say that the works cannot ever be numbered since so many have been lost during the twelve hundred years since his era. Scholars may reserve the right to disagree on such technicalities, but several facts escape the divisive, double-edged scalpel of time and scholars’ incessant inquiry. One such undeniable fact is the overwhelming prolificness that characterizes Al-Jahiz’s remarkable body of contributions to Arabic Literature. The second truth that has stood the test of time is the often controversial nature of Al-Jahiz many topics that hadn’t been written about, often in the history of known written works worldwide. The third such fact that is true in spite of what else someone might believe about the ideas of Al-Jahiz is his immediate and ongoing evolution that he effected on Arabic Literature as a genre and an art form.

Al-Jahiz has long been a source of literary and intellectual inspiration for the generations of Arab writers that have followed in his wake. But Al-Jahiz’s own sources are interesting to note as well, in order to better understand his purpose. Mu’tazalism was a movement that greatly inspired the author towards creativity, wonderment, and curiosity about the many aspects of life that Al-Jahiz explored in his literary contributions. (Jackson, 3) As “defenders of reason”, the ideological disciples of the cleric Wasil ibn Ata, the Mu’tazili (or Ahl al-Tawhid wa al-’Adl (“People of Divine Unity and Justice”) were the theological descendants of an almost Greek school of philosophical thought. The difference between the Mu’tazili and their Greek and Hellenist forefathers was their prioritization of the truths of Islam as the highest order of logic, with the entire lesser hierarchy falling into place below Islamic theology. In this way, Al-Jahiz’s greatest influences in the world of literature were the Qur’an, the Hadith, the Aristotelian writings, and one of his greatest loves, Arabic poetry from throughout the ages. (Wikipedia)

With such a host of literary precedents to guide and inspire him, Al-Jahiz wrote hundreds of works throughout his nearly ninety years in the Arab world. He wrote on every topic that caused him curiosity and intellectual stimulation. From zoology and biology to rhetoric and logic, Al-Jahiz worked out his theses and hypothesis in writing. Even grammar and lexicography – not to mention psychology, history, poetry, literature, and theology – were all topics that excited his learned and questioning mind. In his many works, Al-Jahiz utilized many different literary techniques to produce his unique voice in Arabic literature. He employed satire and humor to explore psychology and sociology within the framework of his society and culture. In other works, Al-Jahiz uses a simple voice of piety and reverence to uncover some of the mysteries of religious observance in the course of a Muslim life. In yet other works, Al-Jahiz takes the tone of a scientist or University lecturer, employing facts exposed during his own experiential approach to life.

Several, if not many of the works of Al-Jahiz incited controversy in his own time and beyond. One overwhelming truth that seems clear from the reviewers and crtitcs who have commented on his writings for hundreds of years is the consistency of admiration that shines throughout, in spite of their religious or moral objections to some of his more original and thought-provoking works. One such quote by the late nineteeth century reviewer George Sarton (compiled by Joshua Finkel in 1926) demonstrates this concept quite well:

“These three treatises confirm our general opinion of AL-JAIIZ: he was a very clever writer, original to the point of eccentricity, a man of immense learning but of little conscience, without principles or ideals except his literary standards, a good prototype of so many of the mercenary and unscrupulous writers of our own days. In spite of his egotism, bis writings are exceedingly interesting in what they reveal and in what they hide or try to hide. If one forgets a few traits which are characteristic of his type and makes due allowance for his prejudices, they constitute an excellent mirror of his age.” (Finkel, 2)

Therefore, even though in this case (and in many others before the mid twentieth, or even the twenty first century) the reviewer lacks a global context in which to accurately access the “moral conscience” of Al-Jahiz as demonstrated in his works, the apparent deep-seated respect that the writer holds for Al-Jahiz as an intellectual is not difficult to pick up between the lines. For a man who wrote about some of the first (perhaps the first) theories of evolution roughly a millennium before Darwin caused his memorable ripples and scandal through the intellectual community and well beyond its borders, Al-Jahiz was rocking the boat in his own part of the world. The lines of questioning that he pursued in his search for understanding necessarily provoked (and still provoke a heated response in certain circles.

Another quote that illustrates Al-Jahiz’s deep understanding of science and an early scientific method is from Mehmet Bayrakdar’s article on “Al-Jahiz and the Rise of Biological Evolutionism” that describes in detail his work on the concept known as “Struggle for Existence” which was a precursor to Darwinism.

“Struggle for Existence: al-Jahiz placed the greatest weight on evolution by the struggle for existence, or, in a larger sense, by natural selection. It operates in conjunction with the innate desire for conservation and permanence of the ego. According to al-Jahiz, between every individual existence, there is a natural war for life. The existence are in struggle with each other. Al-Jahiz’s theory of struggle for existence may accordingly be defined as a differential death rate between two variant class of existence, the lesser death rate characterizing the better adapted and stronger class. And for al-Jahiz, the struggle for existence is a divine law; God makes food for some bodies out of some other bodies’ death. He says, “The rat goes out for collecting his food, and it searches and seizes them. It eats some other inferior animals, like small animals and small birds. . . it hides its babies in disguised underground tunnels for protecting them and himself against the attack of the snakes and of the birds. Snakes like eating rats very much. As for the snakes, they defend themselves from the danger of the beavers and hyenas; which are more powerful than themselves. The hyena can frighten the fox, and the latter frightens all the animals which are inferior to it.”

Not only did the scholarly works of Al-Jahiz change the very face of Arabic literature, but they also paved the way for scientific discoveries that were fleshed out more than a thousand years after his death, in the work of Charles Darwin and other Evolutionary Biologists of the nineteenth century, a world away in Europe. (Beyrakdar)

It does seem that the delineation line is not so precise as to single Al-Jahiz out for the sole responsibility for the shift that was gradually taking place within Arabic literature, but it would be difficult to make a case that his writings on such widely varied topics and often completely fresh and unique viewpoints did not carry a movement into a new and more freestyle form of Arabic literature that was strongly associated with deep intellectual inquiry into a variety of topics that had heretofore escaped being written down in lasting form.

Although the number of works he produced during his lifetime range in supposed number from one hundred and forty to three hundred and fifty, Al-Jahiz certainly wrote enough to change what was acceptable to write about in Arabic literature from the ancient themes of the nomadic life, to any topic that inquiring minds care to explore on the written page.

Works Cited

Finkel, Joshua. “A Risāla of Al-Jāḥiẓ.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 47 (1927): 311-34.

Sarton, George. “Review: [Untitled].” Isis 10.2 (1928): 494-5.

ﺟﺎﻛﺴﻮﻥ, Sherman Jackson/ ﺷﻴﺮﻣﺎﻥ. “Al-Jahiz on Translation/ ﺍﻟﺠﺎﺣﻆ ﻭﻓﻦ ﺍﻟﺗﺮﺟﻤﺔ.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics.4, Intertextuality/ التناص: تفاعلية النصوص (1984): 99- 107.

Bayrakdar, Mehmet. “AL-JAHIZ AND THE RISE OF BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTIONISM.” Salaam.Com. 18 Apr. 2008 <http://www.salaam.co.uk/knowledge/al-jahiz.php>.

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