al-Jāḥiẓ
historical figure · 4 works · 4 mentions · 6 anchored passages
الجاحظ · the imām al-Jāḥiẓ
in the texts
Adab al-wazīr
The ʻAbbāsid prose master al-Jāḥiẓ, quoted in the first person on his charge of al-Rashīd's library and his verdict on the sayings of ʻAlī.
I was put in charge of the library of al-Rashīd's books, and I went through his books, and I found not a saying but that I found its contrary — except sayings that came from the philosopher of the Arabs (*fayāsūf al-ʻArab*), ʻAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, may God Most High be pleased with him:
Kitāb madhāhib al-Aʻrāb wa-falāsifat al-Islām fī al-jinn
Ninth-century Arabic polymath whose reports and judgements on bedouin jinn-lore structure this chapter.
Abū Isḥāq used to say, of what the bedouin mention of the howling of the jinn and the shape-shifting of the ghouls:
the men of charms and seizures and incantations and magic and sleight of hand claim that the number and the strength among the jinn and the satans belong to the settled folk of al-Shām and India;
"The imām al-Jāḥiẓ, may God the Exalted have mercy on him, said":
Ansāb al-ʻArab al-qudamāʼ
The Basran prose master, cited from his Book of Animals as the authority that Arab animal names were chosen for the omen read in the animal's qualities, not out of reverence for the species.
“The Arabs named their children Kalb and Ḥimār and Ḥajar and Juʻal and Ḥanẓalah and Qird only by way of taking a good omen from it.
Kitāb mīzān al-ḥaqq fī al-manṭiq
The Abbasid prose master, quoted for his litany in praise of the book, adduced as an example of an expression taken generically.
This signification is called (unrestricted signification) (*muṭlaqah*), as with simple expressions to which the article of definition has been prefixed so as to take in the whole genus — such as your saying in the proverbs: