The master of classical Arabic prose, whose wit and curiosity ranged across zoology, theology, and society — a founder of Arabic literary essay (adab).
Life
Al-Jahiz (c. 776–868), born in Basra of humble, part-African descent, rose by sheer brilliance to become the greatest prose stylist of Abbasid letters. A Mu'tazilite in theology, he wrote the encyclopedic Book of Animals (Kitab al-Hayawan), the Book of Eloquence, and countless essays blending science, humor, and keen social observation. Tradition holds he died in his nineties, crushed by a toppling stack of his own books. He shaped Arabic prose and the adab tradition for all who followed, and his observations on animals and society are still mined by historians.