A First Book of Animals

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A master of these disciplines, al-Jahiz was one of the first writers of Arabic to work all the diverse preoccupations of the Basran scholarly milieu -grammar, prophetic tradition, rhetoric, lexicography and poetry-into a "literature" - that is, prose compositions to be read by non-specialists for pleasure and instruction. Al-Jāḥiẓ intervened in a theological dispute between two Mu’tazilītes, and defended Abū al-Hudhayl [n 15] against the criticism of Bishr ibn al-Mu‘tamir. [51] Another Mu‘tazilite theologian, Ja‘far ibn Mubashshir, [n 16] wrote a “refutation of al-Jāḥiẓ”. [52] Yāqūt, Shihāb al-Dīn ibn ‘Abd al-Ḥamawī (1913). Margoliouth, D. S. (ed.). Irshād al-Arīb alā Ma'rifat al-Adīb (in Arabic). Vol.VI (7). Leiden: Brill. Or they’re talking about the stuff that their children are obsessed with now, which I think is really cute, how their child is really into dinosaurs or something like that.’ I feel like the subtitle on this should be changed to: A Primer for How to Be Killed By An Animal That Normally Wants Nothing to Do With You. (Catchy, right? I'm sure I'll be getting a call to join the publisher's creative team any minute now.)

Even more important than the text, however, are the superb miniatures which illuminate it. Illustrated Arabic manuscripts of any sort are extremely rare, and this is the only illustrated copy of a work by al-Jahiz in existence. The 30 miniatures, done in a deliberately archaizing style - perhaps imitated from an earlier illustrated manuscript from al-Jahiz's native Iraq - were done at the high point of Arabic manuscript illumination: 14th-century Mamluk Egypt. A recent exhibition of Mamluk art at the Freer Gallery in Washington D.C. (see Aramco World, November-December 1981) has familiarized the American public with the glories of the Islamic decorative arts under the Mamluk dynasty. The style of the miniatures, consciously old-fashioned, succeeds in capturing the mood of al-Jahiz's prose -they are lively, highly colored and gently humorous. One cannot help feeling that al-Jahiz would have liked them, especially in view of his own admiration for the pictorial arts of the Byzantines and the Chinese - which he mentions in the Book of Animals. al-Jahiz | biography - Muslim theologian and scholar | Britannica.com". www.britannica.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. . He had a great love of books, and his Book of Animals begins with a long passage in their praise. It would have saddened him that so many of his own have perished, but he would have been delighted, one feels, with the manuscript from which the illustrations that adorn this article are taken. Baghdādī (al-) Khaṭīb, Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ‘Alī (2001). "§6622)". Tārīkh Baghdād aw madīnat al-salām (in Arabic). Vol.14. Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmi. pp.124–132. Al-Jubouri, I. M. N. (12 October 2010). Islamic Thought: From Mohammed to September 11, 2001. Xlibris Corporation. ISBN 9781453595855.

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Despite the title, the Book of Animals is by no means conventional zoology, or even a conventional bestiary. It is an enormous collection of lore about animals - including insects - culled from the Koran, the Traditions, pre-Islamic poetry, proverbs, storytellers, sailors, personal observation and Aristotle's Generation of Animals.

Pellat, Charles; Kīlānī, Ibrāhīm (1961). al-Ǧāḥiẓ fī al-Baṣrah wa Baḡdād wa Sāmirāʻ (in Arabic). Damas: Dar El-Yakaza. Al-Nadīm gives two versions [n 10] [29] of an anecdote which differ in their source: his first source is Abū Hiffān [n 11] and his second is the grammarian al-Mubarrad, [13]– and retells the story of al-Jāḥiẓ's reputation for being one of the three great bibliophiles and scholars–the two others being al-Fatḥ ibn Khāqān and judge Ismā’īl ibn Isḥāq [n 12]– such that “whenever a book came into the hand of al-Jāḥiẓ he read through it, wherever he happened to be. He even used to rent the shops of al-warrāqūn [n 13] for study.” [31] al-Jāḥiẓ". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. 7 March 2012 . Retrieved 22 June 2020. i haven't even gotten started with the deer and the steer and the lizards and the insects.and i won't. that's what this book is for.fascinating, and terrifying. i couldn't put it down despite the fact that i spent the night tossing and turning after reading it, my dreams interrupted with images grisly and outsized: me flailing in deep water, about to be eaten by a leopard seal; a baby stolen from a crib by a hyena and devoured. creepy, but then i have always had a bit of a morbid streak, and an attraction to the disgusting that can rival that of any little boy. Kennedy, Hugh (2006). When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306814808. The Ambrosiana manuscript is textually very important. It is obviously copied by an educated scribe who has indicated the vowels - not normally written in Arabic - which allow the text to be more accurately understood than heretofore. This is doubly important as few manuscripts of the Book of Animals survive, and the Ambrosiana manuscript is among the earliest of those that do. Over a twenty-five-year span studying, al-Jāḥiẓ acquired a considerable knowledge of Arabic poetry, Arabic philology, pre-Islamic Arab history, the Qur'an and the Hadiths. He read translated books on Greek sciences and Hellenistic philosophy, especially that of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Al-Jahiz was also critical of those who followed the Hadiths of Abu Hurayra, referring to his Hadithist opponents as al-nabita ("the contemptible"). [18] Career [ edit ] A giraffe from a reproduction of Kitāb al-Hayawān (Book of the Animals) by al-Jāḥiẓ.

there were so many more quotes i wanted to share. maybe i will float this later with "additional information." a b "Darwin's Ghosts, By Rebecca Stott". independent.co.uk. 31 May 2012. Archived from the original on 4 June 2012 . Retrieved 19 June 2012. A copiest of MSS, or stationer, or bookshop owner. Bookshops were often meeting places for scholarly debate. [30] The titles, however, give only a faint idea of their contents. Incapable of keeping to the point, al-Jahiz's essays wander from anecdote to anecdote, digression to digression, until both he and the reader lose sight of the original subject entirely. Mooncheese mostly sleeps though, and she is scared of unknown things and is more likely to run up to you and rub up against you than to do anything that would cause anything harm, but somewhere she has all the instincts needed to dispatch small prey with a ruthlessness we'd call sadistic if a human acted in such a manner.

And now an epic list of the 25 best animal books for adults…

It rarely crosses my mind, but in theory (reality is a different story) I live with a predator with very efficient weapons and methods for killing. Despite his propensity to meander in prose, al-Jahiz was particularly interested in style and correct expression. "The best style," he says in an essay on schoolteachers, "is the clearest, the style that needs no explication and no notes, that conforms to the subject expressed, neither exceeding it nor falling short." Like Aristotle, al-Jahiz believed in spontaneous generation. He frequently used metaphors of webs and nets to express the interconnectedness of the natural world. [6] Kitāb al-Bukhalā’ ( البُخلاء) 'the book of misers' (a.k.a. 'avarice and the avaricious') [ edit ] I think it’s really touched people, because I think a lot of people are remembering their obsessions from when they were children – projects they were working on and maybe never finished. During his long lifetime - he lived until he was 92 - al-Jahiz composed some 200 works, of varying length, on an extraordinary range of topics. Of these, only 30 or so survive today - enough nevertheless to show the omnivorous curiosity of the author. Al-Jahiz wrote Levity and Seriousness, The Art of Keeping One's Mouth Shut, Misers, Early Arab Food, In Praise of Merchants, Against Civil Servants, The Squaring of the Circle, The Merits of the Turks, and, perhaps the most important, the Book of Animals.

Around the year 815, only two years after the founding of the House of Wisdom, al-Jahiz moved to Baghdad, where he was exposed to a new and important influence: Greek science, particularly Aristotelian thought. Attracted by scholastic theology, for instance, he subsequently used the dialectic method of the theologians in many of his works, often with humorous intent.

Animal pictures

The book begins with a chapter on wolves and their relatives. Do people still believe in the image of the Big Bad Wolf? Actually, "Man's Best Friend"--the dog--an animal I can't imagine NOT being in my life--is far more dangerous. There are an estimated 4.7 million dog bites each year in the United States alone. The book then covers bears, cats, and other carnivorids. There's a section on aquatic dangers and sharks come to mind first. But the seas are teeming with all kinds of dangers, box jellyfish being among the worst. Then there are the dangers posed by snakes, crocodilians, lizards, and birds. This interest in style was characteristic of a group of Basran scholars, who, during the late eighth and early ninth centuries, sought to preserve the linguistic heritage of the Arabs by recording the poetry and sayings of the Bedouin of the Arabian peninsula. This movement had unanticipated results: because of their almost anthropological interest in the language and customs of the Bedouin, and in the social conditions of Arabia during both the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods, the Basran scholars achieved a deep appreciation of Arabic grammar and pre-Islamic poetry. They went on to compose sophisticated commentaries on the Koran, critical editions of poetry and treatises on grammar, and to compile dictionaries and specialized word-lists.