Al-Jahiz
Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Basri (Arabic: أبو عثمان عمرو بن بحر الكناني البصري, romanized: Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Kinānī al-Baṣrī; c. 776–868/869), commonly known as Al-Jahiz (Arabic: الجاحظ, romanized: al-Jāḥiẓ, lit. ‘the bug eyed’), was an Arab polymath and author of works of literature (including theory and criticism), theology, zoology, philosophy, grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, philology, linguistics, and politico-religious polemics. His extensive zoological work has been credited with describing principles related to natural selection, ethology, and the functions of an ecosystem.
Ibn al-Nadim lists nearly 140 titles attributed to al-Jahiz, of which 75 are extant. The best known are Kitāb al-Ḥayawān (The book of the Animal), a seven-part compendium on an array of subjects with animals as their point of departure; Kitāb al-Bayān wa-l-tabyīn (The book of eloquence and exposition), a wide-ranging work on human communication; and Kitāb al-Bukhalāʾ (The book of misers), a collection of anecdotes on stinginess. Tradition claims that he was smothered to death when a vast amount of books fell over him.
