| Al-Jahiz: In Praise of Books Contributor(s): Montgomery, James (Author) |
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ISBN: 0748695079 ISBN-13: 9780748695072 Publisher: Edinburgh University Press OUR PRICE: $129.20 Product Type: Other - Other Formats Published: May 2014 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Middle Eastern |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Introduces the writings and 'Abbasid-period textual world of Al-Jahiz, the "father of Arabic prose". Al-Jahiz was a bibliomaniac, theologian, and spokesman for the political and cultural elite, a writer who lived, counselled and wrote in Iraq during the first century of the 'Abbasid caliphate. He advised, argued and rubbed shoulders with the major power brokers and leading religious and intellectual figures of his day, and crossed swords in debate and argument with the architects of the Islamic religious, theological, philosophical and cultural canon. His many, tumultuous writings engage with these figures, their ideas, theories and policies. They give us an invaluable but much-neglected window onto the values and beliefs of this cosmopolitan elite.Edinburgh University Press will publish two self-contained guides to reading al-Jahiz that also shed light on his society and its writings. |