The Politics of Words: Al-Jahiz's Oeuvre Reconsidered.

Al-Jahiz is a major figure in the history of Arabic literature. He produced numerous works dealing with various subjects: from female singing girls in his Kitab al-Qiyan to his masterpiece, Kitab al-Hayawan ('Book of Animals'), which deals with nature as creation. Al-Jahiz embodies the ideal of the adib, the man of letters, versed in all matters, both scholarly and mundane.

His writings have been used extensively by philologists in the study of Classical Arabic prose, and by historians of the two first centuries of the caliphate (7th-8th CE). This PhD dissertation takes an intellectual-historical approach by examining al-Jahiz's works in the context of the political struggles of his time.

First, we will determine the networks in which al-Jahiz was involved, who were his masters, his peers, through intertextuality. This is possible, because adab literature, the Arabic Belles-Lettres, especially in the case of al-Jahiz, is in great parts composed of citations. The author's work consists of the selection and ordering of akhbar, historical anecdotes, but also poems, orations, letters.

It is in this work of composition that we can determine the author's intention (gharad) and therefore, who are the cited people he agrees with, and who are the ones he mentions only to be comprehensive. Cross-referenced with later accounts of his life, it will lead us to better understanding of his milieu.

Another thread will provide us a great deal of information and has to do with concepts. In 9th century Iraq, some groups were involved in grounding Islamic beliefs in Reason, that being Kalam, while others were translating into Arabic and Syriac major texts of Greek philosophy, which gave birth to Falsafa, Islamic Philosophy. All these scholars shared a common interest in defining 'aql, which renders the Greek logos.

Although widely considered to have been a rationalist, al-Jahiz's concept of reason ('aql) have never been thoroughly studied. A precise analysis of this concept in al-Jahiz's writings, especially the role they play in those, will also help us understand to which group he was the closest.

I intend to investigate to what extent the conception of man Al-Jahiz built upon is at the intersection of the Aristotelian tradition and Kalam. First, man is an animal capable of speaking and reasoning and second, as God's creature, he can discern between Evil and Good. The role of the Imam, as a theological-political leader, is to command Good and proscribe Evil.

He must do so by appealing to what is consubstantial to all human beings, their intellect, with the proper use of its manifestation, speech. This is the core of Al-Jahiz theological-political vision, which he is developing in many of his epistles, but most and foremost in what will be our main object of study, Al-Bayan wa-l-Tabyin. The author describes this book as a work of Rhetoric, but a close attention to the material he is citing clearly shows that this is a political work.

My thesis is that Al-Bayan wa -l-Tabyin is addressing the common political struggle between the pen and the sword and constitutes a praise of government by words. Indeed, al-Jahiz witnessed the events of "the fourth civil war", which saw two Abbasids fight for caliphal succession. While he wrote extensively about a wide range of topics, we have almost no direct reference to these events in his writings.

His opinions on the political situation of his time are to be read between the lines, in his use of the historical and poetical material from the two first centuries of the caliphate. Therefore, his emphasis on Rhetoric as the main tool for the rulers will be read in the light of the increasing influence of the military on the policies of the Caliphate.