The Reader in al-Jahiz

The 9th-century essayist, theologian, and encyclopaedist 'Amr b. Bar al-Jahiz has long been acknowledged as a master of early Arabic prose writing. Many of his most engaging writings were clearly intended for a broad readership but were presented as letters to individuals. Despite the importance and quantity of these letters, surprisingly little academic notice has been paid to them.

Now, Thomas Hefter takes a new approach in interpreting some of al-Jahiz's "epistolary monographs". By focussing on the varying ways in which he wrote to the addressee, Hefter shows how al-Jahiz shaped his conversations on the page in order to guide (or manipulate) his actual readers and encourage them to engage with his complex materials.