Such contacts notwithstanding, Al Jahiz retained a level of independence in his work and was smart enough to ingratiate himself enough to take advantage of his many contacts, to further his intellectual training and to travel. Towards that end, he went to Damascus and Beirut, although critics were offended when he attempted to write a geography book after one or two trips to nearby cities. The geographers held the view that he ought to spend more time on the road and acquire a deeper knowledge before contributing to the field.
Al Jahiz Book Of Animals Pdf
Towards the end of his life, suffering from hemiplegia (total paralysis of one side of the body), he retired to Basra, where he died in December 868. The exact cause of death was never clear, though a popular assumption was an accident, in which the books piling up in his private library toppled and crushed him. When he died, Al Jahiz was 93, a relatively happy man.
the Greeks wrote predominantly scientific descriptions of animals. In contrast, the Indians and Persians paid attention to the spiritual and moral aspects of the animal world. The best-known Indian animal legends of this era were the Indian tales of Bidpai, which became the Arabic collection Kalilah wa Dimnah (Kalilah and Dimnah). The main point of these stories is that people can learn from animals as well as about them. For practical reasons, many of the earliest Muslim zoological manuscripts dealt with horses and camels. In the eighth and ninth centuries these studies created the methodology for dissecting, studying, and describing animals in a scientific manner.
Arabian Horses . The Arabs became particularly adept at breeding the animals on which they depended for survival in the rough terrain of the extensive trade routes on which they traveled from one part of the vast Muslim empire to another. What is now known today as the Arabian Horse came about as the result of extensive care in breeding. Known for their amazing energy, intelligence, and devotion to their owners, these horses were originally bred by Bedouin tribes as war mounts or for long treks. The legendary endurance of these horses is due in part to their large lungs. In the seventh century the Prophet Muhammad was instrumental in encouraging the breeding of Arabian horses because they were considered crucial to Muslim military efforts against large armies of the Persians and Byzantines. These horses took on a religious significance as well after the Prophet pointed out that they had been created by Allah and that people who treated these beautiful horses kindly would be rewarded in the afterlife. Over the centuries, through their selective breeding, Arabian horses have retained characteristics such as large, wide-set eyes (good for seeing to both sides during battle), small ears (which collect less sand) and large nostrils (for taking in more air and strengthening endurance). Arabian horses are popular all over the world and were ridden by major military figures such as Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and George Washington.
A thousand years before Darwin, Al-Jahiz came to the conclusion that there must be some mechanisms that influence the evolution of animals. He writes about three main mechanisms; the struggle for existence, the transformation of species into each other, and the environmental factors.[6] He is therefore credited with outlining the principles of natural selection.[7]
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 Animals), 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.[8] Tradition claims that he was smothered to death when a vast amount of books fell over him.[9]
Even if Al-Djahiz held Lamarckian ideas about heredity, he might have said something that, taken on its own, might have anticipated natural selection. But we will never know without a trustworthy translation.
Al-Jāḥiẓ returned to Basra with Hemiplegia after spending more than fifty years in Baghdad. He died in Basra in the Arabic month of Muharram in 869 AD. His exact cause of death is not clear, but a popular assumption is that Jahiz died in his private library after one of many large piles of books fell on him, killing him instantly. Others say he died of a sickness. He died at the age of 93.[citation needed]
Al-Jahiz is credited with writing nearly two hundred works, although fewer than one hundred survive today. His most famous work is Al-Hayawan (The Book of Animals), which merges discussions of zoology with philosophy. The book illustrates the order of God's universe and the nature of life and is also an important source of information on Arabic rhetoric and style. In Al-Hayawan and Al-Bayan wa al-Tabyin, al-Jahiz reprinted many examples of written prose and instructed the reader upon rhetoric, eloquence, and selection of appropriate language for specific circumstances. Al-Jahiz wrote many works on politics in an effort to inform both the rulers and the people. These works include The Book of Legal Opinions, Refutation of the Christians, The Superiority of the House of Hashim to That of Abd Shams, and The Merits of the Turks and of the Caliphal Army in General. In addition, al-Jahiz was well known for his works of general instruction in which he attempted to teach his reader, often through a series of divergent anecdotes, on proper behavior. Among the most famous are The Book of Singing Slave Girls; The Book of Thieves; The Lepers, the Lame, the Blind and the Cross-Eyed; The Book of the Crown, On the Difference Between Enmity and Envy; Boasting Match between Girls and Boys; and On the Superiority of the Belly to the Back. 2ff7e9595c
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