Al-Jahiz : : In Praise of Books / / James E. Montgomery.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2013-2000
• VerfasserIn: Montgomery, James E.,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2021]; ©2013
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Edinburgh Studies in Classical Arabic Literature : ESCAL
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (592 p.)
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; Preface --; Part 1 Physiognomy of an Apocalyptic Age --; 1.1 Cataclysm --; 1.2 Eristics and Salvation --; 1.3 A Self-chronicling Society --; Part 2 The Book of Living --; 2.1 The Totalising Work --; 2.2 The Treatise as Totality --; 2.3 Parsing Totality --; 2.4 The Articulation of The Book of Living --; 2.5 Analogues? --; Part 3 The Jāḥiẓian Library Under Attack --; 3.1 Introducing the 'Introduction' --; 3.2 Translation --; 3.3 Commentary --; 3.4 The Argument --; Part 4 The salvific book --; 4.1 Biobibliographies --; 4.2 The Form of the 'Introduction' --; 4.3 The Enigma of the Addressee --; 4.4 Invective --; 4.5 The Cohesiveness of Society --; 4.6 An Encyclopaedia to Save Society --; Part 5 The architecture of design --; 5.1 Governance of the Cosmos --; 5.2 The Grateful Response, 1 --; 5.3 The Grateful Response, 2 --; 5.4 Obliquity --; Part 6 Appreciating design --; 6.1 An Eristical Contest --; 6.2 Translation --; 6.3 The Argument --; 6.4 Conclusion --; Postface --; Appendix: The Praise of Books --; Notes --; Bibliography --; Index
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9780748683338; 9783110780468
• DOI: 10.1515/9780748683338
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: James E. Montgomery.

Shortlisted for The Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2017Introduces the writings and 'Abbasid-period textual world of Al-Jāhiz, the 'father of Arabic prose'Al-Jāhiz 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-Jāhiz that also shed light on his society and its writings. Volume 1, In Praise of Books, is devoted to bibliomania and al-Jāhiz's bibliophilia. Volume 2, In Censure of Books, explores Al-Jāhiz's bibliophobia.Praise from the BRISMES Book Prize'James E. Montgomery's study must rank among the finest scholarly works on classical Arabic literature ever to have appeared in any language. I would in fact consider it to be the best I have come across.' 'Montgomery's book is not only a work of great scholarship. Between the lines the reader can sense the story of an intense, long and deeply personal quest. It is that of a modern, Western intellect undertaking everything in its power to encounter, comprehend and elucidate one of the most complex and creative minds of the Islamic Middle Ages. The resulting sense of drama informs the writing on every page and turns the book into a human document of the first order.'