'Readers who think of al-Jahiz as a sophist or a buffoon have a surprise coming. Montgomery's wrestling match with the Book of Living affords unexpected views of the Abbasid mind, and puts al-Jahiz at the centre of the most vital and momentous debates of his age.'
Michael Cooperson, UCLA
'I've read a good number of books in the last 40 years. This is one of the most remarkable. "Oh strange new world that has such people in it." All of humanity is here in these rich, challenging, fascinating pages. Montgomery is a remarkable historian and a great writer.'
Rebecca Stott, University of East Anglia
Introduces the writings and 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 and thus afford an invaluable but much neglected window onto the values and beliefs of this cosmopolitan elite. And in a society obsessed with books and swamped with new types of information, al-Jahiz was at the vanguard of a 'knowledge revolution'. In Praise of Books explores the centrality of books to al-Jahiz's oeuvre, uncovering his full range of stances and opinions.
Key Features
. Includes numerous translations (many rendered into English for the first time) of individual works by al-Jahiz
. Explores the cultural, intellectual and literary history of the 'Abbasids at the height of imperial power
James E. Montgomery is the Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic and Fellow of Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge. He is author of The Vagaries of the Qa¿idah: On the Tradition and Practice of Early Arabic Poetry (1997).
Cover image: Amr b Bahr al-Jahiz. The Book of Animals (Kitab al Hayawan). © Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana - Milano/De Agostini Picture Library.
Cover design:
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James E. Montgomery is The Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic at Fellow of Trinity Hall, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge.

Preface; Part I: Physiognomy of An Apocalyptic Age; Part II: The Book of Living; Part III: The Ja¿i¿ian Library Under Attack; Part IV: The Salvific Book; Part V: The Architecture of Design; Part VI: Appreciating Design; Postface; Appendix: The Praise of Books; Bibliography; Endnotes.