Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

فلسفة الجد والهزل

Rate this book
هذه الرسائل الأربعة يشملها اسم (رسائل في الأخلاق المحمودة والمذمومة) أرسلها أبو عثمان ابن أبي دؤاد وابن الزيات لتكون دستوراً أخلاقياً ومصباحاً اجتماعياً يستضيء به هذان الوزيران ومن نهج نهجهما في تدبير الممالك، إذ الأخلاق، كما يراها علماء الأخلاق سارية يرتفع عليها علم الأمة ما زالت قوية مدعمة بالمكارم وينخفض ويهيض جماحها ما جنحت وتنكبت النهج القويم والصراط المستقيم.

158 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 2001

7 people are currently reading
387 people want to read

About the author

Al-Jahiz

130 books156 followers
Al-Jāḥiẓ (Arabic: عمرو بن بحر الجاحظ)

Because of the caliphs' patronage and his eagerness to establish himself and reach a wider audience, al-Jāḥiẓ stayed in Baghdad (and later Samarra), where he wrote a huge number of his books. The caliph al-Ma'mun wanted al-Jāḥiẓ to teach his children, but then changed his mind when his children were frightened by al-Jāḥiẓ's goggle-eyes. This is said to be the origin of his nickname.

He enjoyed the patronage of al-Fath ibn Khaqan, the bibliophile boon companion of Caliph al-Mutawakkil, but after his murder in December 861 he left Samarra for his native Basra. He died there in late 868, according to one story, when a pile of books from his private library collapsed on him.

Most important books:
*Kitab al-Hayawan (Book of the Animals)
*Kitab al-Bukhala (Book of Misers) also (Avarice & the Avaricious)
*Kitab al-Bayan wa al-Tabyin (The Book of eloquence and demonstration)
*Risalat mufakharat al-sudan 'ala al-bidan (Treatise on Blacks)

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 AH 255/December 868-January 869 CE. 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.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
16 (41%)
4 stars
12 (30%)
3 stars
7 (17%)
2 stars
3 (7%)
1 star
1 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Profile Image for Ahmad Alhawawshah.
13 reviews9 followers
Read
April 30, 2014
الجاحظ ....!

انه عالَمٌ فيّض , مخّض الحكمة وعجم عيدانها , ووقف على حدود العلوم ... قرن بين الاشياء والنظائر , وصاقب بين الأشكال والأجناس , ووصل بين المتجاور والمتوازي , واستنبط الغامض الباطن بالظاهر البيّن , واستظهر على الخفيّ المشكل بالمكشوف المعروف , عرف بالفهم الثاقب , والحكمة الناصعة .... فنال بذلك بشاشة العامة واستوى له الرياسة على ظُغَام الادباء ورعَاعِِِهم ...
وقيل فيه "لـه سلاسةٌ كسلاسة الماء، ورِقَّةٌ كرقَّة الهواء، وحلاوةٌ كحلاوة النَّاطل، وعزَّة كعزَّة كليب وائل، فسبحان من سَخَّرَ لـه البيان وعلَّمه، وسلم في يده قصب الرِّهان وقدَّمه ... "
فأدبه يجلو صدأ الأذهان، ويكشف واضح البرهان

خربشاتي
لغة عربية نووية يعني زي فلم الرسالة جمل وعبارات عبارة عن قياسات هندسيّة للأشي اللي جواته
ومع انه الطبعة اللي نزلتها من النت كانت معجوووقة ومصوّر بعض الصفحات بالشقلوب الا اني تابعت :) الحمد لله انه في من الافنا ناس عظماء مثل هيك <3
سلام على اجدادنا حتى يطيب لهم السلام
Profile Image for David.
6 reviews5 followers
January 16, 2020
"Believers, do not forbid the good things that God has allowed you but do not transgress either, for God does not love transgressors." (Quran V, 87)

That line closes the penultimate paragraph of his essay "On Drink & Drinkers," which الجاحظ gives us as the irreducible essence of that essay. If I could characterize his philosophy, it would be a "magnanimous temperance" informed by the highest scriptural conceptions in the Quran. One takes pleasure in moderation, magnifies their delight with reason when they reflect on folly and evil avoided, and develops their sense of wisdom by simplifying tempting situations with virtue.

In the past several years, I found myself increasingly obsessed with locating such irreducible precepts in all that I read, whether by reading luxuriously slowly, or when I steal a glance at a book at the bookshop, which I have little intention of buying but much of perusing.

It is quite appreciable when an author provides us that very precept directly. You may find that as the epigraph for a book (see the two which Ellison pairs for Invisible Man), its first sentence (the compression performed in Woolf's Orlando), the final sentence (that icy and supreme work of Blanchot's, The Instant of My Death), or in the introduction. Montaigne's Essays are the best example of an introduction which impossibly compresses into one pure method the ambition of his collection.

The Essays are a way for his friends and family to keep him around long after death, and also for him to find new kin. In masterfully conveying his wit and also preserving the way in which he read and learned, they leave gaps for us to imagine the continued activity of his mind as if he were alive now. The presence of Montaigne continues to speak among those who know him well.

Montaigne read widely and deeply in a time when the centrality of the Latin classics was indisputable. The twenty-first century is a veritable avalanche of reading material, from the content published daily to all of the resources, exponentially increased by translation from other languages, that plunge casual readers and scholars into a crisis of imagination. Where do you find, and how do you find the content you need?

"Where" is a question that requires terrific focus, depending on the goal you have in mind (critic, artist, hedonist), but there is one answer for the how. A well-trained (but sometimes hasty) reader will seek out the locations where an author tends to situate their most potent discovery. This helps you rapidly absorb a revelation which would otherwise require far more time from you to obtain, and to map out the approachability of an unknown terrain before you attempt to mine it.

If the structural integrity of the author's work is reliable, and the reader is willing to test their strength, then those few essential sentences are enough. Coupled with the knowledge of the author's intention and the context for their work, you have successfully reproduced the cumulative impact of a work: the essential take-away, from which the finer details would naturally drop away over time.

If I skim a novel or essay, it’s to find that singular statement around which the structure and purpose of that work revolves. What would normally require a dozen consecutive hours for a full read, I attempt to flee from in one frantic hour. My attention throttles through each page in machine-gun fashion. I gun mainly for keywords.

But it is a great shame that I have not enough time to thoroughly savor this book before my Penn library account expires. Of particular note is “Squaring the Circle,” which is a divinely comedic analogue to God’s monologue to Job.

My mood has much been lifted by the humor of الجاحظ. I am fortunate to have encountered the marvelous final paragraph of "On Drink & Drinkers," which gives this collection of essays its title. It is also great advice on how to write any work you desire, and to be satisfied with whatever you have produced:

"Let that be sufficient for now. If this essay went on any longer, you would find it too much to take in. Brevity can be more effective than thoroughness if it runs the risk of being boring. I have leavened seriousness with humor and spiced reasoning with jest to lighten the reader's labour and spur the reader's interest. I have alternated sobriety and mirth in order to amuse and mixed wit with argument to divert and entertain."
Profile Image for Mohamad Ali.
219 reviews52 followers
August 28, 2016
درر من الحكمه مرصعه الايات والاحاديث الا ان الاسلوب جاء جافا لم استسغه
فلم اكمل الكتاب للاسف
" انما الادب عقل غيرك تزيده فى عقلك "
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.