JAHIZ (ABU (UTHMAN 'AMR IBN BAHR UL-JAHIZ i.e., "the man of whose eyes are prominent") (d. 1869), Arabian writer, spent his life in Basra where he devoted himself chiefly to the study of polite literature. A Muttazilite in his religious beliefs, he developed a system of his own and founded a sect named after him. He was favoured by Ibn uz-Zaiyat, the vizier of the caliph Wathiq.
His work, the Kitab ul-Bayan wat-Tabyin, a discursive treatise on rhetoric, appeared in 2 vols. at Cairo (1895). The Kitab ul-Makeisin
wal-Addcid was edited by G. van Vloten as Le Livre des beautes (Leiden, 1898) ; the Kitdb ul-Bu-halci, Le Livre des avares, ed. by the same (Leiden, 1900) ; two other smaller works, the Excellences of the Turks and the Superiority in Glory of the Blacks over the Whites, also prepared by the same. The Kitab ul-Hayawan, or "Book of Animals," a philological and literary work, was published at Cairo (1906).
(G. W. T.)