Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2021)

Articles

Some Critical Reflections on al-Jāḥiẓ’s Notions of Ṭabʿ and Ṭibāʿ (Innate Dispositions)

https://doi.org/10.55831/ajis.v6i1.295

Published 21.01.2021

  • Zaid Alamiri
Zaid Alamiri
Independent Scholar

Abstract

This study sheds some light on how the philosophical and theological beliefs of al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 868), as a Muʿtazilite, influenced his literary views and opinions. Among these are the concepts of Ṭabʿ and Ṭibāʿ, which are frequently mentioned in his writings. The concepts of Ṭabʿ and Ṭibāʿ originally address philosophically related theological questions, which were extended to cover literary points. On the theological level, these concepts were used to support the Muʿtazilah’s interpretation of human free will viewed in light of their belief in the unicity and justice of God. The notions of Ṭabʿ and Ṭibāʿ arose out of the Muʿtazilah’s discussion of ‘generated acts’. Regarding the literary domain, al-Jāḥiẓ applied the concepts of Ṭabʿ and Ṭibāʿ to the interpretation of littérateur creativity and his literary production. The way al-Jāḥiẓ interpreted the notions of Ṭabʿ and Ṭibāʿ displays natural determinism disguised under Divine determinism.

Keywords

Tab and Tiba, Innate disposition, Generated acts, al-Jahiz, Determinism and literary production

PDF

References

  1. ʿAbbās, Iḥsān. Tārix al-Naqd al-ʾAdabī ʿAnda al-ʿArab: naqd Ašiʿr Min alQarn aṯ-Ṯān ī Ḥata al-Qarn aṯ-Ṯā aṯ-Ṯāmin al-Ḥijrī [History of the Literary Criticism of the Arabs: Poetry Criticism from the Second Higra Century till the Eighth]. Beirut: Muʾasasat ar-Risālah, 1983.
  2. Abū Reedah, Muḥammad ʿAbd l-Ḥādī. ʾIbrāhim bin Sayyār an-Naẓẓām wa ʾan-Naẓẓ al- Kalāmiyah wa l-Falsafiyah [ʾIbrāhim bin Sayyār an-Naẓẓām: His Theological and Philosophical Thoughts]. Cairo: Lajnat at-tʾalif, wa-t-Tarjamah wa-n-našr, 1946.
  3. Abū Zayd, Naṣr Ḥāmid. Al-ʾItijāh al-ʿAqli Fi at-Tafsir: Dirāsah Fi Qaḏiat al-Majāz ʿAnda al- Muʿtazilah [The Rational Trend of the Exegesis: A Study on the Muʿtazilah Concept of Metaphor in the Qur’ān], 4th ed. Casa Blanca, Beirut: Al-Markaz aṯ-Ṯaqāfī al-ʿArabi, 1998.
  4. al-Baǧdādī, ʿAbd al-Qahir ibn Ṭāhir. Al-Farq bayn al-Firaq [Moslem Schisms and Sects]. Edited by M. M. ʿAbd al-Ḥamid. Beirut: Al-Maktaba al-ʿAṣriya, 1995.
  5. al-Jāḥiẓ, Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Baḥr. Al-Bayān wa-l-tabyīn [The Book of Clear Communication], 7th ed. Edited by ʿA. M. Hārūn. Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, 1998.
  6. al-Jāḥiẓ, Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Baḥr. Al-Ḥayawān [The Book of Animals], 2nd ed. Edited by ʿA. M. Hārūn. Cairo: šarikat Maktabat wa Maṭbaʿat Musṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa awlādūhū bi Miṣr, 1965.
  7. al-Jāḥiẓ, Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Baḥr. ar-Rasāʾil [al-Jāḥiẓ’s Epistles]. Edited by ʿA. M. Hārūn. Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī, 1964.
  8. al-Khuli, Yumna. Aṭ-Ṭabiʿiyāt Fi ʿalm al-Kalām [Natural Sciences: Its Place in the Kalām]. Cairo: Dar aṯ-Ṯaqāfah lal našir wa tawzīʿ, 1995.
  9. an-Najm, Wadīʿa Ṭāhā. Al-Jāḥiẓ wa an-naqd al-ʾAdabī [al-Jāḥiẓ and the Literary Criticism]. Annals of Faculty of Arts, Kuwait University, 1988.
  10. an-Najm, Wadīʿa Ṭāhā. Al-Jāḥiẓ wal Ḥāḏirah al-ʿAbāssiyah [al-Jāḥiẓ and Abbasid City Life]. Baghdad: Maṭbaʿat al-ʾIršād, 1965.
  11. an-Najm, Wadīʿa Ṭāhā. “Studies on the Writings of al-Jāḥiẓ.” PhD diss., University of London, 1958.
  12. ar-Rāwī, Abad al-Sattār. Ṯawrat al ʿaql [The Revolution of Reason]. Baghdad: Dār aš-Šūn aṯ- Ṯaqāfiya alʿāma Wazārt aṯ-Ṯaqāfa wa l-ʾIʿlām, 1986.
  13. aš-Šahrastānī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm. Milal wa Niḥal [The Book of Sects and Creeds]. Edited by M. S. Kaylānī. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1975.
  14. Dgheim, Samiḥ. Falsafat al-Qūdūr Fi Fikr al-Muʿtazilah [Philosophy of Values in Muʿtazilah Thought]. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr al-Lūbnānī. 1992.
  15. Fakhry, Majid. A Short History of Islamic Philosophy. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2004.
  16. Fakhry, Majid. “Some Paradoxical Implications of the Muʿtazilite View of Free Will.” The Muslim World 43, no. 2 (1954): 95–109.
  17. ʿImārah, Muḥammad. Al-Muʿtazilah wa Mūškilat al-Ḥūriya al-ʾInsāniyah [Muʿtazilah and the Question of Human Freedom], 2nd ed. Cairo: Dār aš-Šūrūq, 1988.
  18. Montgomery, James E. “Speech and Nature: al-Jāḥiẓ, Kitāb al-Bayān wa-l-tabyīn, 2.175-207, Part 2.” Middle Eastern Literatures 12, no. 1 (2009): 1-25.
  19. Montgomery, James E. “Speech and Nature: al-Jāḥiẓ, Kitāb al-Bayān wa-l-tabyīn, 2.175-207, Part 3.” Middle Eastern Literatures 12, no. 2 (2009): 107-125.
  20. Montgomery, James E. “Speech and Nature: al-Jāḥiẓ, Kitāb al-Bayān wa-l-tabyīn, 2.175-207, Part 4.” Middle Eastern Literatures 12, no. 3 (2009): 213-232.
  21. Nādir, Albert Naṣri. Falsafat al-Muʿtazilah [The Philosophy of Muʿtazilah], 2 vols. al-Iskandarīyah: Maṭbaʻat Dār Nashr al-Thaqāfah, 1950.
  22. Peters, Francis E. Aristotle and Arabs: The Aristotelian Tradition in Islam (New York: New York University Press, 1968).
  23. Pingree, David E., and Syed Nomanul Haq. “ṬABĪʿA.” In Encylopaedia of Islam, new ed., vol. 10, edited by P. J. Bearman, T. H. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrighs, 25-28. Brill: Leiden, 2000.
  24. Rāḏī, ʿAbd al-Ḥakim. Al-ʾAbʿād al-Falsafiyah wa-l kalāmiyah Fi al-Firk al-Balāǧī wa l-naqdī ʿAnda al-Jāḥiẓ [The Philosophical and Dialectical Perspectives of the Rhetorical and Critical Thought of al-Jāḥiẓ], 3rd ed. Cairo: Edition al-Adab, 2006.
  25. Rosenthal, Franz. Knowledge Triumphant: The Concept of Knowledge in Medieval Islam. Brill: Leiden, 2007.
  26. Wolfson, Harry A. The Philosophy of the Kalām. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1976.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.