Explores the intricately crafted rhetorical strategies used by al-Jahiz in his lettersThe 9th-century essayist, theologian and encyclopedist 'Amr b. Bahr al-Jahiz has long been acknowledged as a master of early Arabic prose writing. Many of his most engaging writings were clearly intended for a broad readership but were presented as letters to individuals. Despite the importance andquantity of these letters, surprisingly little academic notice has been paid to them. Now, Thomas Hefter takes a new approach in interpreting some of al-Jahiz's "epistolary monographs". By focusing on the varying ways in which he wrote to the addressee, Hefter shows how al-Jahiz shaped his conversations on the page in order to guide (or manipulate) his actual readers and encouragethem to engage with his complex materials. | The Reader in al-Jahiz by Thomas Hefter, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters