The 9th-century essayist, theologian and encyclopaedist Amr b. Bar al-Ji 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 presented as letters to individuals. Despite the importance and quantity of these letters, surprisingly little academic notice has been paid to them. Now, Thomas Hefter takes a new approach in interpreting some of al-Jis epistolary monographs. By focussing on the varying ways in which he wrote to the addressee, Hefter shows how al-Ji shaped his conversations on the page in order to guide (or manipulate) his actual readers and encourage them to engage with his complex materials.
Introduction
The Addressee and the Occasion of Writing
Epistolary Confrontations and Dialectics of Parody
Undisclosed Origins and Homelands
Faulting Misers in the Introduction of Kitb al-Bukhal
Passive Addressee and Critical Reader in the Ab al-/Ibn al-Tawam Debate
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Thomas Hefter is Lecturer of Arabic at Princeton University. He earned his PhD in Classical Arabic Literature from the University of Chicago, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He has taught at the American University in Cairo and the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
