The image of the other in the book "The Miser" by Al-Jahiz

Abstract

Perhaps the implicit goal of Al-Jahiz in his book Al-Bukhla (misers)is to praise the generosity of the Arabs in their presence and to detract from the phenomenon of miserliness and misersin the Perans, it is a group that took to influence the Abbasid society with its customs and traditions that the Arabi was unfamiliar with and became a danger to his morals, Al-Jahiz deliberated to strip these misers of their credibility in their orientations and beliefs, In a humorous narrative style, he was able, through portraying his real, realistic characters, to reveal many of the natures of misers and the secrets of their troubled psyches, his portrayal was characterized by credibility, realism and logic, he also highlighted- with his usual technique- the intellectual aspects of the other's beliefs in the phenomenon of miserliness, and the miser’s methodology in miserliness and his faith rooted in his psyche, he also invoked the dispute that sometimes arises between the different nationalities in the Abbasid society in an artistic way that does not tattle the racist tendencies through the dialogue he conducted in the story of Abu Saeed Al-Madaini and Al-Thaqafi, for example. In many of his stories, Al-Jahiz paints for the reader a clear picture of a widespread Persian group in his society, representing a wide class in the Abbasid society, political life provided it with an opportunity to practice its national cultures, customs and traditions, which made it a mini picture of the Persian nation in its homeland. From this point of view, Al-Jahiz’s book (Al-Bukhla’) can be classified as a subject of comparative literature within one of its branches called the science of studying the image of the other (Photology), this branch is concerned with studying the image of a nation in the literature of another nation or in the writings of a writer from the writers of another nation.