Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Kinānī al-Baṣrī, commonly known as al-Jāḥiẓ was an Arab prose writer and author of works of literature, Mu'tazili theology, zoology, and politico-religious polemics.
Ibn al-Nadim lists nearly 140 titles attributed to Al-Jahiz, of which 75 are extant. The best known are Kitāb al-Ḥayawān, a seven-part compendium on an array of subjects with animals as their point of departure; Kitāb al-Bayān wa-l-tabyīn, a wide-ranging work on human communication; and Kitāb al-Bukhalāʾ, a collection of anecdotes on stinginess.
He is said to have been crushed to death under the weight of his own tomes.