The Report (al-khabar) in al-Jāḥiẓ’s Al-ʿUthmāniyya: A Reading of Structure and Meaning

This study scrutinizes Al-‘Uthmāniyya by Abū ʿUthmān ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 255 AH) as a foundational text for a new system of knowledge concerning reports (akhbār). Al-Jāḥiẓ was cognizant of the shift from an oral-based mind to a written one, recognizing that the conflict between these two modes of thought would render traditional conventions insufficient during the age of codification. Thus, the concept of accurate transmission (ṣaḥḥat al-majīʾ) became a criterion for the reliability of reports, aiming to purge them of doubt and the suspicion inherent in uncritical tradition. This notion is one of the key topics the research seeks to analyze and demonstrate. As for the methodology, the study utilizes the analytical-critical method, which proves apt for addressing the elements under investigation and the conclusions derived from them. Chief among these is the idea that the written mind possesses characteristics fundamentally different from those of orality, and that the consensus historically reached on certain reports cannot be taken as a sufficient proof of their truth or authenticity. One of the main recommendations this paper offers is that reports in Arab culture have acquired structural traits unique to oral traditions—traits that should be open to revision, critique, and interrogation in light of modern methodologies and the imperatives of written culture. To achieve this objective, it is necessary for researchers to connect al-Jāḥiẓ’s views in Al-‘Uthmāniyya with the findings of modern scholars in the field of writing and the written mind.