Al-Jahiz: In Praise of Books

Title page
Copyright
Contents
Preface
PART 1  PHYSIOGNOMY OF AN APOCALYPTIC AGE
1.1 Cataclysm
1.2 Eristics and Salvation
1.3 A Self-chronicling Society
PART 2  THE BOOK OF LIVING
2.1 The Totalising Work
2.2 The Treatise as Totality
2.3 Parsing Totality
2.4 The Articulation of The Book of Living
2.5 Analogues?
PART 3  THE JAHIZIAN LIBRARY UNDER ATTACK
3.1 Introducing the ‘Introduction’
3.2 Translation
3.3 Commentary
3.4 The Argument
PART 4  THE SALVIFIC BOOK
4.1 Biobibliographies
4.2 The Form of the ‘Introduction’
4.3 The Enigma of the Addressee
4.4 Invective
4.5 The Cohesiveness of Society
4.6 An Encyclopaedia to Save Society
PART 5  THE ARCHITECTURE OF DESIGN
5.1 Governance of the Cosmos
5.2 The Grateful Response, 1
5.3 The Grateful Response, 2
5.4 Obliquity
Part 6  APPRECIATING DESIGN
6.1 An Eristical Contest
6.2 Translation
6.3 The Argument
6.4 Conclusion
Postface
Appendix: The Praise of Books
Notes
Bibliography
Index