Literary and Artistic Value of the „Book on Misers“ by Djakhiz

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to present the basic elements that make the Djakhiz work „The Book on Misers“ a true work of art. In connection with that, the characteristics of adab, the specific way of expression in prose at the time when Djakhiz lived, and the most illustrious representative of which he had been, and his „Book on Misers“ as its most brilliant example, are given in a brief outline.

Since this 'book is considered the first -real satire in Arabic literature, more attention has been paid mainly to the elements of satire, humor and comedy in it. It has been proved thereby, that the widespread opinion by which the chief and the only objective of Djakhiz was to laugh at the Persians and brand them as misers. At that period they were the opponents of the Arabs round threatened their exclusive domination in the political and cultural life. In the examples from the work itself it has been shown that misers attract him, first of all as characters, with all their psychological manifestations. Djakhiz as a rationalist, and the follower of mutazila, laughs at misers as being antipodes to reason. In accordance with this, the characteristic of his humor is - to teach through entertainment, which is the basic objective of his work. It is a kind of humor that derides people, sometimes it is a mild irony at the back of which there is always ethos. For Djakhiz, there is no comedy outside that which is purely human. Even when he derides the miserly Persians, his satire is not biting, it is almost always contemplative in character.

Besides, several observations on the structure of this work and the way of presenting of the characters of misers in it are given.

At the end of the paper, the author concludes, that on the basis of all the above, it could safely be stated that the „Book on Misers“ has all the properties of a true work of art in which the individual is recognized as the universal, and vice versa. Thanks to that, the work definitely goes beyond the time and locality in which it was created.