ABSTRACT

In spite of the considerable attention devoted to the third/ninth century by

scholars of Arabic literature, credit for the elaboration of the notion of adab, in its

wider meaning of literary culture, is given to and concentrated upon only a

handful of writers. The disproportionate emphasis, both within and outside the

Arabic literary-historical and literary-critical traditions, on such figures as Ibn

al-Muqaffa ( (d. after 139/757), al-Ja¯h

˙ iz ˙ (d. 255/868) and Ibn Qutaybah (d. 276/

889), has been at the expense of certain crucial aspects of those traditions. What is

more, studies of the third/ninth century (a century described by Ge´rard Lecomte

as “un des moins mal connus”, one of the least badly understood),1 have typically

either focused (narrowly) on specific individuals (e.g. Ibn Qutaybah), on single

works (e.g. al-Ja¯h ˙ iz ˙ ’s Kita¯b al-Bukhala¯

) [Book of misers]), or on specific institutions

(e.g. the vizierate).2 There have in fact been very few attempts to describe larger

literary or cultural phenomena. This study represents an effort to re-evaluate the

literary history and landscape of the third/ninth century by demonstrating and

emphasizing the significance of an important – and irrevocable3 – transformation

witnessed that century, namely the transition from a predominantly oral and

aural literary culture to an increasingly textual, book-based, writerly one.

Because of the importance of books, textuality, and writing, I refer to this new

situation as “writerly culture,” a term that I suggest also in part conveys the

meaning of adab. An adı¯b (pl. udaba¯ ) ) can then usefully be thought of as someone

who embodies and practices writerly culture.