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.