394 al-Jahiz, Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Fukaymi al-Basra
of his 12 sons and daughters. One of Gedymin’s sons,
Algirdas, grand duke or prince between 1345 and 1377,
had 21 sons and daughters. One of them, Jogaila, who
took the name Ladislas or Wladyslaw at his baptism at
CRACOWin 1386, assumed the title and power of grand
duke in 1377.
Until 1392 Ladislas united the throne of POLAND
with that of Lithuania as grand duke. Lithuania thus
was united to Poland by a dynastic union. Vytautas
(r. 1392–1430), Ladislas’s brother and duke of Lithuania,
maintained good relations with his sibling until the end
of his life. Wars broke out after Vytautas’s death in 1430.
By 1440 Casimir IV had taken over Poland and the grand
duchy of Lithuania. Casimir’s elder brother, Ladislas III,
became king of Poland (1434–44) after his father’s death
and was king of HUNGARYfrom 1440. His death at the
head of the army at the Battle of Varna against the TURKS
in 1444 precluded any attempt at Polish–Hungarian
union.
Casimir’s eldest son, Ladislas II, was king of BOHEMIA
between 1471 and 1516 and in 1490 became the king of
Hungary. Jagiellonians held both kingdoms until the
death of Ladislas’s son and successor, Louis (r. 1516–26),
at the Battle of Mohács against the Turks in 1526. In
Poland, after the death of Casimir, the new ruler was
another son, John I Albert (1492–1501); in Lithuania
John’s brother, Alexander (1492–1506, also king of
Poland from 1501), became grand duke. From 1490 to
1526, the Jagiellonians reigned over three of the major
countries of central Europe.
Further reading:Norman Davies, God’s Playground:
A History of Poland,Vol. 1, The Origins to 1795(New
York: Columbia University Press, 1984); Jerzy
Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki, A Concise History of
Poland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2001); Pawel Jasienica, Jagiellonian Poland, trans.
Alexander Jordan (Miami: American Institute of Polish
Culture, 1978).
al-Jahiz, Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Fukaymi
al-Basra (the Goggle or Bug-Eyed)(ca. 776–868/869)
Arabic scholar, naturalist
Born to perhaps a slave family about 776 in AL-BASRAin
present-day IRAQ, al-Jahiz had an unfortunate appear-
ance that was attested by sources that specify it as the
reason he lost his lucrative post as tutor to the children
of Caliph al-Mutawakkil (r. 847–861). Al-Jahiz spent
extended periods in BAGHDAD and Samarra. Among
other topics he studied were the recently available trans-
lations of classical scientific work from the Greek. Al-
Jahiz obtained a great deal of oral information from the
sailors, nomads, and people of all classes and occupa-
tions in AL-BASRA. In politics and religion he followed
the rational approach of the Mutazili school of thought.
He defended the legitimacy of the ABBASIDdynasty and
wrote polemicals against both the JEWSand the Chris-
tians for which he was richly rewarded.THE BOOK ON ANIMALS
Of the writings traditionally attributed to al-Jahiz, about
200 are probably genuine; of them fewer than 30 have
survived. By far the most important of his scientific
works was his Book on Animals,a literary work meant to
amuse. It treated only the larger mammals, some impor-
tant birds, and, with special enthusiasm, insects, espe-
cially flies, gnats, scorpions, and lice. The work has been
called a kind of national zoology, which he enriched
with the results of his own study and from Aristotelian
sources.CLASSIFICATION AND JUDGMENTS
Al-Jahiz distinguished among running, flying, swim-
ming, and crawling animals and between carnivores and
herbivores. He also classified them as doglike, catlike,
and ruminants such as CAMELS. He classified the birds as
birds of prey, those with few defenses, and small birds.
He rejected the old division of animals into useful or
harmful to humans. The latter had their uses in a divine
plan for the universe or nature. Al-Jahiz displayed inter-
est in the physical adaptation of animals and accepted
the possibilities of spontaneous generation and a type of
animal language. He also discussed the effects of drugs,
alcohol, and castration on animals and their sexual
practices, including sodomy.
Al-Jahiz formed his own judgments and even con-
ducted his own investigations, remarkable for their
innovative methodologies. He was critical of all tradi-
tions, even of the QURAN, and was skeptical of ALCHEMY,
considering it possible in principle yet dubious because
over thousands of years many great scholars had failed
to achieve any practical result. He died in al-Basra in
868 or 869.
Further reading: al-Jahiz, Sobriety and Mirth: A
Selection of the Shorter Writings of al-Jahiz,trans. Jim
Colville (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002);
M. Plessner, “Al-Jahiz, Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr,”
Dictionary of Scientific Biography,7.63–65; “Al-Jahiz,”
Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism25:268–335;
Oscar Löfgren, Ambrosian Fragments of an Illuminated
Manuscript Containing the Zoology of Al-Gahiz(Upp-
sala: Lundequistska Bokhandeln, 1946); Fedwa Malti-
Douglas, Structures of Avarice: The Bukhala in Medieval
Arabic Literature (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985); Said
Husayn Mansur, The World-View of al-Jahiz in Kitab al-
Hayawan (Alexandria: Dar al-Maaref, 1977); Charles
Pellat, ed. The Life and Works of Jahiz,trans. D. M.
Hawke (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1969).Jalal al-Din Rumi SeeRUMI.