#kitab-al-hayawan

⇄ Calling al-Jahiz a forerunner of Darwin does him no favours

Every few months someone sends me a graphic headed "Evolution, 1,000 years before Darwin", with a portrait of al-Jahiz (c. 776–869) that nobody painted from life. I work on classical Arabic texts, and I want to argue that the "forerunner" label shrinks…