Investigation of Jahiz Ideas on Poetry and Its Criticism

Jahiz is one of the greatest critics and scholars of Arabic prose and poetry. Jahiz' ideas and thoughts on criticism have appeared here and there but mostly in his famous books, al-Hayawān and al-Bayān wa al-Tabyīn. In fact, his ideas pave the way for criticism to becomeindependent and autonomous in later periods. In Jahiz' time, criticism had no well-organized principles and it is why, Jahiz is regarded as one the founders of literary and poetic criticism in the history of Arabic literature. Jahiz has talked about different poetictopics including: the genesis of poetry, the value and the impact of poetry, the classification of poets, nature and mannerism, the old and the new, the form and the content, poetic plagiarism, and "intihāl" and the unity of the subject in poetry.