Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri / Al Jahiz
(Irak, Basra, 781 – Baghdad 869)
Researching:
Biology,
Zoology,
Evolution,
Germs,
Evolutionary
Theory,
Adaptation,
Animal Psychology
He wrote the first zoology research.
Leading zoologist from Basra, Iraq is the first Muslim scientist to spark the theory of evolution.
Al-Jahiz was born in Basra, Iraq in 781 AD His real name is Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri.
His influence is so widespread among Muslim and Western zoologists.
Jhon William Draper, a contemporary Western biologist with Charles Darwin once said,
"The theory of evolution developed by Muslims is more than we should be doing.
Muslim biologists have been researching things about organic and minerals. "
Al-Jahiz is a Muslim biologist who first developed an evolutionary theory.
The nineteenth-century scientist reveals the environmental impact on the possibility of an animal surviving.
The history of Islamic civilization records, Al-Jahiz as the first biologist to reveal the theory of struggle to live (struggle for existence).
In order to survive, he said, living beings must fight, as they had in their lifetime.
He was born and raised in a poor family.
Despite struggling to help the family's economic turmoil by selling fish, he did not drop out of school and studied diligently in the mosque about science. He attended school until the age of 25 years.
At school, Al-Jahiz studied many things, such as Arabic poetry, Arabic philosophy, Arabic and Persian history before Islam, as well as the Qur'an and hadith.
Al-Jahiz is also an early follower of environmental determinism. According to him, the environment can determine the physical characteristics of the inhabitants of a particular community.
The origins of human skin color vary due to the result of the environment in which they live.
Thanks to such brilliant theories, Al-Jahiz is also known as the greatest biologist ever born in the Islamic world. The most famous scientist in the city of Basra, Iraq was able to write the book Ritab Al-Haywan (Book on Animals).
In the book he wrote about germs, evolutionary theory, adaptation, and animal psychology.
Al-Jahiz was noted as the first biologist to record the change of bird life through migration.
Not only that, in the 9th century AD Al-Jahiz was able to explain the method of obtaining ammonia from animal waste through distillation.
Al-Jahiz's figure and thought was so influential on Persian scientists, Al-Qazwini, and Egyptian scientist Al-Damiri.
His career as a writer he was starting to write articles. At that time Al-Jahiz was still in Basra
. Since then, he has continued to write up to write two hundred books during his lifetime. In the 11th century, Khatib al-Baghdadi accused Al-Jahiz of plagiarizing part of his work from Kitab al-Hayawan of Aristotle.
In addition to al-Hayawan, he also wrote the book of al-Bukhala (Book of Misers or Avarice & the Avaricious), Kitab al-Bayan wa al-Tabyin (The Book of eloquence and demonstration), Book of Moufakharat al Jawari wal Ghilman
(The book of dithyramb of concubines and ephebes), and Risalat mufakharat al-sudan 'ala al-bidan (Superiority Of The Blacks To The Whites). Once, in 816 AD he moved to Baghdad.
Al-Jahiz died after fifty years living in Baghdad in 869, when he was 93 years old.