His real name was Amr bin Mahbub, born in 160 AH, and became famous by the title of "Al-Jahiz". In Arabic, Al-Jahiz refers to someone whose eyeballs are protruding. In the beginning, he disliked this title, but gradually he became silent about it. Hardly has anyone's appearance been mocked in such a manner; someone compared him to Satan, and a poet even went so far as to say: "Even if a pig were to be mutated again, it would still be less ugly than Al-Jahiz." Caliph Al-Mutawakkil wanted to appoint him as a tutor for his children, but upon seeing his appearance, he refused. Although he belonged to the Mu'tazilite school of thought, despite this, he is considered an imam of Arabic literature. It is said: "Whichever book Al-Jahiz caught hold of, he did not put it down until he read it completely." He would often rent bookstores and spend whole nights reading there. In the latter part of his life, he suffered from many illnesses, and half of his body became paralyzed. He was engaged in reading in this very state when the books piled around him fell upon him, and thus, the ugly lover of knowledge was buried in the cemetery of books. (Ali Sinan)
