The theologian and polymath ʿAmr b. Bar al-Jāḥiẓ (c. 160–255/776– 869) has held an almost unchallenged place among the foremost early Arabic prose writers from his own time until the present day. His texts – essays, polemics and anthologies covering diverse religious, social and scientific topics, some serious, others brimming with playful irony – continue to fascinate readers of all ideological persuasions in the Arabic-speaking world and far beyond. One reason that his name has remained almost synonymous with eloquence and rhetorical inventiveness, despite the difficulties that many of his works present, is surely his genius for crafting captivating introductions that deftly guide readers to the crux of what will be said in a given book or essay. al-Jāḥiẓ has a variety of devices with which to commence a text, but the most common by far is to frame an essay or anthology as a letter to an anonymous addressee. The latter is an individual (in just one case a group) who the author claims has requested that he write on a given topic or has somehow provoked him into doing so. A grasp of the addressee's role as a rhetorical device is often crucial to comprehending al-Jāḥiẓ's intentions in a given text and to understanding his complex relations with his contemporary audience.

Epistolary prefaces are a convention of essay writing in many literary traditions, as they are, indeed, in later Arabic prose, but al-Jāḥiẓ's exchanges with his addressees are remarkably varied and inventive. One text that deals with the varieties of intoxicating beverages and their status in Muslim law begins with a wildly jumbled string of serious and frivolous questions from an addressee, who alternately praises and damns the assorted Near Eastern brews known collectively as ‘nabīdh’. The addressee's inquiry is so disorderly that it begins to seem as though he may have been indulging in such drinks prior to writing. In another letter involving the same question, al-Jāḥiẓ sounds reckless and perhaps even drunk himself as he comically reproves a different addressee for showing insufficient enthusiasm for nabīdh.