In the preceding chapters we have seen how the epistolary frame often liberates the audience from authorial presumption and leaves them free to assess the significance of the materials for themselves. The intervening presence of the addressee allows the author to dispense with what an expository text normally implies about the needs and predispositions of the reader. We have seen, however, that the resulting freedom of the reader can be al- Jāḥiẓ's way of gently prompting – we might even say manipulating – him to arrive at the desired conclusion. The reader may be steered toward adopting a confident and yet circumspect attitude toward sectarian or doctrinal adversaries. He may be guided toward finding a position intermediate between two extremes or be impelled to reflect on the biases he is bringing to his reading. But, while it seems clear that al- Jāḥiẓ has carefully planned the direction his audience is likely to take in response to the text, the reader is given to feel a great degree of independence in evaluating the cogency of the arguments and materials presented.

The introduction to one of al- Jāḥiẓ's most popular and entertaining texts, Kitāb al-Bukhalāʾ (The Book of Misers), may initially strike us as offering the reader a similar freedom, as he is prompted to distance himself from the patently hypocritical stances adopted by the addressee, who wants to read stories of greed in others. Invited to contrast himself with the carefully planted contradictions in the addressee's stance toward miserliness, the reader is indeed guided toward adopting a moderate position: neither overlooking miserliness in himself while ridiculing it in others, nor making an ill-advised attempt to alter his own nature by affecting generosity. But the path on which the reader is effectively led as he is prompted to distance himself from the shifting and contradictory stances of the addressee turns out to be a treacherous one. By the end of his request the addressee reveals himself to be not the innocent he initially seemed but a cunning social manipulator bent on securing a reputation for generosity for himself, while conserving his resources.