Al-Jahiz’s “Book of the Miserly,” brought to the attention of the Soviet reader, takes us more than a thousand years ago, to the era of the state, economic and cultural rise of the Abbasid Caliphate (VIII-XIII centuries), which reached its highest development during the reign of Caliph al-Mamun (813-833). This work by Jahiz reproduces in vivid pictures, albeit in a somewhat original way, some aspects of the internal life of one of the largest scientific and cultural centers of the then Arab world - the city of Basra (founded in 638), where, along with the cities of Kufa (founded in 640), and then Baghdad (founded in 762), science, art and poetry, as well as trade and crafts, flourished in those days. Basra was the birthplace of many prominent people of that era. In addition, Basra and Kufa became the birthplace and focus of Arabic philology; two competing scientific grammatical schools (Basri - more strict in observing grammatical rules, and Kufi - more lenient) received their names from these cities. Here, under the influence of Greek philosophy, the ideas of free thought that originated in the dogmatic philosophy of Islam began to bear fruit; it was Basra that became the place where Mu'tazilism emerged.