Taḥlīl al-ḫiṭāb fī rasā'il Iḫwān al-Ṣafā

[Autom. eng. transl.] The Epistles of the Brothers of Purity are a unique text both for their encyclopedic character and their aesthetic-cognitive variety, and for the mystery that has always surrounded them to this day. This essay offers a reading of the role played by this mystery - desired by the author or by the authors of the work - in shaping the discourse of the text. It is argued that, by intentionally hiding their identity, the authors have made this mystery an essential component of the discourse of the text. Omitting the author of the work was in fact an epistemological revolution in the consolidated traditions of Arab culture, all based on the genealogies and chains of transmission of knowledge. The author's omission transforms the message into a sender, making it able to construct its own particular world, in a time and space subtracted from the hierarchy of authors and texts, because a text without an author is an "independent" text. Therefore, even though every school of thought finds itself in the text, it cannot be attributed to any particular one. The Epistles discourse belongs to an epistemological transition phase, in which written discourse, previously limited to the oral context and incapable of overcoming the constraints and fixity of oral epistemological production, is entering into competition with orality. In this volume, we present an analysis of this "competition" - a distinctive feature of the Epistles - from a stylistic and narrative point of view. In particular, a detailed analysis of the story is offered: "The cause brought by the animals against the man at the jinn king".