As a lucid observer, the author examines the history of this repressed underclass tucked away in the low-lying lands of Basra and al-Ubulla. He sheds light on their stubborn resistance in the face of contempt and exploitation. As such, he is the great initiator of a new genre in Arabic literature, that of appraising society. One of the points in favour of al-Djāhiz is that he examines the contradictions in his world from a conceptual and contextual standpoint. He is the first Muslim philosopher to describe social reality and expose the discrimination and violence suffered by black minority groups. He sets out the dilemma between so-called universal ethical principles and social practices in a clear way, without skirting the issue. The result is a careful examination and decoding of Arab perception of black minorities.  
This epistle has the great merit of being both historical and didactic. It retraces the genesis of discriminatory discourse and goes on to meticulously decode the rhetorical processes and mental maps keeping blacks on the lowest rung of the human ladder. The brilliance of this author's offbeat style of writing, with its tinges of humour and irony, reveals the power of images and stereotypes. By describing their modes of enunciation, he emphasizes the scope of legends and sinister allegations. He also explains how the colour adjective aswad (black)