This presentation focuses on several works of the Mu'tazili theologian and Arabic prose master, 'Amr b. Bahr al-Jahiz (d. 255/869) in which probably fictitious addressees appear as an intermediating presence between the author and the intended audience, allowing al-Jahiz avoid broaching delicate issues related to his purpose in writing on the topic at hand to his real readership. In works of theology or religious polemic, the requests of the addressees for help are shaped in such a way as to avoid conceding that the arguments advanced by these adversaries are sincere and worthy of serious debate by a theologian such as himself. In K. al-Radd ala al-Nasara ("Replying to the Christians"), he purports to be writing to a group of Muslims who are worried that certain challenges posed to the veracity of the Qur'an by Christians will trouble the youth of the Community. Al-Jahiz's Muslim reader is thus invited to identify himself with these addressees who have a legitimate reason for seeking answers to questions they cannot themselves answer without suggesting that their faith in the revelation has been shaken. But as the text progresses, the reader will be subtly prompted to distance himself from these same addressees who appear to have overlooked the malicious intentions of those who have been challenging Qur'an. In R. fi Khalq al-Qur'an ("On the Createdness of the Qur'an"), which appears to have been written chiefly as a caution to certain Mu'tazili theologians who had grown careless in the exposition of their doctrines, al-Jahiz pretends to be writing to an enthusiastic but confused addressee who demands that he provide answers to questions raised on the creation of the Qur'an in a manner that exhaustively refutes the Mu'tazilis' opponents while remaining brief and pleasant to read. By posing as though he were writing to such a nanve tyro in theological inquiry, al-Jahiz avoids implying that the Mu'tazili doctrine on the createdness of the Qur'an is in need of being defended on logical grounds, while illustrating, in the person of the addressee, the bewilderment that theologians' carelessness has led to. The paper will thus be a literary, rather than theological, analysis of al-Jahiz's rhetorical techniques, focusing on the two above-mentioned texts and perhaps a few other essays. The theoretical underpinnings of the presentation derive in part from the thought of Mikhail Bakhtin and his concept of double-voicing.