al-Ma'arri

Abu al-'Ala' al-Ma'arri
al-Ma'arri byKahlil Gibran
Born	December 973 Ma'arrat al-Nu'man,HamdanidEmirate of Aleppo
Died	May 1057 (aged 83) Ma'arrat al-Nu'man,MirdasidEmirate of Aleppo
Era	Medieval era Islamic Golden Age
Region	Middle Eastern philosophy Arabic philosophy
School	Deism Pessimism Rationalism
Main interests	Poetry,skepticism,ethics,antinatalism
Notable ideas	Veganism

Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī(Arabic:أبو العلاء المعري,full nameأبو العلاء أحمد بن عبد الله بن سليمان التنوخي المعريAbū al-ʿAlāʾ Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaymān al-Tanūkhī al-Maʿarrī,also known under hisLatinnameAbulola Moarrensis;December 973 – May 1057)was a philosopher, poet, and writer fromMa'arrat al-Nu'man,Syria.Because of his controversiallyirreligiousworldview, he is known as one of the "foremostatheists"of his time according to Nasser Rabbat.

Born in the city of al-Ma'arra (present-dayMa'arrat al-Nu'man,Syria) during the laterAbbasid era,he became blind at a young age fromsmallpoxbut nonetheless studied in nearbyAleppo,then inTripoliandAntioch.Producing popular poems inBaghdad,he refused to sell his texts. In 1010, he returned to Syria after his mother began declining in health, and continued writing which gained him local respect.

Described as a "pessimisticfreethinker ", al-Ma'arri was a controversialrationalistof his time,rejecting superstition and dogmatism. His written works exhibit a fixation on the study of language and its historical development, known asphilology.He was pessimistic about life, describing himself as "a double prisoner" of blindness andisolation.Heattacked religious dogmas and practices,was equally critical and sarcastic aboutJudaism,Christianity,Islam,andZoroastrianism,and became adeist.He advocatedsocial justiceand lived asecluded,asceticlifestyle.He was avegan,known in his time as moral vegetarian, entreating: "Do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals / Or the white milk of mothers who intended its pure draught for their young."Al-Ma'arri held anantinatalist outlook,in line with his general pessimism, suggesting that children should not be born to spare them of the pains andsufferingof life.Saqt az-Zand,Luzūmiyyāt,andRisalat al-Ghufranare among of his main works.

Life

Abu al-'Ala' was born in December 973 in al-Ma'arra (present-dayMa'arrat al-Nu'man,Syria), southwest ofAleppo,whence hisnisba( "al-Ma'arri" ). At his time, the city was part of theAbbasid Caliphate,the third Islamic caliphate, during theIslamic Golden Age.He was a member of the Banu Sulayman, a notable family of Ma'arra, belonging to the largerTanukh tribe.One of his ancestors was probably the firstqadiof Ma'arra. The Tanukh tribe had formed part of the aristocracy in Syria for hundreds of years and some members of the Banu Sulayman had also been noted as good poets.He lost his eyesight at the age of four due tosmallpox.Later in his life he regarded himself as "a double prisoner", which referred to both this blindness and the general isolation that he felt during his life.

He started his career as a poet at an early age, at about 11 or 12 years old. He was educated at first in Ma'arra and Aleppo, then in Antioch and other Syrian cities. Among his teachers in Aleppo were companions from the circle ofIbn Khalawayh.This grammarian and Islamic scholar had died in 980 CE, when al-Ma'arri was still a child.Al-Ma'arri nevertheless laments the loss of Ibn Khalawayh in strong terms in a poem of hisRisālat al-Ghufrān.Al-Qiftireports that when on his way toTripoli,al-Ma'arri visited a Christian monastery nearLatakiawhere he listened toHellenistic philosophydebates that birthed his secularism, but other historians such asIbn al-Adimdeny that he had been exposed to any theology other than Islamic doctrine.

In 1004–05, al-Ma'arri learned that his father had died and, in reaction, wrote anelegywhere he praised his father.Years later he would travel toBaghdadwhere he became well received in the literary salons of the time, though he was a controversial figure.After the eighteen months in Baghdad, al-Ma'arri returned home for unknown reasons. He may have returned because his mother was ill, or he may have run out of money in Baghdad, as he refused to sell his works.He returned to his native town of Ma'arra in about 1010 and learned that his mother had died before his arrival.

He remained in Ma'arra for the rest of his life, where he opted for an ascetic lifestyle, refusing to sell his poems, living in seclusion and observing a strictmoral vegetarian diet.His personal confinement to his house was only broken one time when violence had struck his town.In that incident, al-Ma'arri went to Aleppo to intercede with itsMirdasidemir,Salih ibn Mirdas,to release his brother Abu'l-Majd and several other Muslim notables from Ma'arra who were held responsible for destroying a winehouse whose Christian owner was accused of molesting a Muslim woman.Though he was confined, he lived out his later years continuing his work and collaborating with others.He enjoyed great respect and attracted many students locally, as well as actively holding correspondence with scholars abroad.Despite his intentions of living a secluded lifestyle, in his seventies, he became rich and was the most revered person in his area.Al-Ma'arri never married and died in May 1057 in his home town.

Philosophy

Opposition to religion

Al-Ma'arri was askepticwho denounced superstition and dogmatism in religion. This, along with his general negative view on life, has made him described as a pessimisticfreethinker.Throughout his philosophical works, one of the recurring themes that he expounded upon at length was the idea that reason holds a privileged position over traditions. In his view, relying on the preconceptions and established norms of society can be limiting and prevent individuals from fully exploring their own capabilities.Al-Ma'arri taught that religion was a "fable invented by the ancients", worthless except for those who exploit the credulous masses.

Do not suppose the statements of the prophets to be true; they are all fabrications. Men lived comfortably till they came and spoiled life. The sacred books are only such a set of idle tales as any age could have and indeed did actually produce.

Al-Ma'arri criticized many of the dogmas ofIslam,such as theHajj,which he called "a pagan's journey".He rejected claims of anydivine revelationand his creed was that of a philosopher and ascetic, for whomreasonprovides a moral guide, andvirtueis its own reward.His secularist views included both Judaism and Christianity as well. Al-Ma'arri remarked thatmonksin theircloistersor devotees in their mosques were blindly following the beliefs of their locality: if they were born amongMagiansorSabiansthey would have become Magians or Sabians.Encapsulating his view on organized religion, he once stated: "The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: those with brains, but no religion, and those with religion, but no brains."

Asceticism

Al-Ma'arri was an ascetic, renouncing worldly desires and living secluded from others while producing his works. He opposed all forms of violence.In Baghdad, while being well received, he decided not to sell his texts, which made it difficult for him to live.This ascetic lifestyle has been compared to similar thought inIndiaduring his time.

Veganism

In al-Ma'arri's later years he chose to stop consuming meat and all other animal products (i.e., he became a practicingvegan). He wrote:

Do not unjustly eat fish the water has given up, and do not
desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals,
Or the white milk of mothers who intended its pure draught for
their young, not for noble ladies.
And do not grieve the unsuspecting birds by taking their eggs;
for injustice is the worst of crimes.
And spare the honey which the bees get industriously
from the flowers of fragrant plants;
For they did not store it that it might belong to others, nor did
they gather it for bounty and gifts.
I washed my hands of all this; and wish that I had perceived
my way before my hair went gray!

Antinatalism

Al-Ma'arri's fundamental pessimism is expressed in his antinatalist recommendation that no children should be begotten, so as to spare them the pains of life.In anelegycomposed by him over the loss of a relative, he combines his grief with observations on the ephemerality of this life:

Soften your tread. Methinks the earth's surface is but bodies of the dead,
Walk slowly in the air, so you do not trample on the remains of God's servants.

Al-Ma'arri's self-composedepitaph,on his tomb, states (in regard to life and being born): "This is my father's crime against me, which I myself committed against none."

Modern views

Al-Ma'arri is controversial even today as he was skeptical of Islam, the dominant religion of theArab world.In 2013, almost a thousand years after his death, theal-Nusra Front,a branch ofal-Qaeda,demolished a statue of al-Ma'arri during theSyrian civil war.The statue had been crafted by the sculptorFathi Muhammad.The motive behind the destruction is disputed; theories range from the fact that he was a heretic to the fact that he is believed by some to be related to theAssad family.

Works

An earlycollectionof his poems appeared asThe Tinder Spark(Saqṭ az-Zand;سقط الزند). The collection of poems included praise of people of Aleppo and theHamdanidrulerSa'd al-Dawla.It gained popularity and established his reputation as a poet. A few poems in the collection were about armour.A second, more original collection appeared under the titleUnnecessary Necessity(Luzūm mā lam yalzamلزوم ما لا يلزم), or simplyNecessities(Luzūmīyātاللزوميات). The title refers to how al-Ma'arri saw the business of living and alludes to the unnecessary complexity of the rhyme scheme used.

His third work is a work of prose known asThe Epistle of Forgiveness(Risalat al-Ghufranرسالة الغفران). The work was written as a direct response to the Arabic poetIbn al-Qarih,whom al-Ma'arri mocks for his religious views.In this work, the poet visitsparadiseand meets theArab poetsof thepagan period.This view is shared by Islamic scholars, who often argued that pre-Islamic Arabs are indeed capable of entering paradise.

Because of the aspect ofconversing with the deceasedin paradise, theRisalat al-Ghufranhas been compared to theDivine ComedyofDantewhich came hundreds of years after. The work has also been noted to be similar toIbn Shuhayd'sRisala al-tawabi' wa al-zawabi,though there is no evidence that al-Ma'arri was inspired by Ibn Shuhayd nor is there any evidence that Dante was inspired by al-Ma'arri.Algeriareportedly bannedThe Epistle of Forgivenessfrom the International Book Fair held inAlgiersin 2007.

Paragraphs and Periods(al-Fuṣūl wa al-Ghāyāt) is a collection of homilies. The work has also been called a parody of theQuran.Al-Ma'arri also composed a significant corpus ofverse riddles.

• 
  Saqt al-Zand
• 
  Risalat al-Gufran

Editions

• Risalat al-Ghufran, a Divine Comedy.Translated by G. Brackenbury 1943.
• The Epistle of Forgiveness: Volume One: A Vision of Heaven and Hell.Translated by Geert Jan Van Gelder and Gregor Schoeler. Library of Arabic Literature, New York University Press 2013.
• The Epistle of Forgiveness: Volume Two: Hypocrites, Heretics, and Other Sinners.Translated by Geert Jan Van Gelder and Gregor Schoeler. Library of Arabic Literature, New York University Press 2014.
• Those riddles of al-Maʿarrī that are cited inal-Ḥaẓīrī's twelfth-centuryKitāb al-Iʿjāz fī l-aḥājī wa-l-alghāzhave been edited as Abū l-ʿAlāˀ al-Maʿarrī,Dīwān al-alġāz, riwāyat Abī l-Maʿālī al-Ḥaẓīrī,ed. by Maḥmūd ʿAbdarraḥīm Ṣāliḥ (Riyadh [1990]).

See also

• Abbasid Caliphate
• Arabic literature
• Islamic Golden Age
• List of vegans
• Veganism

Sources

• Beeston, A. F. L.The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature.Cambridge University Press.
• Browne, Edward Granville (1999) [1906].A Literary History of Persia.Curzon.
• Glassé, Cyril (2001)."al-Ma'arrī, Abū-l-'Alā'".The New Encyclopedia of Islam.Introduction by Huston Smith. AltaMira Press.ISBN9780759101906.
• Hitti, Philip Khuri(1968).Islam, a Way of Life.University of Minnesota Press.ISBN9781452910406.
• Holt, P. M.; Lambton, Ann K. S.; Lewis, Bernard, eds. (1977)."Religion and Culture".The Cambridge History of Islam.Cambridge University Press.
• Khalidi, Tarif (1994).Arabic Historical Thought in the Classical Period.Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511583650.ISBN0-521-46554-0.
• Majid, Anouar (18 September 2007).A Call for Heresy: Why Dissent Is Vital to Islam and America.Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.ISBN978-0-8166-5127-6.
• Nicholson, Reynold Alleyne (2006).A Literary History of the Arabs.Kessinger Publishing.ISBN978-1-4286-3576-0.
• Smoor, P. (1984). "al-Ma'arri". In Gibb, H. A. R. (ed.).The Encyclopaedia of Islam.Vol. 3, Part 1. Brill. pp. 927–935.
• Smoor, Pieter (2006). Meri, Josef W.; Bacharach, Jere L. (eds.).Medieval Islamic Civilization.Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-96691-7.
• Watt, William Montgomery; Cachia, Pierre (1996).A History of Islamic Spain.Edinburgh University Press.ISBN978-0-7486-0847-8.
• Zayzafoon, Lamia Ben Youssef (2005).The Production of the Muslim Woman.Lexington Books.ISBN9780739110782.

External links

• Works by Al-Ma'arri in eBook formatStandard Ebooks
• Works by Al-Ma'arriatProject Gutenberg
• Works by Al-Ma'arriatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
• The Epistle of Forgiveness: A Vision of Heaven and Hell (Volume One),Abū Al ʿAlāʾ Al Maʿarrī
• Abu 'l-ʿAla al-Ma'arri's correspondence on vegetarianism, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1902, p. 289,byD. S. Margoliouth
• 37 of al-Ma'arri's poems(in English),posted by Humanistictexts.org
• The Luzumiyat