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Abu l-Ala al-Maarri- complementary readings
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ReemK10 (Paper Pills)
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Apr 06, 2016 04:07PM
Abu l-Ala al-Maarri- complementary readings
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ABU AL- ‘ALA' AL-MA’ARRI ARAB POET & PHILOSOPHER
EXTRAORDINAIRE
By Habeeb Salloum
“I think our world is not a place to rest,
But where a man may take his little ease,
Until the landlord whom he never sees
Gives that apartment to another guest.”
So wrote Abu al-‘Ala’ Ahmad ibn Abdallah al-Ma’arri (973-1057), Arab poet/philosopher extraordinaire in this verse translated by Henry Baerlein, in his The Diwan of Abu'l-ala. These words were not just lines of poetry but, rather, a vivid description of the life the last of the great medieval Arab poets.
to read more: http://ambassadors.net/archives/issue...
The Diwan of Abu'l-Alaby Henry Baerlein
[1909]
"There is no God save Allah!"—that is true,
Nor is there any prophet save the mind
Of man who wanders through the dark to find
The Paradise that is in me and you.--LXXXI
Abu al-'Alā Ahmad ibn 'Abd Allāh ibn Sulaimān al-Tanūkhī al-Ma'arri (b. 973, d. 1057) was a blind poet and philosopher. Born in Syria, he lost his sight at an early age due to smallpox. Although he spent most of his life in Syria in his hometown of Ma'arrat al-Numan, he also taught in Baghdad.
He was a skeptic and a rationalist, a keen observer of the human condition, and an advocate for the poor and lowly. Modern doctrinaire Muslims may not find this kind of critical thinking to their taste. But Abu'l-Ala stands out as one of the best thinkers of medieval Islam, and deserves to be better known. This work is composed of selections from his two collections of poetry, The Tinder Spark, and Unnecessary Necessity.
To read the text online:
http://sacred-texts.com/isl/daa/index...
The Online Books PageOnline Books by
Abu al-'Ala al-Ma'arri
(Abu al-'Ala al-Ma'arri, 973-1057)
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/...
Museum of Lost Objects: The unacceptable poetIn early 2013, Islamist militants in north-west Syria chose a peculiar target. They decapitated a statue of the 11th Century poet and philosopher Abu al-Alaa al-Maarri.
The statue of a turbaned man with glowering eyes, knotted eyebrows, and a robust beard used to sit near the central museum of Maarat al-Numan. It was twice life-sized and had been cast in bronze in the 1940s by a young Syrian sculptor, Fathi Mohammed.
The statue was not old, nor was it of great artistic value but the man it depicted was a remarkable figure, whose ideas and way of life were at odds with his time.
"Abu al-Alaa al-Maarri is regarded as one of the three foremost atheists in Islamic history," says Syrian art historian Nasser Rabbat. "The majority of Muslims would shun him."
To read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-3574...
If anyone has access to this, you might like to check out:Middle Eastern Manuscripts Online 1: Pioneer Orientalists
Title: Ḍawʾ al-saqṭ - ff. 144
Creator: Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī,d. 449/1057.
Date in Source: H. 1026[?]
Language: Arabic
Format: ff. 144.
Reference: Brockelmann, Carl. Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, G I, p. 255 Catalogus Codicum Arabicorum Bibl. Acad. Lugd., 639
Note: Commentary by the author on his Saqṭ al-zand: Ḍawʾ al-saqṭ. LoC NAF: Abū al-ʻAlāʼ al-Maʻarrī, 973-1057. Electronic resource. Leiden : Brill, 2011. (Middle Eastern Manuscripts
Online 1: Pioneer Orientalists ; SRG-181)
Provenance: Or. 112
http://primarysources.brillonline.com...
and this:
Title: Luzūm mā lā yalzamu - pp. 263
Creator: Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī,d. 449/1057. Ibn al-Jawālīqī.
Date in Source: Before H. 496.
Language: Arabic
Format: pp. 263.
Reference: Brockelmann, Carl. Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, G I, p. 255 Catalogus Codicum Arabicorum Bibl. Acad. Lugd., 642 S. M. Stern. Oriens, 7(1954) p. 339 et sqq.
Note: Ibn al-Jawālīqī's copy. LoC NAF: Abū al-ʻAlāʼ al-Maʻarrī, 973-1057. Electronic resource. Leiden : Brill, 2011. (Middle Eastern Manuscripts Online 1: Pioneer Orientalists ; SRG-170)
Provenance: Or. 100
Five essential works of Arabic literatureThe Epistle of Forgiveness by Abu Al Alaa Al Maarri
This celebrated freethinker, ascetic, humanist and committed vegetarian lived in Syria during the 11th century. The head of his statue in his home town of Ma’arrat al Numan was recently chopped off, possibly because he challenged accepted doctrine with a passion. He was the Voltaire of his time.
‘All religions err’, he says. In fact, there are only two sects in the whole world: 'One, man intelligent without religion, the second, religious without intellect'. In the epistle, al Maarri considers the works and thoughts of some of the great poets and thinkers who preceded him. With his great erudition and mastery of language, coupled with a biting sense of irony, he challenges and refutes their views and is critical of many aspects of accepted orthodox belief. At one point, in what is a clear precursor of Dante’s Divine Comedy, he makes a journey to paradise where he meets the wine-drinking, womanising pagan poets of the pre-Islamic period, and then to hell where he encounters the religious scholars.
Once banned in Algeria and decapitated almost a thousand years after his birth in his home town, Abu Al Alaa Al Maarri is widely read in the Arab world, and many Arabs acknowledge him as one of their greatest literary figures. His influence has been enormous, but so little known in the modern West that we have little idea how far ahead of his time he really was.
The latest English version of The Epistle of Forgiveness has just won the Sheikh Hamad Translation Prize.
to read about the others:
https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices...
Fascianting!"The Golden Ode of Imrul Qays - Not only did these themes, techniques and forms continue to reside in the core of Arabic poetic tradition, they are the precursor of the ode and sonnet we know so well in our own. Celebrated and developed by the Moors in Al Andalus and brought into France by the troubadours, the sonnet was perfected in English by Shakespeare – a thousand-year literary journey that began in the wild deserts of central Arabia."
Yes, perfect for Shakespeare 400!!!
The The Prophet of Khalil Gibran as one of the five essential works of Arabic lit?? Not so sure!Granted he's my namesake, and granted my father was a big fan of Gibran so he named me after him, so would it be heresy were I to disagree with the greatness of The Prophet in the spirit of Al-Ma'arri?
By the way, the last two seem to have been selected for reasons other than the fact of their being essential. One can certainly come up with a better 'list of five' not motivated by politics. Though about Al-Ma'arri and Imrul Qays there's no doubt.
I think Khalil Gibran's The Prophet was chosen for its status as a bestseller and its being so well known. We may also think of Gibran as a starting point for people becoming interested in Arab poetry.Interesting about your name. Reminds me of Khalil Gibran Muhammad, the director of the Schomburg.
Yes, very influential in popularising modern Arabic literature. But, correct me if wrong, didn't Gibran write The Prophet originally in English? So it's not a translation right!
Yes, you're right. The article does say that. The idioms are Arabic.
Note: I haven't read this , just a quick peek ( spoiler alert) Just posting tbr when readers have finished reading the epistle.
The Oblivion of Adam
By Abdelfattah Kilito November 1, 2016
The dead play a sly trick on the living: in dying, they pass on the duty of interpreting what they thought, of arguing over what they said—or might have said, or even what they never said. This is how we get the fantasy, as stubborn as it is unrealizable, of interrogating the dead directly and without an interpreter. To meet them, just once, and to ask them to clarify what they’d said—or even, in certain cases, to ask if they said it at all. If only they would speak, all outstanding claims would be resolved, the contradictions smoothed over, the ambiguities explained. Confronted with the light of truth, all men would agree and no argument would be possible.
This fantasy has produced an entire genre of literature: the dialogue with the dead. One example of the genre in Arabic is The Epistle of Forgiveness (Risalat al-ghufran) by the eleventh century poet al-Ma‘arri, which narrates a journey to the life.
To read more:
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2...
Note: I haven't read this , just a quick peek ( spoiler alert) Just posting tbr when readers have finished reading the epistle.
The Oblivion of Adam
By Abdelfattah Kilito November 1, 2016
The dead play a sly trick on the living: in dying, they pass on the duty of interpreting what they thought, of arguing over what they said—or might have said, or even what they never said. This is how we get the fantasy, as stubborn as it is unrealizable, of interrogating the dead directly and without an interpreter. To meet them, just once, and to ask them to clarify what they’d said—or even, in certain cases, to ask if they said it at all. If only they would speak, all outstanding claims would be resolved, the contradictions smoothed over, the ambiguities explained. Confronted with the light of truth, all men would agree and no argument would be possible.
This fantasy has produced an entire genre of literature: the dialogue with the dead. One example of the genre in Arabic is The Epistle of Forgiveness (Risalat al-ghufran) by the eleventh century poet al-Ma‘arri, which narrates a journey to the life.
To read more:
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2...
Very cool! al-Maʿarrī’s verse in song in London | Library of Arabic Literaturehttp://www.libraryofarabicliterature....
You're very welcome Ejaz!
