Abu l'Al al-Maarri

He was born in the family of a lawyer and philologist in the Syrian city of Maarret-en-Nuuman near Aleppo . Already in the fourth year of his life he lost his sight due to smallpox ^[5] , which, however, did not prevent him from acquiring a huge supply of philological knowledge and writing more than 30 works of various contents: poems, treatises on metrics, grammar, lexicography, etc. He wrote poetry started at an early age (11 or 12 years).

He was educated in the cultural centers of Syria and Mesopotamia - Aleppo, Tripoli, Antioch, Baghdad and Damascus. On his way to Tripoli, he visited a Christian monastery near Latakia, where he listened to the debate on ancient philosophy. He began his career as a learned philologist and author of laudatory odes , imitating the style of al-Mutanabbi , whom he considered his teacher. These odes make up a significant part of al-Maarri's first collection, entitled Sakt-al-Zand (Sparks of Flint, Sakt al-Zand, published in Bulak 1286 hijri (1908); Cairo 1304 hijra (1926); Beirut , 1884 ). It was a “high” genre for the poet who was beginning at that time; but the career of the court poet did not correspond to the personality of Abul Al, who later claimed that "he never praised people for the mercenary purpose." Independence of judgment and proud disposition did not allow him to receive patrons among the authorities and a position in the cultural centers of the caliphate ; moreover, he refused to sell his texts for money.

In 1010, Abul-Ala, after an 18-month stay in Baghdad, returned home to Syria to care for his sick mother, who, however, died before his arrival. From that time he led a closed life, "shutting himself up in three prisons: bodies, blindness and loneliness." Surrounded by crowds of students and universal respect, he lived very modestly, on the income from his lessons. His austerities extended to food - he was a convinced vegetarian , which also corresponded to his rejection of any violence and the refusal to "steal from nature." Being a supporter of social justice, he transferred the surplus of his income to the needy.

Abul al-Ala was attacked for freethinking , but life in the provincial Maar and extraordinary fame protected him from serious persecution . Of the most prominent philosophical and literary works of Abul Al, it is necessary to note a large collection of poems “Luzum ma la yalzam” (“The need for what was not necessary”, “Luzûm mâ lâ jalzam”, published by Bombay , 1313 hijri, Cairo, 1309 ) and “Risalat al-Gufran” (“Message of Mercy”).

The title of the first refers to the rule of rhyme, which the poet voluntarily followed (the identity of the consonants in the previous rhyme syllable), and a number of new moral requirements set forth in these verses . The work is a collection of philosophical poems that are widely known in the east. In it, al-Maarri preaches tolerance, scourges superstition, the pride of the clergy and worship of authority, holds the principles of selfless morality, which opposes the beginning of activity, and in his contempt for the world comes to the denial of marriage.

In the second work, anticipating Dante ’s Divine Comedy , he gives fantastic and crafty information (in the style of Lucian ) about life and conversations in the afterlife of Jahili poets supposedly pardoned by Allah to “ Zindiki ” - freethinkers , heretics - their views and teachings.

Among the other works of al-Maarri, the “Paragraphs and periods” (Al-Fuṣūl wa al-ghāyāt) that have not reached us stand out. Apparently this was a book in the form of Quranic revelations that set forth his teaching. Of the remaining works (about 60), besides letters , almost nothing remained.

In two of his treatises, Maari appeared as a philosopher : in the Message of the Angels and in the Message of Mercy (in another translation, the Message of the Kingdom of Forgiveness). In them, Abul al-Ala expresses his main ideas: distrust of life (it is better to exist in a strong spirit outside the body), in power and authority, intolerance of lies, injustice, hypocrisy and stupidity. In a sense, he ridicules philosophy itself, saying that no doctrine matches the course of real life.

More often than not, Maari discusses fate and time , which are inconceivable and which govern all things on Earth. Despite such fatalism, Abul al-Ala recognized a person’s right to free choice, and therefore responsibility for his actions. The moral content of his teachings was the acquisition of personal piety , but not by strict observance of the laws of Islam , but "abstinence from the commission of evil." For him, reason stood in a higher place than faith. He remained a monotheist, but did not recognize existing religions and did not believe in the afterlife; I was not afraid to call religion “fables invented by the ancients”, beneficial only to those who exploit the gullible masses. In 2013, the statue of al-Maarri jihadists ( Front al-Nusra ) cut off his head.

• "The need for what was not necessary." - A collection of poems.
• The Message of Mercy ( 1033 , 1903 edition).
• In Russian translation:
  • Poems, M., 1971 ;
  • “Message of the Angels” (translation 1932 ).
  • Sparks of flint / Per. A. Tarkovsky

• Abu l'Al al-Maarri. Poems. / Per. A. Tarkovsky - M., Fiction, 1979 .
• Abu l'Al al-Maarri. Favorites. - M., Fiction, 1990 , ISBN 5-280-01250-5 .

• Hamriyat

• Krachkovsky I. Yu. Selected Works, vols. 1-2. M.-L., 1955-1956.
• Krymsky A.E. Arabic literature in essays and samples. M., 1911.
• Maarry // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Shidfar B. Ya. Abu-l-Al-Al-Maarri. M., 1985.
• Shiroyan S.G. The great Arab poet and thinker Abul al-Al al-Maarri. M., 1957.

• B. Shidfar. Abu l'Alya - The Great Blind Man of Maarra

The article is based on the materials of the Literary Encyclopedia of 1929-1939 .