Al-Ma‘arr¯ı, a Syrian poet, is considered one of the
key figures in the history of Arabic literature. Blind
from childhood, ascetic, and skeptical, he was unwilling
to participate in the Arabic poetic traditions
of flattery or boasting panegyrics (praises to
a patron). He toiled in seclusion for years to produce
a body of technically innovative poetry, original
narrative prose, and criticism that won him
fame and honor both in his lifetime and beyond.
Born in Ma‘arra (hence his name), al-Ma‘arr¯ı
lost his sight to smallpox at age four but compensated
for the loss with his phenomenal memory for
books. He was educated in his home town and in
nearby Aleppo. Thus began a lifelong investigation
of Arabic poetics, grammar, and philology
that informed many of his poems.
Al-Ma‘arr¯ı’s prose and poetry reflect the pessimism
and misanthropy for which he became famous.
Contemptuous of all the heroic, romantic,
and nostalgic themes of traditional Arabic poetry,
he cultivated a tone that at times approaches despair.
Ironically, despite his constant refrain that
“My clothing is my shroud, my grave is my home;
my life is my fate, and for me death is resurrection”
(The Constraint of What is Not Compulsory), he
lived to a ripe old age in comfort and prosperity.
Although al-Ma‘arr¯ı’s philosophic writings
were obscure, perhaps to defend against charges of
heresy, he appears to have disbelieved in an afterlife,
favored cremation of the dead, and opposed
sex as sinful, even for the purpose of having children.
Critics attacked his book of moral and religious
admonitions, Paragraphs and Periods, a tour
de force of rhymed prose, as a parody of and al-
Ma‘arr¯ı’s attempt to imitate the style of the KORAN.
After early successes as a poet and scholar, the
writer spent an unsuccessful 18 months during his
30s trying to make his fortune in Baghdad.Unable
to assimilate himself into the court life of the Abbasid
capital, he retired in 1010 to his hometown,
where he remained the rest of his life, supporting
himself by teaching poetry.
Though many of al-Ma‘arr¯ı’s works cited by biographers
have not survived, a good deal of poetry,
belles lettres, prose, and criticism remains. His
most famous prose work is “The Epistle of Forgiveness”
(ca. 1033), which takes the form of a letter
to his friend Ibn al-Qarih and recounts the tale
of al-Qarih’s death and his subsequent journeys to
Paradise (where he converses with famed poet ALKHANS
¯A’) and hell (where he converses with
TARAFAH ‘AMR IBN AL-‘ABD and other poets). The
conversations within the text cover a wide range
of topics, including heresy and atheism.
Another unusual work is “Letters of a Horse
and Mule” in which a horse, a mule, and other animals
discuss philology as well as taxation, warfare,
and other topics.
Al-Ma‘arr¯ı collected three volumes of his own
poems in his lifetime. The first of them, The
Spark from the Fire-stick, includes a series of his
earliest poems. The second collection, On Coats
of Mail, contains poems about armor. The third
collection is his most celebrated, The Constraint
of What Is Not Compulsory, which includes more
than 1,500 poems. Most of these are written in a
rhyme scheme far more elaborate than required
by the rules of Arabic verse and are replete with
plays on words so complex that the poet had to
write a commentary on his own work. Al-
Ma‘arr¯ı’s pessimism and cynicism reach full expression
in this volume, with lines such as: “If
only a child died at its hour of birth and never
suckled from its mother in confinement. / Even
before it can utter a word, it tells her: Grief and
trouble is all you will get from me.” Despite the
outlook on life portrayed in his works, al-Ma‘arr¯ı
is remembered not only for the volume of work
he produced but also for his imagery and elaborate
style.
English Versions of Works by Abu¯ al-‘Ala¯ ’ al-
Ma‘arr¯ı
Arberry,A. J., ed. Arabic Poetry: A Primer for Students.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press,
1965.
Lichtenstadter, Ilse, ed. Introduction to Classical Arabic
Literature. New York: Twayne, 1974.
A Work about Abu¯ al-‘Ala¯ ’ al-Ma‘arrı¯
Irwin, Robert, ed. Night and Horses and the Desert.
Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2000, 31, 58,
203, 263, 315, 354.