Abu al-Ala al-Maarri
- Died
- 449 AH
- Born in
- Maarrat al-Numan
Abu al-Ala al-Maarri (363–449 AH / 973–1057 CE) was an Arab poet, philologist, and ascetic from Ma'arrat al-Nu'man in northern Syria, renowned for his philosophical verse collection Luzum ma la yalzam and his early diwan Saqt al-zand .
Lineage and early life
He was Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Sulayman ibn Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Tanukhi al-Maarri, belonging to the Banu Sulayman family of the Tanukh tribe, an established house of judges, scholars, and poets in Ma'arrat al-Nu'man . His grandfather Sulayman had served as judge of Ma'arrat al-Nu'man and Homs, and his father Abd Allah was a poet and scholar .
Abu al-Ala was born in Ma'arrat al-Nu'man in Rabi' al-Awwal 363 AH, with specific reports placing his birth on Friday shortly before sunset, either three nights after the start or three nights before the end of the month . In his early childhood—when he was three or four years old, during the year 367 AH—he contracted smallpox, which caused him to lose his eyesight . His left eye was destroyed and a white film covered his right eye; he later recalled that he could remember only the color red, having been dressed in a safflower-dyed red garment during his illness . He composed poetry by the age of eleven or twelve .
Education and travels
Al-Maarri received his initial training in Arabic grammar and lexicography from his father in Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, and later studied under Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Sa'd al-Nahwi in Aleppo, as well as students of Ibn Khalawayh and the Banu Kawthar . In Hadith, he heard a single juz' transmitted by Yahya ibn Mis'ar al-Tanukhi on the authority of Abu Arubah al-Harrani . He also traveled to Tripoli to access its endowed book collections and passed through Latakia .
In 398 AH (or 399 AH), al-Maarri journeyed to Baghdad, where he resided for one year and seven months . There, literary circles received his poetry collection Saqt al-zand, and he interacted with prominent figures, including al-Sharif al-Murtada and the grammarian Ali ibn Isa al-Raba'i .
Seclusion and students
Upon returning to Ma'arrat al-Nu'man in 400 AH, al-Maarri entered lifelong seclusion in his home, adopting the sobriquet rahin al-mahbisayn ("the hostage of the two prisons"—his home and his blindness) . He practiced strict asceticism, living modestly off an endowment income of roughly thirty dinars a year, half of which he paid to his servant . He wore coarse cotton clothing, slept on felt, subsisted mainly on lentils and figs, remained celibate, and refrained entirely from eating meat and animal products for forty-five years out of a conviction against harming living beings .
Despite his isolation, students and scholars traveled from various regions to study literature, philology, and poetry with him . Among those who transmitted from him were Abu al-Qasim Ali ibn al-Muhassin al-Tanukhi, al-Khatib al-Tibrizi, and Ghalib ibn Isa al-Ansari .
Scholarly reception and theological controversies
Biographers recognized al-Maarri as a peerless master of Arabic lexicography and grammar, gifted with extraordinary memory and sharp intellect . However, his theological beliefs were a subject of intense controversy among traditionalist scholars. Critics accused him of heresy (zandaqa), philosophical skepticism, and holding Brahmin-like views regarding animals, pointing to heterodox themes in his writings, such as his prose work Risalat al-ghufran . Others, including Ibn al-Adim, defended his reputation, while some biographical accounts noted reports that he repented of doubtful statements near the end of his life .
Death
Al-Maarri died in Ma'arrat al-Nu'man in Rabi' al-Awwal 449 AH / May 1057 CE, with reports placing his death on Friday, the 2nd or 3rd of the month . He was buried in the courtyard of one of his family's residences in the western quarter of the town, where eighty-four poets gathered at his grave to deliver elegies . He instructed that the following verse be inscribed on his tomb :
هذا جَنَاهُ أَبِي عَلَيَّ ... وَمَا جَنَيْتُ عَلَى أَحَدِ (This is my father's crime against me, and I committed no crime against anyone.)
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List of Works
Risalat al-Ghufran (The Epistle of Forgiveness) is a classic work of Arabic prose presented as a fictional journey through the afterlife combined with literary and theological commentary.
Risalat al-Malaika (The Epistle of the Angels) is an Arabic literary and grammatical treatise that addresses complex morphological questions through an imaginative dialogue with angels in the afterlife.
Al-Lamiʿ al-ʳAzizi Sharh Diwan al-Mutanabbi is an extensive commentary on the poetic collection of the Arab poet al-Mutanabbi, arranged alphabetically according to the letter of the rhyme and offering detailed grammatical, lexical, and semantic analyses.
Muajiz Ahmad (The Miracle of Ahmad) is a literary commentary on the Diwan of the poet Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi, arranged sequentially according to poetic themes to explicate verses, clarify rare vocabulary, and analyze poetic meanings and rhetorical features.
Risalat al-Sahil wa al-Shajih (The Epistle of the Neigher and the Brayer) is an allegorical literary epistle presenting political, social, and literary commentary through the dialogue of talking animals.
al-Fusul wal-Ghayat (The Chapters and Rhymed Endings) is an Arabic rhymed prose work dedicated to the glorification of God, ascetic exhortations, and linguistic erudition.