MA'ARRI, AL-

born December 973, Ma'arrat an-Nu'man, near Aleppo, Syria died May 1057, Ma'arrat an-Nu'man in full Abu Al-'ala' Ahmad Ibn 'abd Allah Al-ma'arri great Arab poet, known for his virtuosity and for the originality and pessimism of his vision. Al-Ma'arri was a descendant of the Tanukh tribe. A childhood disease left him virtually blind. He studied at the Syrian cities of Aleppo, Antioch, and Tripoli and soon began his literary career, supported by a small private income. His early poems were collected in Saqt az-zand (The Tinder Spark), which gained great popularity. After about two years in Baghdad, al-Ma'arri returned to northern Syria in 1010, partly because of his mother's ill health. In Baghdad he had been well received at first in prestigious literary salons; but when he refused to sell his panegyrics, he was unable to find a dependable patron. He renounced material wealth and retired to a secluded dwelling, living there on a restrictive diet. Al-Ma'arri enjoyed respect and authority locally, and many students came to study with him. He also maintained an active correspondence. Al-Ma'arri wrote a second, more original collection of poetry, Luzum ma lam yalzam (Unnecessary Necessity), or Luzumiyat (Necessities), referring to the unnecessary complexity of the rhyme scheme. The skeptical humanism of these poems was also apparent in Risalat al-ghufran (Eng. trans. by G. Brackenbury, Risalat ul Ghufran, a Divine Comedy, 1943), in which the poet visits paradise and meets his predecessors, heathen poets who have found forgiveness. These later works aroused some Muslim suspicions. Al-Fusul wa al-ghayat (Paragraphs and Periods), a collection of homilies in rhymed prose, has even been called a parody of the Qur'an. Although an advocate of social justice and action, al-Ma'arri suggested that children should not be begotten, in order to spare future generations the pains of life.