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Abul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri (973–1057) was a blind Arab philosopher, poet, and writer. Born in modern day Maarrat al-Nuʿman, Syria, he studied at Aleppo, Tripoli and Antioch. Producing popular poems in Baghdad, he nevertheless refused to sell his texts. In 1010, he returned to Syria after his mother began declining in health, and continued writing which gained him local respect.
Described as a "pessimistic freethinker", Al-Maʿarri was a controversial rationalist of his time, citing reason as the chief source of truth. He was pessimistic about life describing himself as "a double prisoner" of blindness and
Abul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri (973–1057) was a blind Arab philosopher, poet, and writer. Born in modern day Maarrat al-Nuʿman, Syria, he studied at Aleppo, Tripoli and Antioch. Producing popular poems in Baghdad, he nevertheless refused to sell his texts. In 1010, he returned to Syria after his mother began declining in health, and continued writing which gained him local respect.
Described as a "pessimistic freethinker", Al-Maʿarri was a controversial rationalist of his time, citing reason as the chief source of truth. He was pessimistic about life describing himself as "a double prisoner" of blindness and isolation. He attacked the dogmas of religion and rejected Islam. He was equally sarcastic towards the religions of Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians. He advocated social justice, and lived a secluded, ascetic lifestyle. He was a strict vegetarian, writing "do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals." Al-Maʿarri held an anti-natalist view, in line with his general pessimism, suggesting that children should not be born to spare them of the pains of life.
Al-Maʿarri wrote three main works that were popular in his time. Among his works are "The Tinder Spark", "Unnecessary Necessity", and "The Epistle of Forgiveness" which may be considered a precursor to Dante's Divine Comedy. Al-Maʿarri never married and died at the age of 83 in the city where he was born, Maarrat al-Nuʿman. In 2013, a statue of Al-Maʿarri located in Syria was beheaded by jihadists from the Al Nusra Front. Despite controversy about his unorthodox views, Al-Maʿarri is sometimes regarded as one of the greatest classical Arabic poets.
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Syrian Arab Republic