The Luzumiyat of Abu'l-Ala

The Luzumiyat of Abu'l-Ala - Selected from his Luzum ma la Yalzam and Suct us-Zand

When Christendom was groping amid the superstitions of the Dark Ages, and the Norsemen were ravaging the western part of Europe, and the princes of Islam were cutting each others throats in the name of Allah and his Prophet, Abul-Alal-Maarri was waging his bloodless war against the follies and evils of his age. He attacked the superstitions and false traditions of law and religion, proclaiming the supremacy of the mind; he hurled his trenchant invectives at the tyranny, the bigotry, and the quackery of his times, asserting the supremacy of the soul; he held the standard of reason high above that of authority, fighting to the end the battle of the human intellect. An intransigeant with the exquisite mind of a sage and scholar, his weapons were never idle. But he was, above all, a poet; for when he stood before the eternal mystery of Life and Death, he sheathed his sword and murmured a prayer. Abul-Alal-Maarri,1 the Lucretius of Islam, the Voltaire of the East, was born in the spring of the year 973 A.D., in the obscure village of Maarrah,2 [12]which is about eighteen hours journey south of Halab (Aleppo). And instead of Ahmad ibn Abdallah ibn Sulaiman ut-Tanukhi (of the tribe of Tanukh), he was called Abul-Ala (the Father of the Sublime), by which patronymic of distinction he is popularly known throughout the Arabic speaking world. When a boy, Abul-Ala was instructed by his father; and subsequently he was sent to Halab, where he pursued his studies under the tutelage of the grammarian Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn us-Sad. His literary proclivity was evinced in his boyhood, and he wrote verse, we are told, before he was ten. Of these juvenile pieces, however, nothing was preserved. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 50457
Author: Abu al-Ala al-Maarri, 973-1057
Release Date: Nov 14, 2015
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Translator: Rihani, Ameen Fares, 1876-1940