The Diwan of Abu'l-Ala
Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri
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Description
Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri, a blind Syrian poet who died over a thousand years ago, filled his Diwan with rhymed meditations on fate and folly. He was a skeptic in a religious age. His verses distrust clerics, pity the credulous, and urge doing no harm to any living thing; he himself lived as a strict vegetarian.
Poems in the collection turn over death, hypocrisy, ambition, and the vanity of sects that kill over doctrine. The voice is bleak and brilliant at once, funny in its contempt and tender toward animals and outcasts. English readers meet a freethinker from the medieval Arab world who sounds startlingly modern.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri |
|---|---|
| COLLECTION | BOOKS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 58 KB |
| LICENSE | Project Gutenberg License |
| RIGHTS | PUBLIC DOMAIN |
| SOURCE | Project Gutenberg |