All the World Is Awry: Al-Ma‛arri and the Luzumiyyat, Revisited

Description

Examines the thought of Abū al-‛Alā’ al-Ma‛arrī (973–1057 CE) within the broader context of the major trends in Arab Islamic political and intellectual history by the time of his flourishing. Free-thinking poet, grammarian, social critic, and satirist, Abū al-‛Alā’ al-Ma‛arrī (973–1057 CE) remains one of the more celebrated and intriguing personalities in the history of Arab Islamic civilization. Although the controversies surrounding his skepticism, cynicism, and anticlericalism have never been completely resolved, his more disquieting writings are commonly available in the Arab world, cited in standard histories of Arabic literature, and the subject of scholarly studies. Al-Ma‛arrī is universally recognized as a giant among the litterateurs of Islam, deservedly famous for the role that he played in the development of Arabic verse as a more serious vehicle of religious-political thought and social criticism. The centrality attributed to al-Ma‛arrī as innovator has been linked to a strain of inquiry that has been particularly paramount to Westerners: to what extent did al-Ma‛arrī and other unconventional thinkers stray from the course of mainstream Islamic thought? In this book, R. Kevin Lacey places al-Ma‛arrī within the broader context of Arab Islamic political and intellectual history up to the mid-eleventh century, and identifies the coherencies and incoherencies within his overall thought in an effort to determine the extent to which he deviated from his inherited faith. Al-Ma‛arrī and his like were hardly representative, and their imprint on their co-religionists may be questionable, but they must be taken into consideration in order to do full justice to the intellectual history of Islam. Contents Acknowledgments A Note on Transliteration Part One One The Man: A Bibliographical Sketch of Abū al-‛Alā’ al-Ma‛arrī Two The Milieu A. The Fāṭimids B. The ?amdanids and Mirdasids C. The Būyids (a.k.a. Buwayhids) Additional Geopolitical Groupings and States in the Islamicate World of the Ninth through the Tenth Centuries CE The Carmathians (Qarāmiṭah/القرامطة) Al-Zaydiyyah Shī‛ites The ‛Alawiyyah (Alawites), a.k.a. al-Nuṣayriyyah (Nuṣayrīs) The Ṣaffārids The Sāmānids The Ghaznavids (976–1186 CE) The Umayyads in Spain Part II. Major Socio-Intellectual Currents and Discourses in the Islamicate Community before and during the Age of al-Ma‛arrī Kalām/كلام Falsafah/فلسفة Al-Kindī (c. 801–73 CE) Al-Rāzī (d. 935 CE) Al-Fārābī (d. 950) Ibn Sīnā The Brethren of Purity or Sincere Brethren (إخوان الصفاء) Taṣawwuf/تصوف Sharī‛ah-Driven Ritual Piety/Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamā‛ah/أهل السنة والجماعة Adab Part Two Three The Medium: Reading and Interpreting Luzūm Mā Lā Yalzam in Light of Its Literary Character Transcending the Contradictions and Other Challenging Features of Luzūm Four The Message I. Humankind as Viewed in the Luzūm II. Humankind and God: Al-Ma‛arrī’s Religious Philosophy Part III. Humankind Interacting with Humankind: Al-Ma‛arrī’s Social and Political Views in Luzūm The Family Society in General Various Typically Influential Individuals in al-Ma‛arrī’s Society People of State Learned Class Part IV. Humankind and the Totality of Being: Al-Ma‛arrī’s Perception of the Make-Up and Dynamics of the Universe The Planets Part V. Humankind as It Ought to Be: Al-Ma‛arrī’s Ethics in the Luzūm Notes Principle Works Cited or Consulted Index