Abul Ala al Ma’arri: Risalat al Ghufran;

(The Epistle of Forgiveness) (1057)

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Abu al-Ala Aḥmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Sulayman al-Tanukhi al-Ma’arri, ( 973 – 1057) was a blind Arab philosopher, poet, and writer. Born in the city of Ma'arra, he studied in Aleppo, then in Tripoli and Antioch. Producing popular poems in Baghdad, he nevertheless refused to sell his texts. He advocated social justice and lived a secluded, ascetic lifestyle. He was a vegan. Al-Ma'arri wrote three main works that were popular in his time: The Tinder Spark, Unnecessary Necessity, and The Epistle of Forgiveness. He never married and died at the age of 83 in the city where he was born. His mentions of people of East Africa (=Zanj) is always in poems.

Taken from: Geert Jan Van Gelder; Classical Arabic Literature

 

He exclaims, there is no god but God. You were black and now you have become more dazzlingly white than camphor or camphire if you like.

Do you find that odd? After all, the poet says of some mortal being:

One mustard seed of light from him, with all

Black people mixed, would whiten all the blacks.

 

His statue in Aleppo Syria


Abu’l-Ala al-Ma'arri: Luzum Malam Yalzam (Necessities)

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Taken from: Der Neger in der Bildersprache der arabischen Dichter By Manfred Ullmann

 

Vol I p166

Do not come too close to the yellow (wine) who is the daughter of a white man, and do not approach the red one who is a child of the zanj.

Vol II p192

If a cloud comes up that night, with her flash of light you think of her as a zanj who has strayed.

Vol II p362

The wine is a Byzantine woman, which comes from zanj-like grapes and tastes a little like ginger.

 

Abu’l-Ala al-Ma'arri: Siqt al-Zand (The Arrows of Calumny) (d1057)

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Taken from: Der Neger in der Bildersprache der arabischen Dichter By Manfred Ullmann

 

Vol I 240

When the lightning flashes apart, you think the night is a wounded zanj.

Vol I 429

This night is a Zanjiyya bride who wears necklaces of (fake) pearls.

Vol I 430

(citing abul Hassan Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Tabataba al Alawi) 

I remember one night, the darkness of which did not delight. Then I thought I was at a zanj wedding.

Vol I 430

(the storm clouds are like piebald horses) or zanj women, holding golden rods in their right hands.

Vol II 545

In the heart of every dreaded (desert) good company gives me a friend who is connected in the night travel, whose characteristics are not exactly cheerful, namely a zanj in advanced age, whose head is greyed out and tied up, so that he can only rise with difficulty.

Vol II 657

I remember a night I was traveling while the crescent moon resembled a totem that came back to life after he died. When the stars shine, it is as if the night was a Zanjiyya girl with a belt of white shells, which represented (her husband).

Vol IV 1491

(The ravens that brush their feathers are) like a family of Zanj who are (afraid of) the grey hair and who are waving tweezers around among dark, attractive youth. They look for hair that resembles blossoms, but only find deep black (hair) that is not released to the (shepherd) who wants to send his animals to the pasture.

Note: My reason for adding so much poetry is that it gives a less racist picture then the philosophers give.