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 other's throats in the name of Allah and his Prophet, Abu'l-Ala'l-Ma'arri 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.

Ameen Rihani (1876-1940) was an influential Arab-American thinker, writer and political activist, and was one of the most prominent humanist intellectuals of the twentieth century. He was born in Freike, Lebanon, and emigrated to the United States at the age of 12. He was recognized in his time as a leading figure in the world of Arab-American literature, a pioneer of the mahjar literary movement (Arabic Lebanese migration literature) and of contemporary Arabic prose poetry. A prolific writer, he published nearly 30 books in English alone. In his writing and political activism, Rihani's prime concern was engagement and mutual respect between the Arab world and the West - a concern which bears striking relevance to global affairs today. Undertaking a comprehensive reading of Rihani's Arabic and English published works, including his creative writings, essays, correspondence, and historical and travel books, Nijmeh Hajjar examines the dialectical link between Rihani's life experiences in the Arabworld, Europe and the USA with his ideas and activism. The book highlights Rihani's progressive secular humanist vision, his concerns about the need for Arab societies to achieve progress, liberal democracy and social justice, and his emphasis upon a mutual respect between the Arab world and the West - particularly the USA, Great Britain and France. This fascinating illustration of an Arab-American encounter contributes to post- and neo-colonial discourse and provides a balancing counterpoint to the predominant ideological 'clash of civilisations' paradigms. The Politics and Poetics of Ameen Rihani furthers our understanding of the Arab-Islamic world and its relationship with the West - which remains one of the most important issues of our times.

DIWAN OF ABU'L- 'ALA AL-MA'ARRI Translation & Introduction Paul Smith CONTENTS: The Life and Works of al Ma'arri, The Ruba'i & Qit'a, Ghazal & Qasida: Form, Use, History. Abu'l- 'Ala al-Ma'arri was born in Ma'arra, south of Aleppo in Syria in 973 A.D. He achieved fame as one of greatest of Arab poets. Al-Ma'arri was stricken with smallpox when four and became blind. His early poems in ruba'i form gained great popularity as did his other poems. As he grew older, he was able to travel to Aleppo, Antioch and other Syrian cities. Al-Ma'arri spent 18 months at Baghdad, then the centre of learning and poetry, leaving to return to his native town. There he created the Luzumiyyat, a famous collection of 1592 poems. On return, his presence in al-Ma'arri drew many people who came to hear him lecture on poetry and rhetoric. In his passionate hatred of the vile world and all the material manifestations of life, he was like a dervish dancing in sheer bewilderment; a holy man, indeed, melting in tears before the distorted image of Divinity. In his aloofness, as in the purity of his spirit, the ecstatic negations of Abu'l-Ala can only be translated in terms of the Sufi's creed. In his raptures, shathat, he was as distant as Ibn al-'Arabi; and in his bewilderment, heirat, he was as deeply intoxicated as Ibn al-Farid. If others have symbolized the Divinity in wine, he symbolized it in Reason, which is the living oracle of the Soul; he has, in a word, embraced Divinity under the cover of a philosophy of extinction. Here is a large selection of poems in all the forms he composed in the correct rhyme and meaning. Selected Bibliography. Appendix: Luzumiyat of Abu'l-Ala'l-Ma'arri, Rendered Into English By Ameen Rihani Large Format Paperback 7" x 10." 224 pages. Paul Smith (b. 1945) is a poet, author and translator of over 80 books of Sufi poets of the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages... including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Baba Farid, Rahman Baba, Lalla Ded, Omar Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Bulleh Shah and many others, as well as poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children's books and 12 screenplays.

This companion provides information on the lives and works of about 150 authors who write primarily in Arabic, covering the first known works of Arabic literature in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D. to the present day. While concentrating on literary authors, writers from the fields of history, geography, and philosophy are also represented. The individuals represented were chosen primarily from the Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature. Among the major authors are Najib Mahfuz, the 1988 Nobel laureate; Nawal Saadawi, the Egyptian physician who is the leading female literary author in the Arab world and the most frequently translated into English; Abu al-Ala' al-Ma'arri, the 11th century poet whose verses are taught to every Arab schoolchild; and Avicenna, the great physician and philosopher, transmitter and interpreter of Aristotle, whose work on medicine was long the standard not only in the Middle East but also (in Latin translation) in Europe. In addition, entries will be included for the anonymous romances so common in Arabic literature, such as The Arabian Nights, a cycle of stories perhaps even better known in the West than in the Arab world. Interest in the history and culture of the Arab world at U.S. universities has taken a quantum leap since the events of September 11, 2001. In this book, the author demonstrates that at least three major, distinct literary and cultural traditions are included within the fields of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies—Arabic, Persian, and Turkic. The Arabic tradition is the oldest, largest, and most widely dispersed. Undergraduate courses in Arabic literature and culture are now being taught at both lower- and upper-levels at many universities. Such courses are often used by undergraduates to fulfill basic educational requirements for their degrees. Students in such courses often have difficulty finding information on Arab writers, and this volume fills the void.

Vol. for 1958 includes "Anthology of poems from the seventeen previously published Braithwaite anthologies."

This book is a selection of works by Abu'l-Ala Al-Maarri, known for his atheist and antinatalist views. He was also a strong supporter of veganism, which he proclaimed in his poems. The following lines are the example: "Do not unjustly eat fish the water has given up, And do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals, or the white milk of mothers who intended its pure draught for their young, not noble ladies."