ABŪ 'I-'ALĀ al-MA'ARRĪ. Born to Muslim parents in al-Ma'arrah or Ma'arrat an-Nu'mān (Syria) in 973, and died in 1058. He is renowned as a poet and thinker; he lost his sight at the age of four.
Among his works, the best known are a collection of youthful poems (Saqt az-Zand) and another of poems from his mature years (Luzūmiyyāt), celebrated for their pessimism; but the most interesting is the Risālat al-Ghufrān, or Epistle of Forgiveness, nowadays indicated among the sources of the Divina Commedia. Asin Palacios observes that the manner in which the earthly traveller begins his conversation with the souls in paradise, the fact that he finds them there divided into groups, and the criterion according to which God admits them into it, are identical in both works. Moreover, Dante’s encounter with Pia, Piccarda, Cunizza, Virgilio, Adamo, and Matelda has analogies and correspondences in the aforesaid epistle. It should be noted, however, that, unlike Dante, A. is an unbeliever, and the epistle is a parody of Muslim eschatology. He is believed also to have parodied the Qur’ān; but on this matter see A. Fischer, Der « Koran » des Abū 'I-'Alā al-Ma'arrī, Leipzig 1942.