Abu'L-'Ala Al-Ma'Arri (973–1057)

Arab poet and freethinker

The renowned Arab poet and philologist Abu'l-'Ala lost most of his sight to smallpox in his fourth year and was blind as a youth. His memory developed well, and he retained huge amounts of Arabic literature. Abu'l-'Ala took up the role of blind poet, having a tiny pension for himself and his sighted attendant. When that income failed, he moved to Baghdad and joined literary circles there, managing briefly to earn a precarious living from writing and public recitation of verses. While his talents were appreciated, they did not save him from some quarrels and humiliations. Within two years, he had returned to Ma'arrat and resumed his life there, in 1010. Extant correspondence shows him active in literary affairs and teaching. As his teeth began to drop out, he complained of his own mispronunciation, leading to his amanuensis writing mistakenly. Abu'l-'Ala actively courted controversy with unorthodox religious views, even writing a book that could be considered as attempting to rival the Qur'an.