
Al-Maʿarri - istinetz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ma%CA%BFarri
======
aliswe
This person was one of the most knowledgeable ever in arabic. He was blind,
and one time he was invited to a wedding. Being blind, he stumbled and fell on
a person in the ceremony. The person then proclaimed: Who is this dog?!

Al-Ma'arri famously replied: The dog is the one who does not know 70 different
words for "dog".

And that, my friends, is the challenge or insult of al-ma'arri, as it's widely
known in arabic, ma'arra al-ma'arri.

As-Suyuti, the incredible polymath, wanted to disassociate from this insult,
and collected all the names he knew of "dog", in rhyme, and called it "the
disassociation from the insult of al-ma'arri", or in arabic, tabarri min
ma'arra al-ma'arri.

Here's a recitation of it on yt:
[https://youtu.be/wbS6es1lOxU](https://youtu.be/wbS6es1lOxU)

I believe he only collected something like 65, though.

An academic recently did a doctorate (I believe) and collected all the words
he could find for "dog", having access to vastly more literature from both the
aravian west and east.

I believe he got 67.

~~~
xamuel
I must be missing something, but isn't that a petty, arbitrary, and stupid
"challenge"? Of course the person at the wedding should not have called the
blind man a dog, but the response just lowers Al-Ma'arri to the same level. It
would be one thing if he said, "The dog is the one who calls another man a
dog" (which would have the added benefit of being a funny self-deprecating
paradox). Instead, he gloats about trivia? I didn't realize they had fedoras
in 10th century Arabia.

~~~
mlevental
what you're missing is that this an apocryphal story that dates back so far
that it's now part of the vernacular of a culture. think about that - humor
and wit and intellectual bravado were completely different 1000 years ago, let
alone how different they might be today in arab culture vs western culture.
furthermore note that "fedora wearers" today are lampooned because they
speak/behave anachronistically. what you're doing is akin to making fun of
someone wearing a fedora during the time when fedoras were actually worn!

~~~
ncmncm
And furthermore, the people being called "fedoras" are wearing _trilbys_.

Humphrey Bogart wore a fedora.

------
ignoramous
To contrast with Al-Ma'arri, there was a rather mysterious group of Iraqi
polymath "free-thinkers" (Ikhwan us-Safa) [0] that wrote an encyclopedia to
steer Muslims on to what they thought was the Islamic way of philosophy and
life [1].

The encyclopedia is rather very central to Ismaili sect of Shi'a Islam, and
has refreshingly liberal and unorthodox views esposuing Neo-Platonism,
Gnosticism, Mysticism, Hermeticism, and Eclecticism. I think, Avicenna (father
of Modern Medicine) was a follower of the philosophy embed in these books.

The quote I like the most (also highlighted in the Wikipedia article):

> _"...to shun no science, scorn any book, or to cling fanatically to no
> single creed. For [their] own creed encompasses all the others and
> comprehends all the sciences generally. This creed is the consideration of
> all existing things, both sensible and intelligible, from beginning to end,
> whether hidden or overt, manifest or obscure... in so far as they all derive
> from a single principle, a single cause, a single world, and a single
> Soul."_

For the curious, I highly recommend this concise treatment of the gist of
what's a 52 (some claim 53) book encyclopedia on Math, Science, Philosophy,
and Theology: [https://www.al-islam.org/history-muslim-philosophy-
volume-1-...](https://www.al-islam.org/history-muslim-philosophy-
volume-1-book-3/chapter-15-ikhwan-al-safa)

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_the_Brethren_o...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_the_Brethren_of_Purity)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brethren_of_Purity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brethren_of_Purity)

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Bakary
This guy became a bit of a folk hero in certain Internet circles, along with
the elusive Benatar.

For a fun take on him see [https://existentialcomics.com/philosopher/Al-
Ma%27arri](https://existentialcomics.com/philosopher/Al-Ma%27arri)

~~~
scrappyjoe
Tell me more? Benatar lectured me at uni. Great teacher.

~~~
Bakary
He's simply know for his views on antinatalism, and for being somewhat
shrouded in mystery. For a while, you couldn't even find a picture of his face
or even an audio clip. Search results only yielded Peter Singer's warm smile
for some reason.

He then became a meme shorthand for a very pessimistic thinker. Antinatalism
itself has recently grow more popular, and even been represented in some
popular media.

~~~
scrappyjoe
Huh. Well, he was mostly known in my ethics class for never forgetting a
students name or birthday. Passed him in the street 5 years after graduating
and he said, “happy birthday for last week!”. I was speechless.

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ubertaco
> Encapsulating his view on organized religion, he once stated: "The
> inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: those with brains, but no
> religion, and those with religion, but no brains."

Sounds like he'd fit in with your average Reddit r/atheism internet edgelord.

~~~
Symmetry
Sure, but it's great that he could say that sort of thing publicly and not be
executed. That wouldn't have been true in the Christian world at the time or a
lot of the Muslim world today.

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RankingMember
I've never heard of this guy, but his views overlap with many of my own. It's
heartening to see that he was able to make something of himself despite the
unpopular perspectives he held. In particular, I feel that antinatalism is a
hard thing to express to others without it coming across as a personal affront
to all who decide to bring children into the world.

~~~
lwansbrough
It must be a really awful existence to view the world with such pessimism.

~~~
omarchowdhury
His pessimism caused by his inability to view the world.

~~~
RankingMember
I think the world is beautiful. I love nature and everything in it. What I
don't think is beautiful is the destruction of this world by overpopulation
and selfishness.

Edit: >Overpopulation is a meme. Many first-world countries today are
literally seeking to import more immigrants because of under-population.

Their being a need for more humans to meet human ends is not surprising, but
it certainly doesn't make an argument for the necessity of more humans from
any ecological perspective.

> Besides, humans are natural too. It's not like we're built in factories and
> have smokestacks on our heads. We ARE part of that world which you think is
> beautiful, and to end human reproduction would be to partly destroy this
> world.

This logic doesn't compute for me. Is your perspective that, by definition,
anything humans do is natural? If so, I think we have a fundamental
disagreement on the definition of "natural". I don't think that packing the
Earth to the gills with humans at the expense of other species survival is in
any way a positive development.

~~~
sudosteph
Heads up - it's considered poor form to edit your previous reply like this
rather than responding directly to comment below.

That said, are you claiming that life only has value if there exists some
"ecological necessity" for it? Because I just don't see enough consistency in
any definition of "ecological necessity" to make it a meaningful term. Ecology
has shifted dramatically throughout earth's history - any species you could
have called "ecological necessary" in the jurassic era doesn't seem so
necessary in the long-run judging by the multitude of life that continued
after extinction events.

~~~
RankingMember
Agreed. Strangely the reply button was missing when I went to reply to the
other comment.

I'm claiming that humanity should not be held so supremely important that in
the name of blind procreation we should be displacing and bringing to
extinction other forms of life and potentially bringing the habitability of
the planet for all life into question.

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johnny313
More in-depth story on Al-Qaeda’s attempt to erase Al-Ma'arri's legacy:
[https://www.aljumhuriya.net/en/content/al-
qaeda%E2%80%99s-wa...](https://www.aljumhuriya.net/en/content/al-
qaeda%E2%80%99s-war-against-medieval-syrian-poet)

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kalev
I thought something was on my screen, until I scrolled. Never seen ʿ before.

~~~
kzrdude
Seems to be some kind of glottal stop.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayin)

------
rmbryan
"Do not suppose the statements of the prophets to be true; they are all
fabrications. Men lived comfortably till they came and spoiled life. The
sacred books are only such a set of idle tales as any age could have and
indeed did actually produce." -this guy

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silveira
Fascinating, I never heard of him. Thank you for bringing this to my
attention.

