Al-Maʿarri Quatrains of Abu'l-Ala

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. N hen all Europe was arming itself for the first crusade, when the Northmen were ravaging the western world with their marauding expeditions, When the Califs were engaged in bloody battle with their rebel lious subjects, abu'l-ala was waging his silent and bloodless war on the follies and evils of his age. He attacked the superstitions and the false' traditions of religions, and proclaimed the supremacy of the mind; he hurled his trenchant invectives at the tyranny and despot ism of rulers, and asserted the supremacy of the human soul; he stood for perfect equality, and fought against the fallacies, the Shams and the lies of the ruling class of his time, in its social, religious and political aspects.