The Luzumiyat

Blind from childhood and famously skeptical, the eleventh-century Syrian poet al-Maarri wrote these poems under a rule he set himself, a demanding double rhyme he was not obliged to use and kept anyway. The title roughly means committing to what is not required. Across hundreds of short, terse pieces he turns over the questions that occupied him for a lifetime: death, doubt, the silence of the heavens, and the failures of organized religion and human cruelty. There is little comfort here and no easy piety, only a clear, bitter honesty rare in any age. Ameen Rihani’s English selection brought this freethinking voice to Western readers. The translation is available as a free PDF and EPUB.