Neither Belief nor Unbelief : : Intentional Ambivalence in al-Maʿarrī’s Luzūm / / Sona Grigoryan.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Plus DeG Package 2023 Part 1
• VerfasserIn: Grigoryan, Sona,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2022]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East , 45
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (XI, 204 p.)

The book re-examines the religious thought and receptions of the Syrian poet Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (d.1057) and one of his best known works - Luzūm mā lā yalzam (The Self-Imposed Unnecessity), a collection of poems, which, although widely studied, needs a thorough re-evaluation regarding matters of (un)belief. Given the contradictory nature of al-Maʿarrī’s oeuvre and Luzūm in particular, there have been two major trends in assessing al-Maʿarrī’s religious thought in modern scholarship. One presented al-Maʿarrī as an unbeliever and a freethinker arguing that through contradictions, he practiced taqīya, i.e., dissimulation in order to avoid persecution. The other, often apologetically, presented al-Maʿarrī as a sincere Muslim. This study proposes that the notion of ambivalence is a more appropriate analytical tool to apply to the reading of Luzūm, specifically in matters of belief. This ambivalence is directly conditioned by the historical and intellectual circumstances al-Maʿarrī lived in and he intentionally left it unsolved and intense as a robust stance against claims of certainty. Going beyond reductive interpretations, the notion of ambivalence allows for an integrative paradigm in dealing with contradictions and dissonance.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- List of Abbreviations -- Some Matters of Usage -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 Milieu and Life: al-Maʿarrī in Context -- Chapter 2 Luzūmīyāt -- Chapter 3 Between Belief and Unbelief—Early Treatments and Responses -- Chapter 4 Between Belief and Unbelief—Modern Readings and Receptions -- Chapter 5 Neither Belief nor Unbelief— Intentional Ambivalence -- Chapter 6 Contradictions in Luzūmīyāt -- Conclusions -- Appendix: Verses of Luzūm in Arabic -- Bibliography -- Index