al-Ma'arri

Al-Ma'arri (Abū al-ʿAlāʾ Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Maʿarrī) was a Syrian Arab poet, philosopher, and letter-writer active in the 11th century. Blind from childhood, he became renowned for intellectually rigorous Arabic poetry and works including the *Luzūmiyyāt* and *Risālat al-Ghufrān* (*The Epistle of Forgiveness*). His writing is distinguished by its skepticism, ethical seriousness, and sharp questioning of religious and social convention.