The CONTROVERSIAL Godfather of Antinatalism – al-Ma'arri

Abu al-'Ala' al-Ma'arri was an ancient poet and philosopher that espoused antinatalist and vegan views. He lived in what is now modern-day Syria. I dive into his life and his views on antinatalism and veganism in his poetry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THANKYOU~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you to Mani for his invaluable help with the research and translations for this video! You can find my interview with Mani here:    • Antinatalism in Iran | Mani  

Thank you to Will C. White for allowing me to use his amazing music (here:    • Concerto for Chorus on texts of Abu l-'Ala...  ! You can find my interview with Will here:    • He Composed A Vegan Antinatalist Classical...  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~INFO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TIMESTAMPS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

00:00 - Intro
01:35 - The Life of al-Ma'arrī
09:04 - Antinatalism
17:06 - Animals & Veganism
22:11 - The Modern Day
24:15 - Outro

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~LINKS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

al-Ma'arrī's books:
• Saqt al-Zand (The Tinder Spark): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saqt_az...
• Luzūm mā lam yalzam (The Necessity of What is Unnecessary): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luzūmiyyāt
• Risalat al-Ghufran (The Epistle of Forgiveness): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risalat...
• al-Fuṣūl wa al-ghāyāt (Paragraphs and Periods): http://sites.dlib.nyu.edu/viewer/book...

al-Ma'arrī's poetry:
• Diwan: https://www.aldiwan.net/cat-poet-alma...
• Studies in Islamic Poetry (Reynold Nicholson): Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Studies-Isla... Archive: https://archive.org/details/studiesin...
• The Quatrains of Abu'l-Ala (Ameen F. Rihani): Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quatrains-Ab... Archive: https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassb...

Article on al-Ma'arrī':
• Arabic: https://www.cgie.org.ir/ar/article/23...
• Persian: https://www.cgie.org.ir/fa/article/22...
• English: https://referenceworks.brill.com/disp...

Books on al-Ma'arrī':
• Arabic: https://books4arab.co/تحميل-كتاب-أبو-...
• Persian: https://alefbalib.com/Metadata/639303...

Podcasts and articles on al-Ma'arrī:
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b07...
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04w...
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-3...
• https://en.majalla.com/node/289276/cu...

The Devil's Deception (Ibn Al-Jawzi): https://salafibookstore.com/product/t...

معجم الادباء، إرشاد الأريب إلى معرفة الأديب (Yaqut al-Hamawi): https://archive.org/details/ar106biog70

Legend of travelling student: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1579130

al-Ma'arrī composing his own epitaph: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/32488

Grave:   / almaarri_9731057_had_written_on_his_tombstone  

Paper on The Epistle of the Horse and the Mule: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/8/412

What a free-thinking medieval Muslim can teach us about animal welfare (Kevin Blankinship): https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/cu...

Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī cultural centre in Ma'arrat Nu'man:    • عودة مركز أبو العلاء المعري الثقافي في معر...  
More on the cultural centre:
• https://aljumhuriya.net/en/2017/11/06...
• https://www.aljazeera.net/encyclopedi...

al-Maʿarrī statue in Canada:    • Inauguration de la statue syrienne AL-MA’A...  

Outro Music // The Last Time - Kayou. // Provided by ‪@LofiGirl‬