The Luzumiyat

The Luzumiyat (Arabic: اللزوميات) is the second collection of poetry by al-Ma'arri, comprising nearly 1600 short poems[1] organised in alphabetical order and observing a novel double-consonant rhyme scheme devised by the poet himself.

[9][10] The most striking aspect of Al-Ma'arri's style is his extraordinary command of grammar and morphology which mark him out as a master of the Arabic language.

[9] Not all critics have taken such a positive view of the work, which has also been characterised as "taṣannuʿ" (Arabic: تصنع) (mannerism, affectation or hypocrisy) and "almost devoid of artistic beauty or novelty.

He also condemned the falsity of many poets, who lived comfortably but pretended, in their verse, to be facing the hardships of the desert or describing the beauties of an imagined beloved.

[4] The heterodox ideas alluded to in these poems include a respect for all living beings that informed al-Ma'arri's veganism, a doctrine described by some of his biographers as Brahminism.

[13][16] The first English scholar to mention the Luzumiyat was J. D. Carlyle, who included and freely translated a quatrain from it in his 1796 Specimens of Arabic Poetry.

[4] The collection came to the general attention of European scholars through the work of Alfred von Kremer and his book Ober die philosophischen Gedichte des Abu-l-`Ala (Vienna, 1888) as well as his articles in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenhindischen Gesellschaft (vols.