| Summary: | This study first proposes to interpret the opening passages of Abu al-'Ala' al-Ma'arrî's (363-449/973-1058) Rlsälat al-Ghufrän {Epistle of Forgiveness) in terms of the mythic, lexic and ludic elements that make up the substance of what is essentially a non-narrative discourse. The study argues that al-Ma'arrI uses his parodie "heavenly garden" as a "ludic space" in which his self-righteous protagonist and addressee, Ibn al-Qárih, as well as his (presumed) reader, is tested with riddles, both verbal and conceptual. Ibn al-Qârih fails in what I claim to be a parody of a rite of initiation (a literary counterpart to the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and Ascension): he is constantly surprised and dumbfounded by God's mercy. This study argues that the opening passages, which play on names, epithets and lexical items relating to the snake, the snake in the tree, the black core of the heart, and related symbols of the soul and immortality are ultimately grounded in the shared Mesopotamian-Mediterranean sjonbolic matrix. It argues that the bivalent image of the snake as a source of longevity and of death, of deception and of veracity, is found in the interwoven Christian symbolism of Eve, the serpent, the tree of life, the Virgin Mary, Christ and the tree of the Cross. Second, it offers an annotated translation of the opening passages of al-Ma'arri's Risälat al-Ghufrän.
|
|---|