/lit/ - Literature

>>9091285
>tfw it's been a year since Google killed go

>Abul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri (Arabic أبو العلاء المعري Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī, full name أبو العلاء أحمد بن عبد الله بن سليمان التنوخي المعري Abū al-ʿAlāʾ Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaimān al-Tanūẖī al-Maʿarrī; 973–1057)
>Described as a "pessimistic freethinker", Al-Maʿarri was a controversial rationalist of his time, citing reason as the chief source of truth. He was pessimistic about life, describing himself as "a double prisoner" of blindness and isolation. He attacked the dogmas of religion and rejected Islam. He was equally sarcastic towards the religions of Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians. He advocated social justice, and lived a secluded, ascetic lifestyle. He became a strict vegan, writing "do not desire as food the flesh of slaughtered animals."[2] Al-Maʿarri held an anti-natalist view, in line with his general pessimism, suggesting that children should not be born to spare them of the pains of life.
Is he *the original*?