The eloquence of the pilgrims in the poetry of Abu al-Alaa al-Ma'arri

The book "Rhetoric of Persuasion in the Poetry of Abu Al-Alaa Al-Ma'arri" issued by the Egyptian General Authority for Books for researcher Dr. Imad Shaeer, reveals new dimensions in his life and poetic experience, and what it entails of a philosophical tendency, breaking the barrier of blindness and the house that he suffered from and was nicknamed "Prisoner of the Two Imprisonments." The new study, as the author says, concerned with applied theorization, and addressed the personality of Al-Ma'arri and what it provokes of debate and proof, in poetry and life, noting that dealing with the poetic text through this perspective appears "new and unexplored," as previous studies that addressed Abu Al-Alaa's poetry did not address this research point, which is talking about Abu Al-Alaa's philosophy in life. He clarifies that the owner of "The Epistle of Forgiveness" relies in showing his argument on metaphor and its affirmation on personification, or giving a human character to things, as he warns against wine: "Avoid it, for it is like an old woman who has gone astray until Tasm and Marbid, a swarm of ants about a scorpion, you think it is worse than the sting of scorpions." Here, Al-Ma'arri links the call to abandon wine with the image of the old woman. And this link is "the basis for the reasoning of this claim, as the old woman has a state and the wine has a state, and the recipient is the one seeking to create the link between the two states through Al-Ma'arri's metaphor for the first omitted, similar (the wine) from the second explicitly mentioned, the similar (the old woman)." Also, the rhythm of the similarity between the metaphor's referent and the metaphor itself was indicated by Al-Ma'arri by attributing misguidance to the old woman, after she reached the age of decline, and thus the connecting link for the recipient is the misguidance of wine for its drinker, just as the decline of old age misguides its owner.