Seminar: "Debating Veganism in the Medieval Islamic World: al-Maʿarrī and al-Muʾayyad al-Shīrāzī" by Kevin Blankinship
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Kevin Blankinship, Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Brigham Young University
ABSTRACT: The staunch vegan, satirist, moralist, and witty man of letters Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (d. 449/1057) is best known as the author of The Epistle of Forgiveness, a Dantean journey through heaven and hell featuring discussions of poetry, grammar, heresy, and more. What is less known but just as important is al-Maʿarrī's obsession with animals, whether as literary symbols, moral exemplars, or creatures deserving of mercy in their own right. In this talk, I introduce al-Maʿarrī's life and work, survey his writings on animals, and then discuss one such work in particular: a series of letters exchanged with Shīʿī missionary al-Muʾayyad fī l-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (d. 471/1078), a skilled poet in his own right. The two men debate a poem by al-Maʿarrī urging people to stop using animal products. I put this dispute next to other letters by al-Maʿarrī where he laments animal cruelty; I also look at a debate between al-Muʾayyad al-Shīrāzī with his own followers about how to handle al-Maʿarrī’s veganism, which for them is an insult to Islam. All of this seems to confirm al-Maʿarrī’s lifestyle, but it also shows how others reacted to him and reveals the stakes of defending veganism in the medieval Islamic world.
BIO: Kevin Blankinship is an Associate Professor of Arabic at Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah, USA) with a focus on classical Arabic literature. His research touches on many topics: plagiarism, criminal slang, why poems end badly, insulting the Devil, and more, revealing a broader commitment to classical Arabic belles-lettres and to relishing the strange and unusual. His upcoming book, Steal No More from Nature, explores the work of al-Ma'arri, a staunch vegan satirist and witty man of letters, in the context of Islamic animal ethics. He is also collaborating with Li Guo (University of Notre Dame) on an edition and translation of the surviving poems of medieval playwright Ibn Daniyal. His research has been supported by the Fulbright-Hays Program, the Danish Independent Research Fund, and the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, among others. He is a published poet and essayist, and his writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Times Literary Supplement, Foreign Policy, and other leading outlets.