Neoplatonist Echoes in Modern Arabic Poetry: The Case of Muḥammad ʿAfīfī Maṭar

Neoplatonist Echoes in Modern Arabic Poetry: The Case of Muḥammad ʿAfīfī Maṭar

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Department

English & Comparative Literature Department

Abstract

The article presents an overview of the impact of Neoplatonism and Sufism on modern Arabic poetry. It addresses specifically the example of the Egyptian poet Muḥammad ʿAfīfī Maṭar (1935-2010) and the correspondence of his poetic universe with that of Plotinus. As a student and later an instructor of philosophy, Maṭar was influenced by his mentor ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī who had edited the Arab Plotinus. Maṭar’s poetic collections, interviews, and memoir point to his Neoplatonist and Sufi drive through references, allusions, and subtexts. In Maṭar’s visionary ascension in the poem Qirāʾa (Recital), Qur’anic phrases intersect with philosophical motifs of Plotinus’s Enneads

Publication Date

4-6-2022

Document Type

Book Chapter

Book Title

Faces of the Infinite: Neoplatonism and Poetry at the Confluence of Africa, Asia and Europe

Editors

Stefan Sperl (ed.), Yorgos Dedes (ed.)

ISBN

9780197267257

Publisher

Oxford University Press

City

Oxford

First Page

404

Last Page

418

Keywords

Muhammad Afifi Matar, Plotinus, ‘Abd al-Rahman Badawi, Sufism, Ascension, Qur’an

Disciplines

Comparative Literature | Language and Literacy Education | Poetry

Neoplatonist Echoes in Modern Arabic Poetry: The Case of Muḥammad ʿAfīfī Maṭar

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