Posts Tagged ‘Stendhal’
Love Tales. And Ibn Hazm (994-1064) descriptions of falling in love.
Posted by: adonis49 on: June 9, 2009
Love Tales (June 8, 2009)
The Moslem Caliph of Baghdad, Haroun Al Racheed, had expanded the Arab Empire to its apogee. He still had insomnia thinking on the meaning and sensations of amorous passion; he wanted to learn more about love and desires, though he had all kinds of concubines.
Caliph Al Rasheed fell in love with his cousin Zubaida, and married her in 781, and she conserved her privilege in Haroun’s heart because of her intelligence and refinement.
The erudite Al Asmai described to the Caliph what love is: “A light that illuminates the mind and permits life to vibrate through its radiation.” Apparently, the caliph was satisfied enough to bestow a fortune to the interpreter.
Al Rasheed was the son of a powerful love affair between Caliph Al Mahdi and his concubine Khizarane whom he married. The early caliphs liked to communicate with women more than with men: they had realize that women made the effort to increase knowledge in varieties of disciplines that Caliphs shared interest in such as poetry, playing musical instruments, medicine, theology, astronomy, and mathematics.
Ibn Hazm who lived in Andalusia (994-1064) was a prolific writer, scientist, statesman, and politician; he wrote the famous “Treatise of Love” which was translated in all kinds of languages and was the main source for Medieval Europe to educate their sentimental and chivalrous behaviors.
Have you ever fallen in love? How do you know that someone is falling in love? Examples of Ibn Hazm description of falling in Love:
“When I get up to leave you, my gait resembles the one who is taken to be executed. When I rejoin you, I hurry as the moon crosses the sky. When I say good bye I am as slow as the fixed stars.”
“When you move I follow you. I take the same direction as yours as the chameleon trails after the sunshine. When you stop I contemplate you intently: the eye is the wide open door for the soul’s secrets.
When I speak to you I utter incongruities. I listen intently at anything you say, I am astonished of whatever you divulge to me, I acknowledge your opinions, and I believe your lies.”
“I feel sensational pleasure being squeezed with you in enclosed quarters. I extend my hand toward the same object you desire to grab. I love to drink from your same glass, where you placed your lips. I am constantly aching to touch your hand and to lean on you.”
“I am discovering that with you, what I loathed is gorgeous and colorful; what was hard is pretty easy to take and do. My inert heart is burning amidst this storm. I am ready to open up on my deepest secrets. If I had not met you I would have never known why my mother conceived me.”
The energy released by Eros is devastating and all consuming. Falling in love is a transforming source of energy; it excites inert and dessicated hearts; it pacifies frenzied tendencies.
It is a bad sign when your lover acts normal when he meets with you or speaks evenly. It is a bad omen when you realize that your lover has excellent appetite and is gaining weight.
Are you a man who likes mostly the company of men?
Are you a woman who likes mostly the company of women?
Then, most probably, you are seeking love in the wrong spheres of society. Falling in love within the same gender is easier than facing the challenge of knowing a different type of love partner; routine communication is the sure way to killing a relationship.
Remember, in matter of feeling, an experienced man is twice better than a regular man; an experienced women is four times better than a novice girl.
Note: I translated many sections from the French manuscript “Love in the Moslem countries“. You may refer to my post “Seduction Tales” on how the French writer George Sand and the French novelist Stendhal describe “falling in love“
Famous Manuscripts Banned by the Vatican: (Part 2, April 19, 2009)
Thousands of literary works were indexed by the Vatican from around 1200 to 1966.
Virtually no author was spared indexing. Pascal, Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Rousseau, Kant, Diderot, Stendhal, Lamartine, Hugo, Flaubert, Balzac, Saint-Simon, Proudhon, Zola, Sartre, and even Gide were indexed for part of their work.
Voltaire was the most indexed: each of his manuscripts was automatically indexed before reading it. Voltaire would occasionally sign Ecralinf meaning (Let us crush the despicable infamous Church of Rome).
Ironically, Darwin, Karl Marx, and Hitler were spared INDEXING.
“The Defender of Peace” by Marsile of Padua (Rector of the University of Paris) is published in 1324 and banned by the Church. The manuscript said that the function of governance does not suit the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) because this urge for domination of the Church is the bane of all discords. Communities should be governed by their own councils.
Baruch Spinoza published “Treaty on Theological-Politics” in 1670. He is excommunicated (herem) by the Jewish Wise Men of the synagogue of Amsterdam and later indexed by the Vatican. Spinoza claimed that the Torah is false, that soul dies with the body, and that God exist only philosophically. Religions instituted a God with 7 main characteristics so that their logical scaffold can hold: God should be One, Unique, Omnipresent, has absolute authority and rights over everything, that obeisance to God consist in justice and charity, that Heaven and Hell are the consequences of our behaviors, and finally that God is forgiving because everyone is a sinner. Faith does not dwell on whether God is fire, spirit, light, or thought.
Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais published “The Wedding of Figaro” in 1781. This manuscript said of the aristocrats “You were given the pain of being born, and nothing else”; and thus was blamed for disturbing the social construct. Beaumarchais published also “The Barber of Seville”
“Praise of Folly” (L’Eloge de la Folie) by Erasmus of Rotterdam was indexed in 1511. Under the mask of irony, Erasmus creates a Foul dominating the World and supported by ignorant idiots with humongous Ego; he attacks the theologians and scholastic specialties whom thrive in adding subtlety over subtlety in order to obscure any kind of comprehension. In just the same century, the manuscript is re-edited 600 times.
“The Prince” of Nicolas Machiavelli is published in 1513 in Florence. The book explains how a Prince should behave to acquire and then retain power and would be one of the founders of modern political thinking.
“The Third Book” of Francois Rabelais was published in 1532. The previous publications “Pantagruel” and “Gargantua” were not spared indexing too. The art of mockery far exceed that of Erasmus and his farces scorch all the princes. Moliere would rely on Rabelais’ works for his comedies.
The Essays” of about 107 of essays by Michel Montaigne are published as of 1580 and was censured by the Church Inquisition. The Church didn’t like the offhandedness of mixing sacred topics with profane subjects and the manuscript was judged morally too permissive.
“The new Stories” succeeds the famous fables of Jean de la Fontaine and are published as of 1674 and mocks the clerics and was indexed for “corrupting the moral and inspiring libertine behaviors”. Before he dies, his confessor forced him to recant, and he did so that he may die in peace of that pest of cleric.
“The Spirit of Laws” by Charles-Louis of Montesquieu was published in Switzerland in 1748 to avoid censuring. The author demanded that the three branches of executive, legislative, and justice enjoy independent powers for check and balance in governance.
“Therese the Philosopher” by Jean-Baptiste Boyer was published in 1748, in the same year that “Fanny Hill” of John Cleland was published. This manuscript described in details the bacchant sacrilegious ceremonies that a Pope relished. The Marquis of Sade would imitate that genre of pornography. It is rumored that these kinds of books influenced the French Revolution more than any other manuscripts. The French National Library cataloged this book under “Hell” section.
“Emile” by Jean-Jacques Rousseau was published in 1762. Rousseau offered a new educational system for kids so that the natural kindness of humankind is preserved; that kids enjoy their lives as kids and refrain from reading before the age of 12; that they wear loose garments to play leisurely. The manuscript was indexed and publicly burned in Paris for inciting man to follow his instincts. Rousseau will publish “The Social Contract” in 1766 and Geneva Council banished it. In reaction, Rousseau abandoned his Switzerland nationality.
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