The concept of tahrif in the poetry of Abu al-‘Ala al-Ma‘arri

In Islamic studies the word «tahrif» is established to define the wide scope of qur’anic appellations and appellations found in authentic hadiths, and in qur’anic commentaries as well, which speak about miscellaneous modes of tampering with The Holy Scripture on the side of Jews and Christians. In Islamic tradition there is no actual idea, or well-thought conception concerning the exact object of this alleged distortions and tampering, because of incompatible testimonies of different hadiths. Was it intentional falsification of the text itself, or bad rendering and perverted elucidation of it? The question is yet to be answered in Islamic tradition, and grappled with among orientalists. Due to tremendous influence of the qur’anic text on Arabic literature, it is not surprising, that the theme of tahrif was contemplated in the works of some Arabic writers and poets. The present article put under the scrutiny the poetry of Abu al-‘Ala al-Ma‘arri to understand to what extent this «heretic» went astray, or in reverse, clung to traditional Islamic conception of tahrif, how we find it in the most reliable islamic sources