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  • The Conference of the Birds by Farid Ud-Din Attar book cover
  • The Conference of the Birds by Farid Ud-Din Attar book cover
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The Conference of the Birds

by Farid Ud-Din Attar

A spiritual quest told through an assembly of birds

$17.30 USD
$28.84 USD $17.30 USD
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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A spiritual quest told through an assembly of birds

Farid Ud-Din Attar’s twelfth-century Persian poem frames a search for the Simorgh, the birds’ ideal king, as an allegory of Sufi spiritual inquiry. Their hoopoe guide answers their doubts with riddling parables, giving the journey a structure built around questions, counsel, and the pursuit of truth. The book brings together animal fable and religious allegory, making its central concern—spiritual seeking—visible through the birds’ collective undertaking. Its setting in the literary and religious traditions of medieval Iran gives the poem a place within both Persian literature and Sufi writing.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in Sufi thought and religious allegory
  • Readers exploring classical Persian literature
  • Readers who enjoy symbolic animal fables and parables

Themes

Sufi spiritual inquirySearch for truthGuidance and doubtAllegory and parable

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Book overview

Composed in the twelfth century in northeastern Iran, Attar's great mystical poem is among the most significant works of Persian literature.

A marvelous, allegorical rendering of the Islamic doctrine of Sufism--an esoteric system concerned with the search for truth through God--it describes the consequences of the conference of the birds of the world when they meet to begin the search for their ideal king, the Simorgh bird. On hearing that to find him they must undertake an arduous journey, the birds soon express their reservations to their leader, the hoopoe. With eloquence and insight, however, the hoopoe calms their fears, using a series of riddling parables to provide guidance in the search for spiritual truth.

By turns witty and profound, The Conference of the Birds transforms deep belief into magnificent poetry.
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