Farid al-D朝n 平A畊畊r (d. 1221) was the principal Muslim religious poet of the second half of the twelfth century. Best known for his masterpiece Mantiq al-tayr, or The Conference of Birds, his verse is still considered to be the finest example of Sufi love poetry in the Persian language after that of Rumi. Distinguished by their provocative and radical theology of love, many lines of 平A畊畊rs epics and lyrics are cited independently of their poems as maxims in their own right. These pithy, paradoxical statements are still known by heart and sung by minstrels throughout Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and wherever Persian is spoken or understood, such as in the lands of the Indo-Pakistani Subcontinent.
Designed to complement The Ocean of the Soul, the classic study of 平A畊畊r by Hellmut Ritter, this volume offers the most comprehensive survey of 平A畊畊rs literary works to date, and situates his poetry and prose within the wider context of the Persian Sufi tradition. The essays in the volume are grouped in three sections, and feature contributions by sixteen scholars from North America, Europe and Iran, which illustrate, from a variety of critical perspectives, the full range of 平A畊畊rs monumental achievement. They show how and why 平A畊畊rs poetical work, as well as his mystical doctrines, came to wield such tremendous and formative influence over the whole of Persian Sufism.
Editors’ Introduction and Acknowledgements
I. Prose of the Spirit: 平A畊畊r and the Persian Sufi Tradition
1. 平A畊畊r, Sufism and Ismailism
Hermann Landolt
2. Of Scent and Sweetness: 平A畊畊r and his Legacy in R笛m朝, Shabistar朝 and 畍つfi畉
Husayn Ilahi-Ghomshei
3. Narratology and Realities in the Work of 平A畊畊r
Muhammad Estelami
4. Sufi Saints and Sainthood in 平A畊畊rs Tadhkirat al-awliy幣
Shahram Pazouki
5. Words and Deeds: Message and Structure in 平A畊畊rs Tadhkirat al-awliy幣
Paul Losensky
II. Flight of the Soul-bird: 平A畊畊rs Conference of the Birds
6. Blessed Perplexity: The Topos of 畍a霞姻温岳 in 平A畊畊rs Man畊iq al-畊ayr
Lucian Stone
7. Flight of the Birds: The Poetic Animating the Spiritual in 平A畊畊rs Man畊iq al-畊ayr
Fatemeh Keshavarz
8. Illustrating 平A畊畊r: A Pictorial Meditation by Master 畍ab朝ballh of Mashhad in the Tradition of Master Bihzd of Herat
Michael Barry
9. Representations of 平A畊畊r in the West and in the East: Translations of the Man畊iq al-畊ayr and the Tale of Shaykh San平n
Christopher Shackle
III. The Poetics of Passion: 平A畊畊rs Lyric and Epic Poetry
10. Some Remarks on Forms and Functions of Repetitive Structures in the Epic Poetry of 平A畊畊r
Johann Christoph B端rgel
11. Didactic Style and Self-criticism in 平A畊畊r
Muhammad Isa Waley
12. Without Us, from Us Were Safe: Self and Selflessness in the D朝wn of 平A畊畊r
Leili Anvar-Chenderoff
13. Sufi Symbolism in the Persian Hermeneutic Tradition: Reconstructing the Pagoda of 平A畊畊rs Esoteric Poetics
Leonard Lewisohn
14. Mystical Quest and Oneness in the 珂顎一鞄岳偵姻-稼偵馨温 Attributed to Far朝d al-D朝n 平A畊畊r
Eve Feuillebois-Pierunek
15. On Losing Ones Head: 畍allian Motifs and Authorial Identity in Poems Ascribed to 平A畊畊r
Carl W. Ernst
Bibliography
Index
This volume offers the most comprehensive survey of ‘Attar’s literary works to date, and situates his poetry and prose within the wider context of the Persian Sufi tradition.
Fred Rhodes, The Middle East
Leonard Lewisohn is Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. He specialises in the study of Persian Sufism, and is the author of Beyond Faith and Fidelity: The Sufi Poetry and Teachings of Mahmoud Shabistari (1995).
Christopher Shackle is Professor of the Modern Languages of South Asia at SOAS in the University of London. Among his recent books are Ismaili Hymns from South Asia (1992), Qasida Poetry in Islamic Asia and Africa (1996) and A Treasury of Indian Love Poems and Proverbs (1999).