The Conference of the Birds - by Farid Ud-Din Attar (Paperback)

About the Book

A RICHLY-ILLUSTRATED MYSTICAL CLASSIC . NEW IN PAPERBACK. The Conference of the Birdsis a twelfth-century Sufi allegorical poem. The story of the quest for a king undertaken by the birds of the world, it also describes the Sufi (or mystical Islamic) path to enlightenment. Though hugely popular and influential in the Islamic world, the poem is still relatively unfamiliar in the West. In this edition, the poet Raficq Abdulla has reinterpreted key extracts to make the wisdom of Sufism accessible to the contemporary reader. Combining amusing anecdotes and satire with passages of great mystical beauty, the poem uses the birds journey to describe the stages of spiritual experience. This edition is richly illustrated with illuminations from Persian manuscripts.

Book Synopsis

A RICHLY-ILLUSTRATED MYSTICAL CLASSIC . NEW IN PAPERBACK. The Conference of the Birds is a twelfth-century Sufi allegorical poem. The story of the quest for a king undertaken by the birds of the world, it also describes the Sufi (or mystical Islamic) path to enlightenment. Though hugely popular and influential in the Islamic world, the poem is still relatively unfamiliar in the West. In this edition, the poet Raficq Abdulla has reinterpreted key extracts to make the wisdom of Sufism accessible to the contemporary reader. Combining amusing anecdotes and satire with passages of great mystical beauty, the poem uses the birds' journey to describe the stages of spiritual experience. This edition is richly illustrated with illuminations from Persian manuscripts.

Review Quotes

"Farid Ud-Din Attar was a thirteenth-century Iranian Sufi poet ...wrote ecstatic verse describing the experience of mysticism. In 'The Conference of Birds', or Manteq ut-Tair, Attar explores the themes of Sufism through an allegorical story of a gathering of birds facing a difficult journey to find the Simurgh, or king of the birds. Some birds never set out, others are lost along the way, and only a few succeed in completing the journey. This particular edition has beautiful illustrations on every page."