Composed in the twelfth century in north-eastern Iran, Attar's great mystical poem is among the most significant of all works of Persian literature. A marvellous, 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.
Composed in the twelfth century in north-eastern Iran, Attar's great mystical poem is among the most significant of all works of Persian literature. A marvellous, 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.
The Conference of the Birds
240
The Conference of the Birds
240Paperback
Related collections and offers
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780140444346 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 07/28/1984 |
| Series: | Penguin Classics Series |
| Pages: | 240 |
| Sales rank: | 163,654 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.20(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.70(d) |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
What People are Saying About This
Customer Reviews
Explore More Items
Why Must We Suffer?
"If God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow his creatures to suffer pain?" And what about the suffering of animals, who neither deserve pain nor can be improved by it? The
The Timeless Novel About a Bus Ride from Hell to Heaven
In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis again employs his formidable talent for fable and allegory. The writer finds himself in Hell boarding a bus
While The Iliad
William Blake is one of England’s most fascinating writers; he was not only a groundbreaking poet, but also a painter, engraver, radical, and mystic. Although Blake was dismissed as an
“First Fig” from A Few Figs from Thistles (1920)
The 1956
"This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper." Those famous concluding lines of T. S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men"
