{[Islamic Art –] The Word (2) [continued (13)][Attar]}[14th April 1991]

[Redbook9:107-108][19910414:1104v]{[Islamic Art –] The Word (2) [continued (13)][Attar]}[14th April 1991]

19910414:1104

[continued]

*

‘Among Sanā’ī’s** smaller masnaris, Sayr al-ibad ila al-maad (“The journey of the servants to the Place of Return”) deserves special mention. Its theme is the journey of the spirit through the spheres, a subject dear to the mystics and still employed in modern times as, for example, by Iqbāl in his Persian Jāvīd-nāmeh (1932).***

Sanā’ī’s epic endeavours were continued by one of the most prolific writers in the Persian tongue, Farīd ad-Dīn Attār (died c[irca]1220).**** He was a born storyteller, a fact that emerges from his lyrics but even more so from his works of edification. The most famous among his masnaris is the Mantiq ut-tayr (The Conversation of the Birds), modelled after# some Arabic allegories. It is the story of 30 birds who, in search of their spiritual king, journey through seven valleys. The poem is full of tales, some of which have been translated even into the most remote Islamic languages. (The story of the pious Sheykh San‘ān, who fell in love with a Christian maiden, is found, for example, in Kashmir.) Attār’s symbolism of the soul-bird was perfectly in accord with the existing body of imagery beloved of Persian poetry, but it was he who added a scene in which the birds eventually realise their own identity with God (because they, being sī morgh, or “30 birds”, are identitified with the mystical Sēmorgh, who represents God.)

Also notable are his Elahi-nameh, an allegory of a king and his six sons, and his profound Mosibat-nameh (“Book of Affliction”) which closes with its hero being immersed in the ocean of his soul after wandering through the 40 stages of his search for God. The epic exteriorizes the mystic’s experiences in the 40 days of seclusion,’

#*

*{(From 11^th century Iranian writing turned to Persian, for mystical works)}

**{2048A~J~1152[ce]

***{2048R~C1920}

****{2048A~J~1152}

#sic

#*– ibid [Encyclopaedia Britannica 22:] 55

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