"The Concourse of the Birds" painted by Habib Allah. The hoopoe, center right, instructs the other birds on the Sufi path

. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (450x707, 107 KB)The Concourse of the Birds from The Conference of the Birds, painted by Habib Allah in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (450x707, 107 KB)The Concourse of the Birds from The Conference of the Birds, painted by Habib Allah in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ... Binomial name Upupa epops Linnaeus, 1758 The Hoopoe Upupa epops is in the same order of often colourful near passerine birds as the kingfishers, bee-eaters, and rollers. ... Sufism (Arabic تصوف taṣawwuf) is a system of esoteric philosophy commonly associated with Islam. ...

The Conference of the Birds (Persian: منطق الطیر‎ ​, Mantiq at-Tayr, 1177) is a book of poems in Persian by Farid ud-Din Attar of approximately 4500 lines. The poem uses a journey by a group of 30 birds, led by a hoopoe as an allegory of a Sufi sheikh or master leading his pupils to enlightenment. Persian is an Indo-European language spoken in Iran (Persia), Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Southern Russia, neighboring countries, and elsewhere. ... Events November 25 - Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and Raynald of Chatillon defeat Saladin at the Battle of Montgisard. ... Persian is an Indo-European language spoken in Iran (Persia), Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Southern Russia, neighboring countries, and elsewhere. ... The Conference of the Birds painted by Habib Allah. ... Binomial name Upupa epops Linnaeus, 1758 The Hoopoe Upupa epops is in the same order of often colourful near passerine birds as the kingfishers, bee-eaters, and rollers. ... An allegory (from Greek αλλος, allos, other, and αγορευειν, agoreuein, to speak in public) is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than (and in addition to) the literal. ... Sufism (Arabic تصوف taṣawwuf) is a system of esoteric philosophy commonly associated with Islam. ... Shaikh, also rendered as Sheik, Shaykh or Sheikh (Arabic: شيخ), is a word in the Arabic language meaning elder of a tribe, lord, revered old man, or Islamic scholar. ...

Besides being one of the most beautiful examples of Persian poetry, this book relies on a clever word play between the words Simorgh — a mysterious bird in Iranian mythology which is a symbol often found in sufi literature, and similar to the phoenix bird — and "si morgh" — meaning "thirty birds" in Persian. In Iranian Mythology, Sênmurw Middle-Persian (Pahlavi), Sîna-Mrû (Pâzand), is a fabulous, mythical bird. ... The phoenix from the Aberdeen Bestiary. ...

Its most famous section is:

Come you lost Atoms to your Centre draw,

And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw:

Rays that have wander'd into Darkness wide

Return and back into your Sun subside

In the 1970s, the poem was adapted into a play by Peter Brook and John Carriere (called The Conference of The Birds), which Brook took touring around the wilds of Africa before presenting two extremely successful productions to a Western audience, one in New York City at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and one in Paris.

The stories recounts the longing of a group of birds who desire to know the great Simorgh, and who under the guidance of a leader bird start their journey toward the land of Simorgh. One by one, they drop out of the journey, each offering an excuse and unable to endure the journey. Each bird has a special significance in Islamic culture. The guiding bird is the hoopoe, while the nightingale symbolizes the lover. The parrot is seeking the fountain of immortality, not god and the peacock symbolizes the "fallen soul" who is in alliance with Satan.

The birds must cross seven valleys in order to find the Simorgh: Talab (Quest), Ishq (Love), Marifat (Gnosis), Istighnah (Independence), Tawheed (Unity of God), Hayrat (Wonder) and, finally, Fuqur and Fana (Selflessness and Oblivion in God). These represent the stations that a Sufi or any individual must pass through to realize the true nature of God.

Within the larger context of the story of the journey of the birds, Attar masterfully tells the reader many didactic short, sweet stories in captivating poetic style. Eventually only thirty birds remain as they finally arrive in the land of Simorgh — all they see there are each other and the reflection of the thirty birds in a lake — not the mythical Simorgh. It is the Sufi doctrine that God is not external or separate from the universe, rather is the totality of existence. The thirty birds seeking the Simorgh realise that Simorgh is nothing more than their transcendent totality. This concept has been compared as being similar to "Universal Pantheism" in western philosophy^{[citation needed]}. As the birds realize the truth, they now reach the station of Baqa (Subsistence) which sits atop the Mountain Qaf.

See also

• Parlement of Foules
• language of the birds
• Persian literature

The Parlement of Foules (also known as the Parliament of Fowls, Parlement of Briddes, Assembly of Fowls or Assemble of Foules) is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343?-1400) made up by approximately 700 lines. ... A language of the birds, a mystical, perfect or divine language, or a mythical or magical language used by birds to communicate with the initiated , is postulated in mythology, medieval literature and occultism. ... Persian literature (in Persian: ) spans two and a half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. ...

References

• Farid Ud-Din-Attar, The Conference of The Birds - Mantiq Ut-Tair, English Translation by C. S. Nott, First published 1954 by The Janus Press, London, Reissued by Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd, 1961, ISBN 0-7100-1032-X
• Attar, Harvey & Masani, Conference of the Birds: A Seeker's Journey to God, Weiser Books, 2001, ISBN 1-57863-246-3

Routledge is an imprint for books in the humanities part of the Taylor & Francis Group, which also has Brunner-Routledge, RoutledgeCurzon and RoutledgeFalmer divisions. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ...

External links

• Selection of Attar and related poets' poetry