<><> ATTAR <><>

One of the most important Sufi mystics of our world

Attar, Sheikh Farīd-Ud-Dīn, فرید الدین عطار (CE 1145–1220), was born in Nishapur (Nīšāpūr), a city in the northeast region of Iran. Information about Attar’s life is scarce and has been mythologized over the centuries. Of the forty works bearing Attar’s name, approximately seven are verifiably his, including The Conference of the Birds, which he completed around 1187 CE when he was about forty years old.

Can literature save the world? According to 12th century Iranian Sufi mystic poet, Attar, it is not the world that needs saving, rather it is we who are in dire need of rescue— from the clutches of our own ego, that “cyclone of calamities.”

 He writes,

Both worlds, the upper and the lower, are but a drop of water, neither here nor there. When that droplet first appears, it is replete with reflections. But even if all those reflections were of iron, the hardest of metals, you could still shatter them back into water drops. Whatever has its foundation in water, be it fire, is nothing but illusion. When water itself is not stable, how can you use it as a firm foundation?

 Attar repeatedly warns us about our conceited selves, our nafs (نفس), which I have translated as ego, from the Latin root ē′gō, meaning “I,” our lower self, the upholder of self-righteousness and self-proclaimed truths. In Sufi tradition, ego stands between our true self and the Beloved. Once it is destroyed, we unite with the Divine and hence recover our true self. In this light, to die means to let go of our lower self, and when that happens, church, temple, pagoda, mosque, or synagogue, religion or faithlessness, virtue or vice, all disappear and become irrelevant. Although all paths eventually lead to the Beloved, the annihilation of the ego shortens the path to the Source. When the ego is annihilated, the inner eye blinks open and we reclaim our true identity.

The Conference of the Birds is an allegorical epic poem about our human struggle, both physical and spiritual.  It is a brilliant, engrossing story peppered with beguiling parables that not only guide and instruct, but also entertain. Indeed, this method of storytelling through poetry was later adopted by future master poets, namely Hafiz and Rumi. Attar’s use of everyday details, stories, and historical chronicles is a masterful technique he invented to animate the deeper meanings of what we consider “reality.”

‍ ‍ (Text from Sholeh Wolpe’s introduction in The Conference of the Birds)