The Conference of the Birds - Attar

Attar--the 12th century Sufi mystic poet, whom Rumi considered "the master" of the genre--is best known for his epic, "Manṭiq al-Ṭayr" ("The Conference of the Birds"), a magnificent allegorical tale about the soul's search for meaning.

The poem recounts the pilgrimage of the world's birds on a quest to meet their mysterious king, Simorgh, on the faraway peaks of Mount Qaf. Attar's beguiling anecdotes and humor intermingle the sublime with the mundane, while his poem models the soul's escape from the mind's rational embrace. It turns conventional wisdom on its head to suggest (but never confirm) that something extraordinary is at work in the seemingly ordinary.

Aṭṭar's epic has particularly shaped the world of Sufism because of a singular idea: that the beginning and the end are one. It is the appeal of this idea and its correlation with the Christian literary imagination such as Dante's Divine Comedy--also about a journey inspired by love and led by a guide toward God--that has captured the imagination of its English readership.

Among the characters in the poem is the mythical bird "Huma" (aka "Homa"), which is said to live its entire life in flight without ever touching the earth, and bestow kingship on whomever it flies over. In Chapter 86 of Moby-Dick, Huma is alluded to as "the bird that never alights." Moreover, on his trip to the Mediterranean, Herman Melville purchased an image (see photo album) which depicts a sultan with Huma flying overhead, commemorating the victory of Islam in Constantinople.

The Conference of the Birds:

• Google books
• Kindle
• pdf
• Librivox

Supplemental:

• Conference of the Birds, part 1 - "Sufi Heart" podcast
• Conference of the Birds, part 2 - "Sufi Heart" podcast

Extracts:

• "Other poets have warbled the praises of the soft eye of the antelope, and the lovely plumage of the bird that never alights; less celestial, I celebrate a tail." (Moby-Dick, 86)
• "A crowd of women eye a transcendent beauty entering a room, much as though a bird from Arabia had lighted on the window sill." (Pierre, 2.2)
• "...I saw a regal, feathery thing of unspotted whiteness, and with a hooked, Roman bill sublime.... Through its inexpressible, strange eyes, methought I peeped to secrets which took hold of God.... Long I gazed at that prodigy of plumage." (Moby-Dick, 42)
• "...I'm a crow, especially when I stand a'top of this pine tree here. Caw! caw! caw! caw! caw! caw! Ain't I a crow?" (Moby-Dick, 99)
• "...full before us, round and green, a Moslem turban by us floats—Nora-Bamma, Isle of Nods.... And by illusion optical, thin-draped in azure haze, drift here and there the brilliant lands: swans, peacock-plumaged, sailing through the sky. Down to earth hath heaven come; hard telling sun-clouds from the isles. And high in air nods Nora-Bamma. Nid-nods its tufted summit like three ostrich plumes; its beetling crags, bent poppies, shadows, willowy shores, all nod..." (Mardi, 1.87)
• "Breathed Yoomy, ”There are birds of divinest plumage, and most glorious song, yet singing their lyrics to themselves.” Said Media, ”The lark soars high, cares for no auditor, yet its sweet notes are heard here below. It sings, too, in company with myriads of mates. Your soliloquists, Yoomy, are mostly herons and owls.”" (Mardi, 2.22)
• "A Flight of Nightingales from Yoomy's Mouth" (Mardi, 2.66)
• "Yillah, the time has come to follow thy bird; come, return to thy home in Oroolia." (Mardi, 2.50)
• "...in those lozenges, one and all, as in an over-arbored garden-cage, sat a grand series of gorgeous illustrations of the natural history of the most imposing Parisian-looking birds; parrots, macaws, and peacocks, but mostly peacocks. Real Prince Esterhazies of birds; all rubies, diamonds and Orders of the Golden Fleece." ("Jimmy Rose")
• "The bird of Paradise don’t like owls:" (Clarel, 3.20)

This meetup is part of a series on The Crescent and the Cross.