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ReemK10 (Paper Pills)'s Reviews > The Conference of the Birds: The Selected Sufi Poetry of Farid Ud-Din Attar
The Conference of the Birds: The Selected Sufi Poetry of Farid Ud-Din Attar
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I have been wanting to read The Conference of the Birds for a very long time. The peacock in me ordered the Raficq Abdulla interpretation, lured as I was by the illustrations of Persian miniatures from The British Library (this is the only, modern illustrated edition), and they do not disappoint.
�
This is only a 93-page book. It serves as a delightful amuse-bouche but leaves one with a hungry appetite for more. This can be found in Peter Avery's The Speech of the Birds which the owl in me will be reading next as it is the more scholarly translation and will hopefully have more clues.
�
What I love, truly, deeply, passionately, emphatically love about Farid ad-Din Attar's masterpiece is coming across allegories that bring about enlightenment. Ah sublime bliss! But as always when you deal with metaphor and rhetorical riddles, you need to come prepared with a heavily-built superstructure of previously acquired knowledge beforehand to be able to correctly make your own connections and understandings of this poem. You need to have lived! The more you know, the more you will understand, and hence the constant urge to keep reading and learning!
�
I think that the birds led by the hoopoe are prefect parables of us as readers who are often unbearably self-aware.
�
The ishq of Sufism seduces us into squeezing meaning out of every word in this very intimate mystic poem. Attar absolutely delights as he takes us on this journey of life: love, understanding, detachment, unity, bewilderment, deprivation and death and our own psychological and spiritual journey as we deal with our personal flaws and disappointments.
�
Abdalla makes this ancient masterpiece of a poem very accessible to the modern reader.
�
"Nothing I know,
I understand nothing, I am surface-dead
Only loves survives, I am traveling unsurely, I go
To the Beloved unknown to this heart waiting to be read."
I have been wanting to read The Conference of the Birds for a very long time. The peacock in me ordered the Raficq Abdulla interpretation, lured as I was by the illustrations of Persian miniatures from The British Library (this is the only, modern illustrated edition), and they do not disappoint.
�
This is only a 93-page book. It serves as a delightful amuse-bouche but leaves one with a hungry appetite for more. This can be found in Peter Avery's The Speech of the Birds which the owl in me will be reading next as it is the more scholarly translation and will hopefully have more clues.
�
What I love, truly, deeply, passionately, emphatically love about Farid ad-Din Attar's masterpiece is coming across allegories that bring about enlightenment. Ah sublime bliss! But as always when you deal with metaphor and rhetorical riddles, you need to come prepared with a heavily-built superstructure of previously acquired knowledge beforehand to be able to correctly make your own connections and understandings of this poem. You need to have lived! The more you know, the more you will understand, and hence the constant urge to keep reading and learning!
�
I think that the birds led by the hoopoe are prefect parables of us as readers who are often unbearably self-aware.
�
The ishq of Sufism seduces us into squeezing meaning out of every word in this very intimate mystic poem. Attar absolutely delights as he takes us on this journey of life: love, understanding, detachment, unity, bewilderment, deprivation and death and our own psychological and spiritual journey as we deal with our personal flaws and disappointments.
�
Abdalla makes this ancient masterpiece of a poem very accessible to the modern reader.
�
"Nothing I know,
I understand nothing, I am surface-dead
Only loves survives, I am traveling unsurely, I go
To the Beloved unknown to this heart waiting to be read."
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Reading Progress
April 30, 2015
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Started Reading
April 30, 2015
– Shelved
May 5, 2015
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Started Reading
(Other Hardcover Edition)
May 5, 2015
– Shelved
(Other Hardcover Edition)
Finished Reading
(Other Hardcover Edition)
May 5, 2015
–
Finished Reading
November 15, 2016
–
Started Reading
(Other Hardcover Edition)
November 15, 2016
– Shelved as:
to-read
(Other Hardcover Edition)
November 15, 2016
– Shelved
(Other Hardcover Edition)
March 1, 2025
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Started Reading
(Other Hardcover Edition)
March 1, 2025
– Shelved as:
to-read
(Other Hardcover Edition)
March 31, 2025
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Finished Reading
(Other Hardcover Edition)
Comments Showing 1-50 of 51 (51 new)
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Kalliope
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May 05, 2015 08:05AM
What a lovely review.. your enthusiasm is contagious.. and beautifully illustrated.. i should look for this edition.
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Kalliope wrote: "What a lovely review.. your enthusiasm is contagious.. and beautifully illustrated.. i should look for this edition."Thank you Kalliope. You're always so supportive, but you know I don't write reviews, just about my experience reading the book.
ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "What a lovely review.. your enthusiasm is contagious.. and beautifully illustrated.. i should look for this edition."Thank you Kalliope. You're always so supportive, but you know..."
Well, many reviews are exactly that....
FAIRY GOD MOTHER, i had just written a comment to your review and along came the google elves and being of an envious nature rubbed it off.Loved those pictures,too much! Also loved the meaning of "ishq" and i ´d love to be called Aishqa! I have a friend who is called Aixa she says that is the name of the prophet´s wife.
"Nothing I know,I understand nothing, I am surface-dead
Only loves survives, I am traveling unsurely, I go
To the Beloved unknown to this heart waiting to be read."
I should add these words to my daily meditation
LOL Kalli.I swear you're the best.l'll continue to do so.:)
Reem, when I look at this book in Amazon US, using the ISBN, I encounter this cover but when I 'Look inside', I think I get another edition without the illustrations.Can you please check the ISBN of your illustrated edition (from the British Library...)?.. This is the edition I want to order.
Lovely review, Reem, and gorgeous illustrations. I've read a prose version of The Conference of the Birds somewhere - probably abridged. It's a story with a message even for us today - like Aesop's fables.
Wonderful illustrations that sure would add colour to the black ink of Attar's word-images. Thanks for sharing Reem.
Patricia wrote: "FAIRY GOD MOTHER, i had just written a comment to your review and along came the google elves and being of an envious nature rubbed it off.Loved those pictures,too much! Also loved the meaning of..."
Patricia, I'm so glad you liked this and the illustrations too! Ishq differs from Aisha, even though they do look similar.
ishq: ʻIshq is an Arabic word used in Arabic as well as many other languages. (Arabic: عشق�; in Somali: caashaq or (cishqi) in Persian: eshgh; in Urdu: � ishq; in Dari: eshq; in Pashto: eshq; in Turkish: aşk and in Azerbaijani: eşq), means "love".[1] The word is derived from ‘ashiqah, a vine: the common belief is that when love takes its root in the heart of a lover, everything other than God is effaced.[2] In Islam's Sufi and mystic doctrine it is a concept which refers to "divine love" or "a creature's love for its creator"; i.e. man's love for God.
Aisha means "alive" in Arabic.
Glad you liked the quote for your meditation
Isn't if funny how some people spend 10-15 minutes reading something and believe that they are now experts, and we spend our entire lives reading and feel that we know absolutely nothing?!
Kalliope wrote: "Reem, when I look at this book in Amazon US, using the ISBN, I encounter this cover but when I 'Look inside', I think I get another edition without the illustrations.Can you please check the ISBN..."
Kalli: ISBN: 1-56656-480-8 Interlink Books is the one I have.Sue has the Dick Davis and Afkham Darbandi edition that she says also has a lot of illustrations. There are some books that have the British Library illustrations and others that have those housed at the Met.
Fionnuala wrote: "Lovely review, Reem, and gorgeous illustrations. I've read a prose version of The Conference of the Birds somewhere - probably abridged. It's a story with a message even for us today - like Aesop's..."Thank you Fio! I love that you've read this too. :)
Jibran wrote: "Wonderful illustrations that sure would add colour to the black ink of Attar's word-images. Thanks for sharing Reem."Thank you for checking out my review Jibran. There are a lot of goodies posted in this thread as well:
/topic/show/...
Heartfelt review Reem...exquisitely illustrated.
Beautiful review, Reem -- the images and your words.
Ce Ce wrote: "Heartfelt review Reem...exquisitely illustrated."Thank you Ce Ce. Don't they look like the chinoiserie that we both love?
Teresa wrote: "Beautiful review, Reem -- the images and your words."Thank you Teresa! Sue, BP and I took the a Dope 4 Bird personality test.Why don't you take it as well. Post your results. Ours are in the thread posted in my comment to Jibran.
t
An open invite to all of you to take this test:Do share your results!:)
Here's mine:Reading about the different personalities of the birds in The Conference of the Birds, I couldn't help but think of the Myers-Briggs personality traits. I found the DOPE Birds Personality Types test.
Here's Your Results for the DOPE 4 Birds Personality Types Test [Online Version]:
You're Test Taker #: 176,603
Your Score: Owl (35%)
You are the Detail Seeker and have:
-- Low Assertiveness
-- Low Emotionality
Your type's description is:
Logical, mathematically minded, methodical and sometimes seen as a perfectionist. They can be slow to make decisions and inflexible if rules and logic says otherwise. They are not big risk takers but love detail..
Here's how you scored on the other types:
Peacock (30%)
Dove (25%)
Eagle (10%)
I'm an owl too, Reem:Your Score: Owl (55%)
You are the Detail Seeker and have:
-- Low Assertiveness
-- Low Emotionality
Your type's description is:
Logical, mathematically minded, methodical and sometimes seen as a perfectionist. They can be slow to make decisions and inflexible if rules and logic says otherwise. They are not big risk takers but love detail.
Here's how you scored on the other types:
Dove (35%)
Peacock (10%)
Eagle (0%)
Teresa wrote: "I'm an owl too, Reem:Your Score: Owl (55%)
You're the highest scoring owl so far Teresa! BP came in at 45%, me at 35% and Sue at 30%. Let's hope the others take this too!
Amazing -- or not (because that's why we all get along so well) -- that we're all owls. Owls are generally solitary, but when they're together, they're a parliament. :)
Teresa wrote: "Amazing -- or not (because that's why we all get along so well) -- that we're all owls. Owls are generally solitary, but when they're together, they're a parliament. :)"That's such a cool fact Teresa. I hadn't heard it before. You do know that crows are also supposed to be a lot smarter than we think them to be. It's good that the crow wasn't one of the birds in that personality test, or we would be called a murder!
"A group of crows, for example, is called a murder." lol
I know the crows in my neighborhood are very smart -- and beautiful. My husband likes them too, because they scare away the squirrels that eat our pecans.
Teresa wrote: "I know the crows in my neighborhood are very smart -- and beautiful. My husband likes them too, because they scare away the squirrels that eat our pecans."Do you make pecan pie? yummy. Check this out:
Crows Are Smart Enough to Spot Analogies on Their Own
ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Do you make pecan pie?"I did. Now we're just lucky to get a couple to munch on.
I love birds. Calling someone a birdbrain should be a compliment.
Beautiful book and review, Reem. The images are wonderful. Two corrections. On the "test" I was Dove first but with Owl almost as high. Otherwise just the same as Teresa I believe. And as for the books I have, the edition with illustrations is an abridged one by Peter Sis. These are modern illustrations, unlike your book. I found it as a remainder in a bookstore I frequent...and couldn't resist buying it even though I have the Davis translation. The Sis book is really a different object, though. Seeing your review makes me think of taking it off the shelf before I read the larger book.
ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Thank you for checking out my review Jibran. There are a lot of goodies posted in this thread as well:/topic/show/... "
Wow marvelous collage of knowledge there. Thanks for the link.
Teresa wrote: I love birds. Calling someone a birdbrain should be a compliment.Do you think it typical of readers to love birds?
Sue wrote: "Beautiful book and review, Reem. The images are wonderful. Two corrections. On the "test" I was Dove first but with Owl almost as high. Otherwise just the same as Teresa I believe. And as for the b..."Thanks for clarifying Sue. Hopefully your info will halp people in choosing which edition they want to read.
Jibran wrote: "ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Thank you for checking out my review Jibran. There are a lot of goodies posted in this thread as well:/topic/show/... "
Wow marvelous colla..."
I'm glad you checked it out Jibran. What I found interesting is that the wise man of "And how canst thou have patience about things about which thy understanding is not complete?" in Sura 18: 65-82 where the two seas meet in the Qur'anic Story of al-Khidr and Moses was identified as Khidr.I did not know about Khidr but do love how he represents the green movement.
ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Patricia wrote: "FAIRY GOD MOTHER, i had just written a comment to your review and along came the google elves and being of an envious nature rubbed it off.Loved those pictures,too much! Also lov..."
The word is derived from ‘ashiqah, a vine: the common belief is that when love takes its root in the heart of a lover, everything other than God is effaced.[2] In Islam's Sufi and mystic doctrine it is a concept which refers to "divine love" or "a creature's love for its creator"; i.e. man's love for God.
That is exactly how I feel when i let the love of "god"
inside me,even if it is for just a moment.
Patricia wrote:That is exactly how I feel when i let the love of "god"inside me,even if it is for just a moment.
:) Patricia, you need to read this book!
ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Here's mine:Reading about the different personalities of the birds in The Conference of the Birds, I couldn't help but think of the Myers-Briggs personality traits. I found the DOPE Birds Persona..."
I got peacock,thank goodness! i thought i´d get "parrot" or "cackatoo"!!
Patricia wrote: "ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Here's mine:I got peacock,thank goodness! i thought i´d get "parrot" or "cackatoo"!!LOL I love that Patricia! You were born to attract attention! And so deserving of all that attention! My second highest trait was peacock 30%. :)
ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Do you think it typical of readers to love birds?"I don't know. I never thought of that before. But I'll be paying attention now. ;)
Teresa wrote: "ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Do you think it typical of readers to love birds?"I don't know. I never thought of that before. But I'll be paying attention now. ;)
Yes, please do. When I first signed onto twitter, I chose a scarlet tanager for my avatar. I love the color red!
to go with the quote I used:
The red- breast whistles from a garden-croft, And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. John Keats
Great quote.I used to say if I'd had another daughter (didn't happen), I'd name her Wren. Now I love seeing the much bigger birds near the body of water in walking distance from my home: pelicans, night herons and white egrets -- one of the latter once visited my neighbor's front lawn, walking almost to the front door.
Teresa wrote: "Great quote.I used to say if I'd had another daughter (didn't happen), I'd name her Wren. Now I love seeing the much bigger birds near the body of water in walking distance from my home: pelicans..."
Nice Teresa.
"Of all the animals big and small that make their appearance in literature, birds hold a special appeal for scholars. For the orniphile, there is much to admire about birds, including the beautiful plumage of many species and the unfailing sense of orientation and physical stamina of migratory birds, but it is the melodious sequences of sounds emitted by songbirds that align them with poets.
Poets have therefore invoked them as their muses, appealing also to their flight capacity to take them above the human world on “the viewless wings of poesy� (Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale�). Birds have served as allegorical figures (Chaucer, The Parliament of Fowls) and symbols (dove, eagle). Beyond rhetorical uses, they themselves have been the subjects of poetry from John Clare to Gerard Manley Hopkins and Ted Hughes. In recent years, as the (near-)extinction of several avian species is felt by many to be the most apparent loss of biodiversity on this planet, birds have begun to feature prominently also in fiction (Jonathan Franzen, Freedom)."
ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Patricia wrote: "ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Here's mine:I got peacock,thank goodness! i thought i´d get "parrot" or "cackatoo"!!LOL I love that Patricia! You were born to attract attention! An..."
Birds of a feather. There is one bird I actually hate with all my heart and :the seagull. They steal you food from your hand: I´d love to gun them like a mean republican.
Patricia wrote: There is one bird I actually hate with all my heart and :the seagullPatricia, here is a reading remedy for you to stop hating seagulls.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, written by Richard Bach, is a fable in novella form about a seagull learning about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection.
I saw the cover and wouldn´t get pass the first page.A seagull stole poor Tomás only *special* sandwich left ,in the beach in FL. and he is celiac so I´ll never forget about that.He was just 2.
Poor Tomas, that had to have been traumatic for him. He is older now, so get him the book to read.
He has no clue,he was only two! But I´ll never forget it.I´ll have to cut my nails,suddenly i looked up to what i had just written and it looked like Tcheck :)
ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "Reem, when I look at this book in Amazon US, using the ISBN, I encounter this cover but when I 'Look inside', I think I get another edition without the illustrations.Can you plea..."
Thank you for this, Reem.. I want to get it...
Marita wrote: "Lovely review and beautiful pictures. I like your enthusiasm."Thank you Marita! Very nice of you to drop by. :)
Kalliope wrote: "ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Kalliope wrote: "Reem, when I look at this book in Amazon US, using the ISBN, I encounter this cover but when I 'Look inside', I think I get another edition without th..."Anytime Kalli :)
<333 I've sent my mum a link to this edition in the hope she will buy it for me as a birthday gift - then we can share the pleasure of its beauty better. Thank you for your review dear Reem. I've also wanted to read this for many many years (since I became fascinated with Iranian culture in my teens) & I have read many extracts but still never come across the whole thing. Looking forward to it all the more thanks to you = )
On the test I'm 50% dove, but I'm sure I only have the negative qualities of a dove!
Dear Zanna, what delightful comments.See if your mum would want to really spoil the dove she raised by getting you The Canticle of the Birds by Diane de Selliers. That is GORGEOUS! You make for a lovely dove. Be sure to check out the thread for The Conference of the Birds under medieval texts.Lots of info there!
