Let's Talk Religion

Attar's "Conference of the Birds" - The Greatest Sufi Masterpiece?

Dec 2, 2022
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INSIGHT

Attar's Lasting Literary Influence

  • Fariduddin Attar is a foundational figure in Persian Sufi poetry whose work deeply influenced Rumi and later mystics.
  • His Conference of the Birds shaped Persian poetic forms and Sufi expression for centuries.
ANECDOTE

Legendary Meeting With Rumi

  • A famous story claims the young Rumi visited Attar and that Attar recognized Rumi's spiritual power.
  • The podcast treats this as likely legendary but underscores Attar's clear intellectual influence on Rumi.
INSIGHT

Form Links Qur'an, Persian Verse, And Masnavi

  • The Conference of the Birds uses Persian rhyming couplets and borrows an Arabic title from the Qur'an.
  • Its form influenced later masterpieces like Rumi's masnavi in structure and meter.
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