Translate this page:
Please select your language to translate the article


You can just close the window to don't translate
Library
Your profile

Back to contents

Philology: scientific researches
Reference:

Fedorova, Yu. E. The Definition of the True Path in Farid ad-Dina ‘Attar’s Philosophical Poem ‘Language of Birds’

Abstract: The article considers and analyzes one of the most important terms in Sufi philosophy – the path to the Truth (or God). The poem ‘Language of Birds’ devoted to the journey of birds to their king Simurg is composed by ‘Attar so that a particular poetic construct can be referred to a certain term in philosophy: ‘searchers for the truth’ (talib) are the traveling birds, the Truth (hakikat) is Simurg. The ‘Path to the Truth’ (tarikat) is described by ‘Attar through stages of the sufia path (‘valleys’). The author of the article focuses on the analysis of the poetic construct ‘valley’ (vadi) based on the example of the first three valleys (search, love, knowledge) and analyzes what philosophical concepts these images relate to.


Keywords:

philology, Medieval Persian poetry, Farid ad-Din ‘Attar, Sufi poem ‘Language of Birds’, Path to the Truth, knowledge of God, valley of search, valley of love, valley of knowledge, poetic construct ‘vadi’ (valley).


This article can be downloaded freely in PDF format for reading. Download article


References
1. Bertel's A.E. Khudozhestvennyy obraz v iskusstve Irana IX-XV vv. M., 1997.
2. Bertel's E.E. Istoriya persidsko-tadzhikskoy literatury. M., 1960.
3. Bertel's E.E. Izbrannye trudy. Sufizm i sufiyskaya literatura M., 1965.
4. Nasyrov I.R. Osnovaniya islamskogo mistitsizma (genezis i evolyutsiya). M.: Yazyki slavyanskikh kul'tur, 2009.
5. Shimmel' Annemari. Mir islamskogo mistitsizma / Per. s angl. N.I. Prigarinoy, A.S. Rappoport. 2-e izd., ispr. i dop. M.: OOO Sadra, 2012.
6. Attar and the Persian Sufi Tradition: the art of spiritual flight/edited by Leonard Lewisohn and Christopher Shackle. London; New York: I.B. Tauris; London: in association with the institute of Ismaili Studies, 2006.
7. Furuzanfar, B. Sharh-i ahwal wa naqd-u tahlil-i athar-i Shaykh Farid al-Din Muhammad ‘Attar-i Nishapuri. 2nd ed. Tehran, 1994.
8. Manteq at-Tayr/Attar (Farid ad-Din Muhammad ben Ibrahim Nishaburi); muqaddamah, tashih va taaliqat-i Muhammad Reza Shafii Kadkani. Tehran, 2009.
9. Sajjadi J. Luughat-u istilahat-u ta’birat-i irfani. Tehran, 1971