1 / 17

The Conference of the Birds Mantiq ut-tayr (Language of the Birds) Farid ud-Din Attar

The Conference of the Birds Mantiq ut-tayr (Language of the Birds) Farid ud-Din Attar. The birds [of the world] assemble and the hoopoe tells them of the Simorgh The world’s birds gathered for their conference And said: ‘Our constitution makes no sense.

riversj
Download Presentation

The Conference of the Birds Mantiq ut-tayr (Language of the Birds) Farid ud-Din Attar

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Conference of the Birds Mantiq ut-tayr (Language of the Birds) Farid ud-Din Attar

  2. The birds [of the world] assemble and the hoopoe tells them of the Simorgh The world’s birds gathered for their conference And said: ‘Our constitution makes no sense. All nations in the world require a king; How is it we alone have no such thing? Only a kingdom can be justly run; We need a king and must inquire for one.’ The hoopoe tells the birds that in fact they have a King and it is the Simorgh. Gr. Allegoria: allos (other) + agoria (speaking) = speaking differently, figuratively, indirectly Hoopoe Hüdhüd Kuşu

  3. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”

  4. (Tawhid or Wahdat al-Wujud) The Conference of the Birds is a work explaining (teaching) the Sufi doctrine to its audience “…only God truly exists, all other things are an emanation [tazahur] of Him, or are His ‘shadow’ (…) the awakened soul, guided by God’s grace, can progress along a ‘Way’ which leads to annihilation in God.” (Dick Davis, CofB, Penguin. p.12)

  5. The Seven Valleys the birds cross to find the Simorgh symbolize the Seven Stages (Doors) leading to the mystic’s self-annihilation and unity with God Cover of Neyzen Tevfik’s 1919 collection of poems, Hiç (Nothing / Nihil)

  6. Symbolism of Self-annihilation (Destruction of the Self / Nafs) • Black kaftan (nafs) • White shirt and dress (shroud) • Brown sikke (tomb-stone)

  7. Farid ud-Din Attar (1142 – 1221?) • Born in Nishapour in north-east Iran, intellectual capital of the Khorasan region and one of the main centers of Sufism. He was an herbalist and doctor. • Said to have studied medicine and theology as a child with the prominent Sufi sheikh Majd ad-Din al-Baghdadi. - Also believed to have been initiated to the Way by the spirit of Mansur al-Hallaj who appeared to him in a dream.

  8. Mansur al-Hallaj (858 – 922) Ana al-Haqq (I am God / I am the Truth) Sufism is (was) esoteric because: • It goes counter to the established understanding and practice of religion - Hence its teachings cannot be conveyed to everyone

  9. Sufism Sophos = knowledge, wisdom, philosophy Suf = a cloak made of coarse material, against display (and acquisition) of wealth and power, rejecting the pompous practices in Islamic communities After Muhammad: Abu Baqr, Omar, Uthman, Ali Consolidation of the Islamic State: Umayyad Caliphate (661 – 750) Abbasid Caliphate (750 – 1258)  emergence of Sufism as a movement in Baghdad Sources: The Kor’an Hadith Qudsi Sunnah (Sayings and deeds of the Prophet) Neoplatonism founded by Plotinus (204-270 CE)

  10. First Shahada as method for Sufism: La ilaha illa Allah (there is no god but God – no [worldly] power [idol] to worship except…) ‘’…as confirmation of their belief that a worshipper must first pursue via negativa… …one could then set out on the via positiva, leading to the meeting with God, who stands at the end of the journey.’’ Franklin D. Lewis, Rumi: Past and Present, East and West. Oneworld, 2000. (pp.129-30)

  11. The quest is arduous; the Way is scary: The Nightingale’s excuse My love is for the rose; I bow to her; From her dear presence I could never stir. If she should disappear the nightingale Would lose his reason and his song would fail, And though my grief is one that no bird knows, One being understands my heart -- the rose. I am so drowned in love that I can find No thought of my existence in my mind. Her worship is sufficient life for me; The quest for her is my reality (And nightingales are not robust or strong; The path to find the Simorgh is too long).

  12. The hoopoe’s answer to the Nightingale: Dear nightingale, This superficial love which makes you quail Is only for the outward show of things. Renounce delusion and prepare your wings For our great quest; sharp thorns defend the rose And beauty such as hers too quickly goes. True love will see such empty transience For what it is -- a fleeting turbulence That fills your sleepless nights with grief and blame -- Forget the rose’s blush and blush for shame! Each spring she laughs, not for you, as you say, But at you -- and has faded in a day.

  13. The Seven Valleys on the Sufi’s Way (way of negation and way of affirmation combined) • Seeking, demanding, search (talab) • Love (‘ishq) • Intuitive knowledge, mystic apprehension (ma’rifat) • Detachment, independence (istighna’) • Experiencing union with the Divine, unity (tawhid) • Perplexity, bewilderment, awe (hayrat) • Poverty and nothingness, fulfillment in annihilation (faqr u fana) Subsistence in God (baqa)

  14. Allegory of “The moths and the flame” tells the story of ‘ishq, the flames of passion, thanks to which one emerges in “the state of union.” But, the hoopoe warns (Attar’s predicament): To go beyond all knowledge is to find That comprehension which eludes the mind, And you can never gain the longed-for goal Until you first outsoar both flesh and soul; But should one part remain, a single hair will drag you back and plunge you in despair – No creature’s Self can be admitted here, Where all identity must disappear.

  15. “But should one part remain, a single hair will drag you back and plunge you in despair” After the fifth valley (unity with the Divine, tawhid)comes the valley of perplexity and bewilderment (hayrat) The remaining part here is the intellect, reason orcomprehension (‘aql) Thirty birds (si morgh) at last meet the Simorgh and understandthat He is them (and vice versa) 5. Experiencing union with the Divine, unity (tawhid) 6. Perplexity, bewilderment, awe (hayrat) 7. Poverty and nothingness, fulfillment in annihilation (faqr u fana) Subsistence in God (baqa)

  16. There in the Simorgh’s radiant face they saw Themselves, the Simorgh of the world – with awe They gazed, and dared at last to comprehend They were the Simorgh and the journey’s end. They see the Simorgh – at themselves they stare, And see a second Simorgh standing there; They look at both and see the two are one, That this is that, that this, the goal is won.

  17. End of the poem: Attarexpresses his dilemma (or paradox): (The thirty birds) saw Their Selves had been restored to them once more, That after Nothingness they had attained Eternal Life, and self-hood was regained. This Nothingness, this Life, are states no tongue At any time has adequately sung – Those who can speak still wander far away From the dark truth they struggle to convey, And by analogies they try to show The forms men’s partial knowledge cannot know. Language is unable to convey the Truth! Mantiq = Logos = language/speech = reason/intellect (Mantiq ut-Tayr)

More Related