TEHRAN – Thursday marked the national day of Attar of Neyshabur, a great Persian poet, mystic, and philosopher.
Abu Hamid bin Abu Bakr Ibrahim also known as Farid ud-Din, was born in the city of Neyshabur in northeast Iran. It is believed that he lived between c. 1145 – c. 1221.
Attar means apothecary and the nickname was given to him due to his profession. He was probably the son of a prosperous chemist, which received excellent education in various fields. He practiced the profession of pharmacy. The people he helped in the pharmacy used to confide their troubles in Attar and this affected him deeply.
Eventually, he abandoned his pharmacy store and traveled extensively, seeking wisdom in Baghdad, Basra, Kufa, Mecca, Medina, Damascus, Khwarizm, Turkistan, and India, before finally returning to his birthplace Neyshabur.
Attar is one of the most famous mystic poets of Iran. His works were the inspiration of Rumi, Hafiz, Jami, Nava’i and many other mystic poets.
Ilahi-Nama, Mukhtar-Nama, Musibat-Nama, Jawahir-Nama, Sarh al-Qalb, Divan, Tadhkirat-ul-Awliya (Memorial of the Saints) and Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr (The Conference of the Birds) are among his major works.
Considered by Rumi to be “the master” of mystic poetry, Attar is best known for ‘The Conference of the Birds’, a magnificent allegorical tale about the soul’s search for meaning. He recounts the perilous journey of the world’s birds to the faraway peaks of Mount Qaf in search of the mysterious Simorgh, their king. Attar’s beguiling anecdotes and humor intermingle the sublime with the mundane, the spiritual with the worldly, while his poem models the soul’s escape from the mind’s rational embrace.
At the age of 78, Attar died a violent death in a massacre which the invading hordes of Mongols inflicted on Neyshabur in April 1221. Today, his mausoleum stands in the city, where a number of literati and scholars gather to mark his day.