Farid al-Din Attar, author of the book here presented
in an abridged translation, is to be
accounted amongst the greatest poets of Persia;
his dimensions as a literary genius increase with
the further investigation of his writings, which
are still far from completely explored, though
welcome progress has been made of late in their
publication. The existence of a number of
remarkable studies of Attar, listed in the
Bibliography below, absolves the present writer
from the necessity of going into lengthy detail
about the keenly disputed details of his life and
works.
Here it will suffice to state that he
appears to have died between a.d. 1220 and
1230 at an advanced age, possibly at the hands
of the Mongol invaders of Persia; the traditional
account that he was born in 1119 and murdered
precisely in 1230 is now generally rejected. Of
the very numerous epics and idylls ascribed to
Attar perhaps nine may be recognized as authentic.
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Sufism is the name given to the mystical move-ment
within Islam; a Sufi is a Muslim who dedicates
himself to the quest after mystical union
(or, better said, reunion) with his Creator The
name is Arabic in origin, being derived from the
word suf meaning “wool”; the Sufis were distin-guishable
from their fellows by wearing a habit
of coarse woollen cloth, in time when silks and
brocades had become the fashion of the wealthy
and mundane-minded, symbolic of their renunci-ation
of worldly values and their abhorrence for
physical comforts.
Mystical awareness was certainly present in
the Prophet Mohammad’s attitude to Allah, and
“mystical” is an entirely appropriate adjective to
describe his many experiences of supernatural
Presence making contact through him with a
message to mankind. The Koran, the book of
Allah’s revelations to Mohammad, contains
numerous passages of a mystical character
which the Sufis seized upon eagerly to buttress
their own claims to personal trafficking with
God.
On To 'Muslim Saints and Mystics'
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