 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|||||
|
 |
 |
Biography of Farid ed-Din AttarName: Farid ed-Din AttarBirth Date: c. 1140 Death Date: c. 1234 Place of Birth: N/A Nationality: Persian Gender: Male Occupations: poet, mystic Farid ed-Din Attar Farid ed-Din Attar (ca. 1140-ca. 1234) was a Persian poet and Sufi mystic. Living during a turbulent era of political uncertainty, he turned inward, exploring the realm of God and paths to Him through mystical poetry.Little about Attar is known with certainty. His name (literally, perfume of roses) indicates that, like his father, he was a druggist and followed the calling of a medical man. Supposedly reliable Persian sources vary in the year of his death by a span of 43 years. One reason for this obscurity is that, unlike other Islamic poets, he did not write flattering panegyrics about his own life and greatness. This is to his personal credit but unfortunate for the historian. We are certain only of the fact that he was born in Nishapur in northeastern Persia; he passed 13 years of his youth in Mashad and spent much of his life collecting the poetry of other …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…his death, Attar met a young poet, Rumi, to whom he gave some of his philosophical poems. Rumi perpetuated and added to the philosophical development of Sufism and the understanding of Attar. Further Reading Two of Attar's works have been translated into English. S. C. Nott translated Conference of the Birds (1954); and Bankey Behari (1961) and A. J. Arberry (1966) published abridged translations of Memoirs of Saints, both with excellent introductions. The best works about Attar are Eduard G. Browne, A Literary History of Persia, vol. 2 (1906), and Margaret Smith, ed., The Persian Mystics: Attar (1932). Attar is represented in A. J. Arberry, Aspects of Islamic Civilization as Depicted in the Original Texts (1964), and James Kritzeck, ed., Anthology of Islamic Literature: From the Rise of Islam to Modern Times (1966). For a discussion of the Sufism of Attar see A. J. Arberry, Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam (1950), and Idries Shah, The Sufis (1964). |