The New International Encyclopædia/Farīd-ud-Dīn ʿAṭṭār

FARĪD-UD-DĪN ʿAṬṬĀR, fȧ-rēd′ ụd dēn ȧt-tär′ (c.1119-1229). A Persian poet and mystic. He was the son of a druggist, brought up to his father's business, and his real name was Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, his better-known appellation, Farīd-ud-Dīn ʿAttār (‘the pearl of the faith, the druggist’), being a poet's name, or takhallus. His life of 110 years was spent in the neighborhood of the city of Naishâpur. During the invasion of Genghiz Khan he fell a victim to an ignorant Mongol soldier. He studied the mystic philosophy of the Sufis, and was its principal representative after his pupil Jalāl ud-Dīn Rūmī. He was a voluminous writer, leaving no fewer than 120,000 couplets of poetry. His most famous work is the “Mantiq ut-Tair,” or parliament of birds, an allegorical poem, according to which the birds, weary of anarchy, longed for a king. As the hoopoe who had guided Solomon through the desert best knows what a king should be, he is asked whom they shall choose. “The Simurgh in the Caucasus,” is his reply. But the way to the Caucasus is long and dangerous, and most of the birds excuse themselves from the journey. A few, however, set out; but by the time they reach the great King's court, their number is reduced to thirty. The thirty birds, wing-weary and hunger-stricken, at length gain access to their chosen monarch, the Simurgh; but only to find that they strangely lose their identity in his presence—that they are he, and he is they. Consult: Garcin de Tassy, Mantic uttaïr ou le langage des oiseaux, poème de philosophie religieuse, par Farid-uddin Attar (Paris, 1857-63); Fitzgerald, Salāmān and Absál . . . together with A Bird's-Eye View of Farid-uddin Attar's Bird-Parliament, edited by Dole (Boston, 1899).