Conference of the Birds: A Study of Farid ud-Din Attar's Poem Using Jali Diwani Calligraphy

'The Conference of the Birds', written in the 12th century by the Persian poet and mystic Farid ud-Din Attar, tells how the birds of the world gather in order to search for a mythological king, the Simorgh. Each of the birds represents a different human type. Farah K. Behbehani has selected stories from this great work of Persian literature (in English verse translation) about thirteen of the birds and their journey, illustrating the Arabic name of each bird in Jali Diwani calligraphy, an ornamental cursive script developed by the Ottomans. A line from the Arabic version of the poem that captures the essence of each bird's story is also illustrated calligraphically. This exquisite and beautifully designed book concludes with a glossary of the Arabic alphabet in Jali Diwani script and interpretations of the letters according to Sufi mystical values.
'The Conference of The Birds' will be published by Thames & Hudson in June 2009

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Entertainment

Tags:

• Persian poetry
• Conference of the Birds
• Sufi
• mysticism
• mystic
• calligraphy
• Thames and Hudson
• Farah K. Behbehani
• Arabic calligraphy
• Diwani
• Persia
• Iran
• books

[ArtHafez]

Where can I buy this book?

[yourizen1]

There are copies available in Amazon.com

[MsTrance1]

ARABIC??? THIS IS PERSIAN >:(

[harkabir]

Such a great effort. Thank you and best of luck.

[Malangsufi]

This book is wonderful both in content and in style, thank you, cannot wait to buy it :)

[spicyhotsauce13]

Attar and his poetry stem first and foremost from a Persian background and mindset, despite its Arabic title and a few references to Islam due to the ever present Islamic oppression in 12 century Persia. In this poem Attar attempts to invalidate Islam, or any other man-made religion, as a fake intermediary between humans and God. After all, life's journey is predicated on knowing our true god, which is us--not some external entity named Allah.

[xtremeownage2]

Please check out the poem by Hazrat Fariduddin Attar (Rah) on my channel!

It is on the side!

[txc876]

Beautiful.