Conference of the Birds (Attar)

About Conference of the Birds (Attar)

The Mantiq al-Tayr (Conference of the Birds, also translated as The Speech of the Birds) is the allegorical masterpiece of the Persian Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar (c. 1145-1221 CE) of Nishapur in Khorasan. In approximately 4,500 couplets, the poem tells the story of the birds of the world who gather to seek their king, the mythical Simorgh (a figure from Persian mythology analogous to the phoenix). Led by the hoopoe — who represents the Sufi spiritual guide (murshid) — the birds undertake a perilous journey through seven valleys representing the stages of the Sufi path: the Valley of the Quest, the Valley of Love, the Valley of Knowledge, the Valley of Detachment, the Valley of Unity, the Valley of Bewilderment, and the Valley of Poverty and Annihilation.

The poem's climax contains a highly celebrated wordplays in Persian literature. When the thirty surviving birds (si morgh in Persian) finally reach the court of the Simorgh, they discover that they themselves are the Simorgh — the object of the quest was the quester all along. The divine king they sought outside themselves was their own deepest nature, revealed only after the journey had stripped away everything that obscured it.

Attar was a pharmacist (attar means 'perfumer' or 'druggist') in Nishapur who is said to have composed his mystical works while tending his shop. He was a generation older than Rumi, who explicitly acknowledged Attar's influence. According to a story whose historicity is uncertain but whose symbolic truth is undeniable, the young Rumi met the aged Attar as a boy when his family passed through Nishapur fleeing the Mongol invasion, and Attar recognized in the child the fire that would one day produce the Masnavi.

Content

The poem opens with the birds assembling and debating whether to undertake the journey. Each species of bird offers excuses for not going — the nightingale is attached to the rose, the hawk is content with its position at the king's wrist, the heron loves the ocean, the owl guards its treasure. The hoopoe answers each excuse with a teaching story that exposes the attachment beneath it and demonstrates the necessity of the quest.

The journey through the seven valleys forms the structural spine of the poem. The Valley of the Quest demands that the traveler renounce everything familiar. The Valley of Love demands that the traveler burn with passion for the Beloved regardless of the cost. The Valley of Knowledge reveals that understanding is infinite and that the seeker must surrender the pretense of comprehension. The Valley of Detachment requires the release of all attachment, including attachment to spiritual experiences. The Valley of Unity reveals that the multiplicity of creation is the expression of a single divine reality. The Valley of Bewilderment dissolves the last traces of conceptual understanding. The Valley of Poverty and Annihilation completes the dissolution of the separate self.

Of the thousands of birds who set out, only thirty complete the journey. At the court of the Simorgh, they see their own faces reflected in the divine presence and realize that si morgh (thirty birds) and Simorgh (the divine king) are one.

Key Teachings

The teaching that the seeker and the sought are one is the poem's central message, expressed through the si morgh / Simorgh wordplay. The divine reality you are seeking is your own deepest nature, obscured by the attachments, fears, and illusions that the spiritual journey strips away. You do not travel to God; you travel into your own truth.

The seven valleys map the progressive stages of the Sufi path with precision and beauty. Each valley represents a specific transformation of consciousness: from curiosity to passion, from passion to knowledge, from knowledge to detachment, from detachment to unity, from unity to bewilderment, and from bewilderment to annihilation. The sequence is both a map of the spiritual journey and a description of the deepening encounters with reality that each stage brings.

The teaching stories embedded throughout the poem address every obstacle the seeker is likely to encounter: attachment to beauty, wealth, comfort, reputation, knowledge, and even spiritual experience. Each story demonstrates that the obstacle is not the thing itself but the attachment to it — and that the cure is not renunciation of the world but the redirection of love toward its true object.

The teaching that most seekers abandon the journey before its completion is developed with compassionate realism. Of the thousands who set out, only thirty arrive. The spiritual path is not for the faint-hearted; it demands everything and gives everything in return.

Translations

The standard English translations include Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis's verse translation (Penguin Classics, 1984), the most widely read and critically acclaimed version, and Sholeh Wolpe's more recent rendering (W.W. Norton, 2017). Peter Avery's prose translation (2000) provides a scholarly alternative. The Darbandi-Davis translation is recommended for its combination of accuracy, beauty, and accessibility.

Controversy

The primary scholarly debates concern the dating of the poem and the interpretation of its Sufi allegory — whether the seven valleys represent specific stages of the Sufi maqamat (stations) or a more general poetic rendering of the spiritual journey. The relationship between Attar's biographical details and the poem's content is also debated, as relatively little is known about Attar's life with certainty.

Influence

The Conference of the Birds has shaped Sufi literature, Persian poetry, and Islamic mystical thought for over eight centuries. Its seven-valley model has become the standard framework for teaching the Sufi path. Its influence on Rumi transmitted its vision to the Mevlevi tradition and through Rumi to the entire world.

In the modern West, the poem has become a widely read works of Sufi literature, valued both as a literary masterpiece and as a practical guide to the spiritual journey. It has been adapted into theatrical performances, children's stories, and visual art, and continues to inspire seekers from every tradition.

Significance

The Conference of the Birds is the most celebrated allegorical poem in Sufi literature and one of the masterpieces of Persian poetry. Its seven-valley structure has become the standard model for mapping the stages of the Sufi path, and its si morgh / Simorgh climax has become the most famous literary expression of the mystical teaching that the seeker and the sought are one.

The poem's influence on Rumi alone would be sufficient to establish its historical importance. Rumi acknowledged Attar as a primary influence, and the Masnavi's digressive, story-rich, associative style is directly indebted to the method Attar pioneered in the Conference of the Birds.

Connections

The Conference of the Birds' teaching that the seeker and the sought are one parallels the Ashtavakra Gita's radical declaration that you are already free and the Platform Sutra's teaching that your own mind is Buddha. All three traditions arrive at the same insight through different paths: the divine, the absolute, the awakened nature you seek is what you already are.

The seven valleys structure parallels the Vivekachudamani's progressive stripping away of false identifications and the Visuddhimagga's progressive stages of purification, concentration, and insight. All three texts map a journey from surface identification to depth realization through stages of increasing subtlety.

The poem's direct influence on Rumi's Masnavi creates a lineage within Sufi literature that parallels the lineage from Epictetus through the Enchiridion and Discourses to Marcus Aurelius's Meditations in the Stoic tradition — each subsequent work building on and transforming its predecessor.

The Yoga Vasistha's use of stories-within-stories to demonstrate the dream-like nature of reality parallels Attar's method of embedding teaching stories within the narrative frame of the journey, using story itself as a vehicle for consciousness transformation.

The birds' excuses for not undertaking the journey — attachment to beauty, comfort, wealth, and position — mirror the obstacles to philosophical life that Seneca addresses in his Letters: the same human tendencies toward comfort and avoidance that prevent genuine transformation.

Further Reading