The travel story as the structure-forming basis for Attar poems

Abstract

There is no consensus among scholars about the Masnavi composition by Farid ad-Din ‛Attar (fl. 12th–13thcent. AD), the great Persian Sufi poet. The question of whether these poems were written spontaneously or whether there is a structure, which was thought out in advance remains open. The article offers an attempt to answer this question. It comprises a comparative analysis of the structure of three Masnavi poems by Farid ad-Din ‛Attar: Mantiq at-Tayr (“Language of the Birds”), Musibat-nameh (“Book of Suffering”) and Ilahi-nameh (“Book of God”). The starting point is the poem Mantiq at-Tayr, which illustrates the ‛Attar concept of the so-called “valleys”, i.e. the stages, which mark the spiritual path of those striving for the Eternal and Divine Truth. This Path is alluded to by the flight of birds. All three Masnavis are considered in the article as a unity where the pivotal points of the narrative are determined by the stages of the path described in the Mantiq at-Tayr. At the same time, the poems do not duplicate, however, enlarge and enrich each other.