Point of View

Farid al-Din Attar is a Persian poet who completes writing The Conference of the Birds in 1177 CE. Attar studies theology, is attached to the shrine of the Imam Reza at Mashhad, and later travels widely, seeking knowledge, and collecting an important volume of Muslim saints' lives. Settling in his hometown, Neishapour, Attar is charged with heresy for his poetry, is banished, but continues writing about mystical poets who are persecuted. He returns to Neishapour before he dies ca. 1220.

The 4,500-line poem offers an allegorical pilgrimage by the birds to see their king. As a narrative, it is generally told in the third person past tense. Most of the time, Attar speaks through a hoopoe bird, which in the Qur'an ("Ants" 27:20-28), undertakes a mission for King Solomon to investigate rumors that the land of Sheba is ruled by a woman and worships the sun rather than...