#attar

[victusinveritas]

Attar's The Concourse of the Birds, Folio 11r from a Mantiq al-tair (Language of the Birds) ca. 1600

Painting by Habiballah of Sava.

#sufism #birds #illustrations #attar

[tsalmu]

Divine Couple of Adad & Ishtar (Attar)? From the palace of Aramean King Kapara Aleppo, Syria c. 800 BCE Housed in Syria-Aleppo Museum

#aram #aramea #syria #aleppo #baal #baal hadad #Adad #adda #addu #haddu #ishtar #attar #ashtart #astarte #atargatis #syrian gods #aramean gods #polytheism #syrian costume #aramean costume #divine pair #divine couple

[loneberry]

"Attar is one of the greatest poets of the Persian language. Nonetheless, his popularity - both in Iran itself and in the West (Goethe, for example, touched on him only briefly in his West-Eastern Divan) - does not match that of Ferdowsi (d. 1020), Omar Khayyam (d. c.1132), Rumi, Saadi (d. 1292) or Hafiz (d. 1389); occasionally he is even omitted from the line of seven Persian poet-princes in favour of Jami (d. 1492). One pos­sible reason for this is that the composition of his poetry is too artful, too complex to be effective in the town squares and teahouses, while at the same time, many of his stories and figures may seem too coarse, too folk-like and too sarcastic to be at the forefront of the high spir­itual literature cultivated at courts in former times and in middle-class households today. Attar’s poetry, on the other hand, is far less stilted than that of most Persian poets but, rather, unadorned, clear and imme­diate. The pain it expresses is not spiritually filtered as in Rumi, far less metaphysically elevated than in Saadi, and not sublimated into pleasure as in Omar Khayyam - where Hafiz turns the earthly into the mystical, Attar strips mysticism down to its leaden, earthly foundation in order to scream his longing to the heavens." --Navid Kermani, The Terror of God: Attar, Job and the Metaphysical Revolt

.

I asked my professor which masnavi (Persian epic poem) he thinks is the greatest ever written. He replied, Rumi's Masnavi (the only masnavi Rumi wrote). Shock. How can there be a masnavi greater than Attar's Conference of the Birds? (There are 4 authentic Attar masnavis; sadly, as far as I know, Conference of the Birds is the only one that has been translated into English.) Reading through Rumi's masnavi I think I am still team Attar. It's Attar's coarseness I love--he is a poet of mad saints and freaks. In Rumi's Masnavi, the absence of a frame story and the pious/didactic tone is somewhat of a barrier for me. The pieces don't quite hang together, whereas Attar's Conference of the Birds is intricately structured--there are stories within stories within stories, each bird with its idiosyncratic psychology--a narrative arc that mirrors the journey of the soul across the seven valleys. But maybe there is a difference between reading a sufi text for its poetry rather than religious instruction, I don't know.

#attar #Rumi #persian poetry #poetry #literature #masnavi #Navid Kermani #islam #islamic mysticism #islamic literature #mysticism #sufism #sufi literature

[rose1water]

His part is Mercy and ours is endless praise.

— Farīd al-Dīn ʻAṭṭār, The Conference of the Birds

#attar #the conference of the birds

[morethansalad]

Homemade Attar / Middle Eastern Rose Water Syrup (Vegan)

#vegan #condiments #middle eastern cuisine #west asian cuisine #diy #attar #rosewater #orange blossom water #lemon #simple syrup

[chroniclesofnadia111]

The shop is called Scents by Skanda on Etsy ❤️

#me #perfume #perfumery #small business #independent shops #attar #oud #oud perfume #attars #aromatherapy #scent alchemy #scent healing #healing #Ayurvedic #niche perfume #incense #essential oils #blackgirlmagic #blacktumblr

[holyfigtree]

ʿAttār, Conference of the Birds

#attar #conference of the birds

[dateinmarsh]

And he said: this route, is first the need,

Then isolation,

Then grief,

And finally, awakening.

Tazkirat al-Awliya, Attar

#attar #persian #my translation

[mukadderat]

“Ne kimsenin gönlündeyim, ne kendi gönlümden haberim var..”

#attar #kitap alıntıları #mukadderat

[meecnuunsuzleylaaa]

#attar #şiirimsi #yapraklar #bitkiler

[howieabel]

“The home we seek is in eternity; The Truth we seek is like a shoreless sea, Of which your paradise is but a drop. This ocean can be yours; why should you stop Beguiled by dreams of evanescent dew? The secrets of the sun are yours, but you Content yourself with motes trapped in its beams. Turn to what truly lives, reject what seems -- Which matters more, the body or the soul? Be whole: desire and journey to the Whole.” ― Attar of Nishapur

#Attar

[raisongardee]

"Tu marches dans la tempête, l’esprit plein d’illusions, une lampe à la main. Ne crains-tu pas que cette lumière précaire ne s’éteigne subrepticement ? La lampe éteinte, tu tomberas dans le puits. Ecervelé, prends la route avant qu’il ne soit trop tard ! Par un tel vent, la flamme est fragile. Une fois morte, il ne te restera d’elle ni signe, ni trace. Alors tu auras beau chercher, personne au monde ne te fera signe."

Farididdin Attar, Le Livre de l’Epreuve, trad. Isabelle de Gastines, XIIIe siècle.

#attar #soufisme #mystique

[loneberry]

—Al-Ghazali on perception and dream divination, from The Alchemy of Happiness

Random notes on my Hallaj printout

I’m immensely enjoying my Sufi literature class but it fills me with such grief. There is so much literature that has not been translated from Persian and Arabic into English. Even Ibn ‘Arabi’s magnum opus The Meccan Revelations has not been translated (well, it is like a trillion pages long). I could not even find a full translation of chapter 178 on love!

Attar has an untranslated text called The Book of Affliction. The professor of my class says, “It’s REALLY good.” It pains me that I can’t read it, but I’ve been hunting for snippets in the Anglophone scholarship on Attar. O how my heart burns to read this book!!

Attar mania.

#al ghazali #literature #poetry #persian poetry #arabic poetry #hallaj #sufism #Sufi literature #mysticism #islamic mysticism #islam #attar

[rose1water]

"For the lovers the remedy for every pain is the Qur'an."

—ʿAttār, Conference of the Birds

دوای درد عشاقست قرآن

#attar

[morethansalad]

Awameh / Arab Fried Dough Balls (Vegan)

#vegan #desserts #syrian cuisine #middle eastern cuisine #west asian cuisine #awameh #yeast #attar #rosewater #lemon #cornstarch #coconut sugar #olive oil #sea salt #pistachios #edible flowers #rose

[tsalmu]

Unidentified Goddess - Astarte? Atargatis? Ishtar? Allat? with Tyche Palmyra, Syria c. 150 CE? Source: The Pantheon of Palmyra by Javier Teixidor, 1979 Inscription reads: [ASh]TRA T.BTA, which Teixidor translates as "The Good Goddess". (see p.79 for more discussion)

#goddess #unidentified goddess #astarte #attar #atargatis #ashtart #ishtar #canaanite paganism #canaanite polytheism #canaanite gods #levantine paganism #phoenician #phoenician paganism #phoenician polytheism #phoenician gods #syrian paganism #syrian polytheism #syrian gods #natib qadish #pagan #paganblr #paganism #polytheism #witchcraft #witchblr #magic #occult #tyche