Farīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥamid Muḥammad ʿAṭṭār lived and died in Nishapur. Though he was little known beyond his city as a poet, his enduring legacy can perhaps be summarised by Rumi: Attar has roamed through the seven cities of love while we have barely turned down the first street.

(1) Attar was born in Nishapur around 1145CE during the reign of Abbasid caliph al-Muqtafī who finally succeeded in asserting the caliphate militarily against their supposed Sunni Seljuk Turkic vassals. Ghazzali had passed away in the conveniently memorable 1111CE leaving his enduring influence upon Sunni-Sufi high culture. What more can we say about his socio-political and cultural context?

(2) Attar seemed to have been little known beyond his city. His family business appears to be a pharmacy. What more can we say about his personal biography?

(3) Attar is best known for his Conference of the Birds. Give us a guide to reading that work, and tell us about his other works.

(4) What translations and secondary resources would you recommend on Attar?

(5) And finally let’s end with a sample and translation.

Further Reading

The Conference of the Birds (translated by Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis)

Religion of Love: Sufism and Self-Transformation in the Poetic Imagination of ʿAṭṭār by Cyrus Ali Zargar

Ali Hammoud:
https://alihammoud7.substack.com/

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Hakim Abul-Majd Majdūd ibn Ādam, better known as Sanai, was an influential poet of Sufism who was attached to the Ghaznavid court in modern day Afghanistan. His major work The Walled Garden of Truth has been an enduring classic. An adaption of his verses were quoted at the end of the 2017 Hollywood film The Shape of Water.

Q1. Sanai was born 1080CE. During his life the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad were clashing with internal enemies from their supposed Seljuk vassal, engaged in a Cold War with Fatimid Cairo, and reckoning with Crusaders in the Levant. And the Almohads would established themselves in North Africa. What more can we say about his socio-political and cultural context?

Q2. Sanai was associated with the last Ghaznavid ruler Bahram Shah who reigned from 1117-1152. What do we know about the life of Sanai considering I found three different dates for his death?

Q3. Sanai is considered the first poet to use the qasidah (ode), ghazal (lyric), and the masnavi (rhymed couplet) to express the philosophical, mystical and ethical ideas of Sufism. Describe for us his works.

Q4. What translations and secondary resources would you recommend on Sanai?

Q5. And finally lets end with a sample and translation

Ali Hammoud:
https://x.com/AliHammoud7777
https://alihammoud7.substack.com/

We are sponsored by IHRC bookshop. Listeners get a 15% discount on all purchases. Visit IHRC bookshop at shop.ihrc.org and use discount code AHP15 at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Contact IHRC bookshop for details.

Writing to his brother from prison in 1949, a young African American man opens his letter citing these lines from a medieval Persian poet:

Indeed the Idols I have loved so long,

Have done my credit in this World much Wrong:

Have dropped my Glory in a shallow Cup,

And sold my Reputation for a song

The writer would later achieve acclaim as the civil rights activist Malcolm X, and the lines he was citing were by Omar Khayyam, the subject of today’s episode.

Q1. Omar Khayyam was born in 1048CE in Nishapur, Iran. The Abbasid caliph in Baghdad was al-Qāʾim which was witnessing a so-called Sunni Revival with the ousting of the Caspian Zaydi Shia Buyid de facto control of the caliphate by the Turkic Sunni Seljuks in 1055CE. The Cold War with the rival Ismaili ShiaFatimid caliphate of Cairo was still at its height. Tell us more about the world of Omar Khayyam.

Q2. He had an exemplary education becoming an authority in mathematics. He was employed as a head astronomer by the Seljuk regime and after the death of Sultan Malik-Shah, Omar Khayyam made hajj seemingly to allay suspicions about his own religious alignment. What else do we know about his life?

Q3. Omar Khayyam is known in English through the popular Victorian translation by Edward Fitzgerald. But is it misleading to limit our knowledge of him to these series of translated quatrains.

Q4. Omar Khayyam dies in 1131 aged 83 in his hometown. What has been his legacy, influence and genealogy?

Q5. And finally before we end, please share with us a sample of Omar Khayyam’s work in the original Persian with the translation.

Further reading:
The Wine of Wisdom: The Life, Poetry and Philosophy of Omar Khayyam — Mehdi Aminrazavi (original translations with an appendix dedicated to the Fitzgerald translations)

Ali Hammoud:
https://x.com/AliHammoud7777
https://alihammoud7.substack.com/

We are sponsored by IHRC bookshop. Listeners get a 15% discount on all purchases. Visit IHRC bookshop at shop.ihrc.org and use discount code AHP15 at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Contact IHRC bookshop for details.