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The Conference of the Birds
by Farid ud-Din Attar

By far one of the best books I read. It is a 4500 line poem in rhyming verse about 30 birds who go on a journey to the legendary Simorgh, but to get to him they have to traverse through many lands, desserts, valleys, and all along the way they keep loosing hope, but their leader on the journey the Hoopoe encourages them by telling them a story to learn a lesson. It has one of the best stories I ever read in it, the lines are short and easy to read. Though the birds are frail and small, and most don't think they can make it on such a long journey, or don't even believe they are worthy of reaching the Simorgh, in the end they reach the end and find a surpise waiting for them. I would definitely recommend it to everyone who wants something light hearted, deeply powerful, and enjoyable read. What amazes me is that it was written in Persian a thousand years ago, and it still comes off amazingly beautiful in English, and the story is still as good as it was back then.

ma saan ba ku daambeeysaay ?? inaa buug shimbiro aakhriisoo

Knight of Wisdom wrote:I read it a while back too. I came to a conclusion that the story is a replica of that of the story of Prophet Suliaman or at least they've used bits of pieces from different Biblical/Quranic stories from the past to make this book.

Dude, it was written by a muslim a thousand years ago, so yes he uses a lot of muslim anologies, archetypes, and background knowledge.


qoraxeey read it.

Perfect are you a sufi?

Ismail no, but it is a really good book.