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Statue of Attar in Nishapur (Iran). Photograph by Nik Pendaar See also Chapter 59, 'Simorgh' in The Republic of Rumi: a Novel of Reality

Sheikh Fariduddin Attar of Nishapur (c.1145-c.1221) was among the pioneers of Persian Sufi poetry along with Hakeem Sanai and Nezami Ganjavi. He was a prolific writer of prose as well. Since he achieved a legendary status in the later centuries, a number of books got attributed to him for various reasons (including polemical), and the authorship of many such titles remain disputed among scholars. In any case, for a majority of readers his reputation rests on two outstanding works that are definitely his own: The Conference of the Birds (Mantiqu Tayr) in poetry and The Account of the Saints (Tazkirah tul Auliya) in prose.

He was a major influence on Rumi, and, needless to say, on Iqbal. Around 1917, when Iqbal was planning to write a history of the future, he intended it to be “a kind of a new Conference of the Birds”.

The Conference is an epic story of birds setting out in search of their unseen king, Simorgh. Only thirty survive the perilous journey across the seven valleys that lie on their path, and eventually each bird finds itself looking at itself – in Persian, “si” means thirty, and “morgh” means birds, and hence thirty birds looking at themselves turns out to be “Simorgh”, but he is more than the sum of its parts.

The story is often treated as a parable about the Ultimate Ego, i.e. God, but in the light of Iqbal’s worldview it can be interpreted, perhaps even more satisfactorily, as a parable about the collective ego, i.e. the soul of all human beings: we shall achieve a real collective ego if every human being discovers his or her individuality simultaneously.

The seven valleys can be treated variously as the seven stages in the development of an individual, a society, or the entire human civilization. These valleys, lucidly described in the poem, are: