Read Book Online : http://www.archive.org/stream/counselsattar00agoog#page/n133/mode/2up

Download pdf Book : http://ia600406.us.archive.org/10/items/counselsattar00agoog/counselsattar00agoog.pdf

Thanks to Mita Chakravorty for suggesting a book by Attar.

Attar was one of the great sufi poets . Farid od Din Attar was born in Nishapur and lived about 1119-1220 (Another source mentions he lived about 1136-1230). He lived close to 100 years and was killed by the Mongol invaders. His tomb is in Nishapur Different stories are told about the death of Attar. One common story is as follow: He was captured by a Mongol. One day someone came along and offered a thousand pieces of silver for him. Attar told the Mongol not to sell him for that price since the price was not right. The Mongol accepted Attar's words and did not sell him. Later someone else comes along and offers a sack of straw for him. Attar counsels the Mongol to sell him because that is how much he is worth. The Mongol soldier becomes very angry and cuts off Attar's head so he dies to teach a lesson. Attar is one of the most ancient poets of Persia. His work has been the inspiration of Rumi and many other mystic poets of Persian Empire. Rumi considered Attar the spirit and Sanai the eyesight , both of whom his poetic masters. Attar met Rumi at the end of his life when Rumi was only a boy and gave his book Asrarnameh as a present to him. Attar took his name from his occupation. He was a druggist, perfumist and a doctor in addition to being a poet. Attar saw as many as 500 patients a day in his shop where he prescribed herbal extractions/medicine which he made himself. In his shop, he also wrote while seeing patients. Attar wrote 114 pieces, the same number of suras in the holy book of Koran. About thirty of his works survived. To name a few of his works are love stories, biographies of saints, Asrarnameh ("The Book of Secrets"), a collection of quatrains, Illahinameh ("The Book of God") and the last not the least, his most well known masterpiece of Mantiq at-Tayr ("The Bird of the Sky") known as "The Conference of the Birds" In The Book of God, he describes six human capacities and abilities: ego, imagination, intellect, thirst for knowledge, thirst for detachment, and thirst for unity. In The book of Secrets, he uses a collection of small stories to elevate the spiritual state of the reader. In "The Conference of the Birds," Attar explains seven valleys (veils) which the "Bird of the Sky" goes through and passes to meet Simurgh (God). This is a process that each of us goes through. What we make of ourselves and what we become, good or bad, happy or unhappy, satisfied or dissatisfied, we do ourselves.

can we read these books online??

Yes. The first comment is to 'Read Book Online' and the second comment is to 'Download pdf Book '.

no english?

Could we have an English translation of his works ?

thanks:-)

Most interesting story, and I believe it. The dates 1119-1220 seem more likely since that was the period when the Mongols (led by Chengiz Khan himself) were at the height of their fury. (They became a bit more civilized after that largely under Persian influence.) During the Mongol siege of Nishapur, the son-in-law of Chengiz Khan was accidentally killed by an arrow from the besieged. The Great Khan was furious; he ordered that the whole city be razed to the ground, levelled, and transformed into a field of alfalfa for the horses. The city along with its entire population was promptly obliterated out of existence. The present city of Nishapur was built at an adjacent site after many years. A similar incident occurred with Hazrat Amir Khusro in Multan where a Mongol soldier captured and enslaved him. The Mongol loaded Amir Khusro with all his dirty baggage and asked him to accompany him on foot under a blazing sun while the soldier himself was riding a horse. On the way, Amir Khusro quipped that "as a prince I never carried even a flower over my head and today I have to carry all this heavy baggage on my head as a prisoner". The rustic soldier quipped back "Just think of this baggage as a flower". Amir Khusro made important contributions to Indian classical music and poetry and is buried in the Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya complex in Delhi.

yeah, Mongols were one of the most ferocious ppl...but interesting too if v can b dispassionate abt them..look at the extent of their Empire ... the whole of Eurasia...

Asad, interesting story. I think the Mongol Empire represented the most drastic clash between the Nomad/hunter-gatherer and Agricultural way of life. The Mongols considered cities to be degenerate and full of pestilence and hence generally burnt them to the ground to create open pastures. Three other nomadic cultures brought their martial spirits to agricultural empires until well into the 20th century: Arabs, Germans, and Turks. The Packard Humanities Institute has an English translation. For my protection, :), go here first for fair use license agreement: http://persian.packhum.org The book is at: http://persian.packhum.org/persian/main?url=pf%3Ffile%3D02602030%26ct%3D0

Qamar: You did'nt ask how Amir Khusro got rid of the Mongol soldier. After marching for several hours under the mid-day sun, and suffering from extreme thirst, the Mongol finally found a small stream of water near Uch (Multan). The soldier immediately ran to the water and started drinking like a fish. So did the horse. Amir Khusro stayed behind, drinking slowly and intermittently. In a few minutes, both the Mongol soldier and his horse lay dead and Amir Khusro was free, and hastened back to Delhi. I may also add that his princess mother was the daughter of the Raja of Patiali (near Etah in U.P.) and this is why his unique poetry has one verse in Persian and the other in Hindi. Some say that that was the origin of Urdu although I think Urdu really started in Shajahanabad and the Deccan much later. Regards.

@ Asad - Amir Khusro's poetry represents Rekhta or a type of Hindi/Urdu, actually an earlier version of Urdu. Its also called as Hindwi... I think Khusro himself refers to it as Hindwi... Urdu reached definite contours of a language during Mughal times & Shahjahan gave it a formal name & recognition by calling it urdu originating from the camp/army. Different dialects of urdu existed in medieval times like Dakhani from Deccan, Gujari from Gujarat and urdu of North. Today only the north Indian version has survived infact struggling to survive.

Rashmi: The word Urdu seems to be quite recent. I say so since Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, in a laudatory introduction to Mirza Ghalib in his famous book "Asaar-e-Sanadid" (written around 1850) writes that "Mirza Asadullah Khan writes his poetry in Rekhta". There is no mention of the word 'Urdu' anywhere in his book (as far as I can remember). So I suspect the word evolved from Hindvi to Rekhta to Urdu. Thuis is true that the dominant Urdu is the language spoken in Delhi and Lucknow. It is a great shame that Urdu, a beautiful language, is on the decline in its country of birth.

Urdu language is a product of Indo-Persian interaction consequent upon the advent of Muslims in India in significant numbers in the 13th century. In the poetry of Amir Khusro (1253-1325) earliest exponent of the ghazal is found. Khusro blended Persian with Braj and an earlier form of Hindi : ज़ेहाले मिस्कीं मकुन तघाफुल दोराए नैना बनाये बतियाँ (Don’t ignore this poor and down and out. You turn away your eyes and try to fool me througfh your talk) किताबे हिज्राँ न दारम ऐ जान न लो काहे लगाये छात्तियां (O my love I do not possess the capacity to bear the pain and separation. Why won’t you press me against your chest) In verses like this Persian and Braj / Hindi stand face to face with their arms outstretched , poised , as if, for a handshake. In the poetry of Quli Qutub Shah they have already merged creating Rekhtaor Urdu. His language is a blend of Persian, Arabic, Hindi, Sanskrit, Deccany and even Punjabin and marks a aconsiderable improvement in the language of Amir Khusro. With the shifting of power to Delhi and Agra this Rekhta also travelled north and Persian influence on Rekhta became more pronounced with which it was to be interlaced forever.Under it’s influence the local Hindi diction sheds it’s rusticity and became a worthy counterpart to Persian. Persian grammar gave izafat (-e-) to join anoun either with it’s adjective or with it’s possessive.( e,g. Dil-e-nadaan) . This single device of izafat accounts in a large measure for the economy of and compression of Urdu verse. The practice of writing Persianised Urdu begun under the Muslim influence continued un-abated even after the disintegration of the Mughal empire (in fact it reached it’s zenith during the times of the last Mughal emperor with stalwarts like Ghalib, Momin embellishing it and taking it to dizzying heights) right through the time the British left India by which time it had acquired the status of a lingua franca in the North. Partition and Pakistan declaring it their national language however gave it a body blow from which it could never really recover.Suddenly it became a ‘Muslim’ language of an enemy country. I’d rather that I pass on this glorious heritage to my children by making them learn nastaliq rather than lamenting it’s decline. It is better to light a candle than curse darkness I have realized. In retrospect Urdu and India achieved what Iran and the Arab world could never between themselves.Other than Islam (which is also unique to them as both practice a peculiar form of Islam very different from each other) In fact Iran and the Arab world have nothing to do with each other and have traditionally despised one another.Urdu merged both Persian and Arabic (along with Braj, Hindi,Awadhi and Punjabi) and gave India a language which is synonymous with adab and refinement. Urdu the language of my ancestors I shall ensure remains the language of my progeny.