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FARID

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 179 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FARID UD-DIN `See also:

ATTAR, or FERID EDDIN-ATHAR (1119-, 1229), See also:Persian poet and mystic, was See also:born at See also:Nishapur, 513 A.H. (1119 A.D.), and was put to See also:death 627 A.H. (1229 A.D.), thus having reached the See also:age of to years. The date of his death is, however, variously given between the years 1193 and 1235, although the See also:majority of authorities support 1229; it is also probable that he was born later than 1119, but before 1150. His real name was See also:Abu Talib (or Abu IHamid) Mahommed See also:ben See also:Ibrahim, and Farid ud-din was simply an See also:honourable See also:title See also:equivalent to See also:Pearl of See also:Religion. He followed for a See also:time his See also:father's profession of druggist or perfumer, and hence the name `Attar (one who sold itr, See also:otto of See also:roses; hence, simply, dealer in drugs), which he afterwards employed as his poetical designation. According to the See also:account of Dawlatshah, his See also:interest in the See also:great See also:mystery of the higher See also:life of See also:man was awakened in the following way. One See also:day a wandering See also:fakir gazed sadly into his See also:shop, and, when ordered to be gone, replied: "It is nothing for me to go; but I grieve for thee, 0 druggist, for how wilt See also:thou be able to think of death, and leave all these goods of thine behind thee? " The word was in See also:season; and Mahommed ben Ibrahim the druggist soon gave up his shop and began to study the mystic See also:theosophy of the Sufis sander Sheik Rukneddin. So thoroughly did he enter into the spirit of that religion that he was before See also:long recognized as one of its See also:principal representatives. He travelled extensively, visited See also:Mecca, See also:Egypt, See also:Damascus and See also:India, and on his return was invested with the Sufi See also:mantle by Sheik Majd-ud-din of See also:Bagdad. The greater portion of his life was spent in the See also:town of Shadyakh, but he is not unfrequently named Nishapuri, after the See also:city of his boyhood and youth.

The See also:

story of his death is a See also:strange one. Captured by a soldier of Jenghiz See also:Khan, he was about to be sold for a thousand dirhems, when he advised his captor to keep him, as doubtless a larger offer would yet be made; but when the second See also:bidder said he would give a bag of See also:horse See also:fodder for the old man, he asserted that he was See also:worth no more, and had better be sold. The soldier, irritated at the loss of the first offer, immediately slew him. A See also:noble See also:tomb was erected over his See also:grave, and the spot acquired a reputation for sanctity. Farid was a voluminous writer, and See also:left no fewer than 120,000 couplets of See also:poetry, though in his later years he carried his See also:asceticism so far as to deny himself the pleasures of poetical See also:composition. His most famous See also:work is the Mantik uttair, or See also:language of birds, an allegorical poem containing a See also:complete survey of the life and See also:doctrine of the Sufis. It is extremely popular among Mahommedans both of the Sunnite and Shiite sects, and the See also:manuscript copies are consequently very numerous. The birds, according to the poet, were tired of a republican constitution, and longed for a See also:king. As the See also:lapwing, having guided See also:Solomon through the See also:desert, best knew what a king should be, he was asked whom they should choose. The Simorg in the See also:Caucasus, was his reply. But the way to the Caucasus was long and dangerous, and most of the birds excused themselves from the enterprise. A few, however, set out; but by the time they reached the great king's See also:court, their number was reduced to See also:thirty.

The thirty birds (si morg), wing-weary and See also:

hunger-stricken, at length gained See also:access to their chosen monarch the Simorg; but only to find that they strangely lost their identity in his presence—that they are he, and he is they. In such strange See also:fashion does the poet See also:image forth the See also:search of the human soul after absorption into the divine. The See also:text of the Mantik uttair was published by Garcin de Tassy in 1857, a See also:summary of its contents having already appeared as La Poesie philosophique et religieuse chez See also:les Persans in 1856; this was succeeded by a complete See also:translation in 1863. Among Farid ud-din's other See also:works may be mentioned his Pandndma (See also:Book of Counsel), of which a translation by See also:Silvestre de Sacy appeared in 1819; Bulbul Nama (Book of the Nigghtingale) ; Wasalet Nama (Book of See also:Con-junctions) ; Khusru va Gul (The King and the See also:Rose) ; and Tadhkiratu 1 Awliyd (See also:Memoirs of the See also:Saints) (ed. R. A. See also:Nicholson in Persian See also:Historical Texts). See See also:Sir See also:Gore See also:Ouseley, See also:Biographical Notices of Persian Poets (1846), p. 236; Von See also:Hammer Purgstall, Geschichte der schonen Redekunste Persiens (See also:Vienna, 1818), p. 14o; the See also:Oriental Collections, ii. (See also:London, 1798), pp. 84, 124, containing See also:translations of See also:part of the Pandnama; E.

H. See also:

Palmer, Oriental See also:Mysticism (1867); E. G. See also:Browne, See also:Literary See also:History of See also:Persia (1906).

End of Article: FARID

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