April 25 marks Commemoration Day of Attar Neishabouri, well-known Iranian poet and mystic who left an everlasting influence on the Persian literature and mysticism.
Attar (1145-1221) is one of the forerunners of the mystic literature in Iran, who is mentioned as the mainstay of mystic literature by Iranian scholars.
He was a poet of the Seljuq period. He was probably the son of a prosperous chemist, receiving an excellent education in various fields.
While his works say little else about his life, they tell us that he practiced the profession of pharmacy and personally attended to a very large number of customers.
Eventually, he abandoned his pharmacy store and traveled to Baghdad, Basra, Kufa, Mecca, Medina, Damascus, Turkistan, and India, meeting with Sufis.
Attar has written many books both in poetry and prose. Mantiq al-Teir (Conference of Birds) is his masterpiece.
Mokhtar-Nama, Mosibat-Nama and Elahi-Nama are maong his well-known works. Tazkerat al-Owliya is a prose work of him.
Manteq al-Teir recounts the story of a group of birds set forth in search of their king, Simurgh under the leadership of the hoopoe.
Their quest takes them through seven valleys in the first of which a hundred difficulties assail them.
They undergo many trials as they try to free themselves of what is precious to them and change their state.
Attar died a violent death in the massacre which the Mongols inflicted on Nishabour in April 1221. His mausoleum is located in Nishabour, Khorasan Razavi province.
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