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bookish_bullsh_t 's review for:
The Conference of the Birds
by Attar of Nishapur
Personal Rating- 9/10
An allegory for "enlightenment" from an Islamic perspective. Amazing rhythms of poetry- and certainly inspirational. It convinced me to try out writing some poetry (mine are shitty of course) and imitation is the best compliment.
The Birds set out on an allegorical journey to find the Simorgh, their King (metaphorically representing the Almighty Allah swt), and thus in a journey for Enlightenment. It also heavily relies on some complicated concepts in Islam, and some other concepts/stories shared among the Abrahamic religions. So this will certainly be a complicated read for some. thankfully, there is an appendix explaining all the references in the poems.
What I was pleasantly surprised by, was the LGBT rep. This was written in an Islamic world (or rather in Persia before western colonization). And for a book glorifying the purity of love (sometimes between two men) and to be considered a guide to enlightenment really puts things to perspectives-culturally speaking- on how the people of earlier times were more open-minded and accepting than they are today. It reminded me that even though Arabs/Persians/Desis are stereotyped to be grossly homophobic; homophobia (and transphobia in desi culture- I do not know enough to speak for other cultures) came from the Colonizers, and specifically the anti-sodomy laws in the British Empire.
This was not the focus of the book, but it was something to think about.
That's about it from me, if you're interested I definitely recommend checking it out. Happy Reading!
An allegory for "enlightenment" from an Islamic perspective. Amazing rhythms of poetry- and certainly inspirational. It convinced me to try out writing some poetry (mine are shitty of course) and imitation is the best compliment.
The Birds set out on an allegorical journey to find the Simorgh, their King (metaphorically representing the Almighty Allah swt), and thus in a journey for Enlightenment. It also heavily relies on some complicated concepts in Islam, and some other concepts/stories shared among the Abrahamic religions. So this will certainly be a complicated read for some. thankfully, there is an appendix explaining all the references in the poems.
What I was pleasantly surprised by, was the LGBT rep. This was written in an Islamic world (or rather in Persia before western colonization). And for a book glorifying the purity of love (sometimes between two men) and to be considered a guide to enlightenment really puts things to perspectives-culturally speaking- on how the people of earlier times were more open-minded and accepting than they are today. It reminded me that even though Arabs/Persians/Desis are stereotyped to be grossly homophobic; homophobia (and transphobia in desi culture- I do not know enough to speak for other cultures) came from the Colonizers, and specifically the anti-sodomy laws in the British Empire.
This was not the focus of the book, but it was something to think about.
That's about it from me, if you're interested I definitely recommend checking it out. Happy Reading!