FARID - UD - DIN ATTAR, fared' aid (117tn at-tar' (e.1119-1229). A Persian poet and mys tic. lie was the son of a druggist, brought up to his father's business, and his real name was Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, his better-known appellation, Farid-nd-Din 'Attar (`the pearl of the faith, the druggist'), being a poet's name, or tekhalliq. llis life of 110 years was spent in the neighborhood of the city of Naishapur. During the invasion of Genghiz Khan he fell a victim to an ignorant Mongol soldier. He studied the mystic philosophy of the Sufis, and was its principal representative after his pupil Jain] ud-Din Rhmi. lie was a volu minous writer, leaving no fewer than 120,000 couplets of poetry. Ilis most famous work is the "Mantiq ut-Tair," or parliament of birds, an allegorical poem, according to which the birds, weary of anarchy, longed for a king. As the hoopoe who had guided Solomon through the desert best knows what a king should be, he is asked whom they shall choose. Simurgh
in the Caucasus," is his reply. But the way to tine Caucasus is long and dangerous, and most of the birds excuse themselves from the journey. A few, however, set out; but by the time they reach the great King's court, their number is re duced to thirty. The thirty birds, wing-weary and hunger-stricken, at length gain access to their chosen monarch, the Simurgh; but only to find that they strangely lose their identity in his presence—that they are he, and he is they. Consult: G'arcin de 'l'assy, Mantle utteir ou le langage des oiscamr. poems de philosophie reli gieuse, par Farid-vddin Attar (Paris, 1857-63); Fitzgerald, Sala:man and Absal . . . together with A Bird's-Eye View of Farid-uddin. Attar's Bird-Parliament, edited by Dole (Boston, 1899).