Attar
Ilahi-nama (The Book of God)
Written work · Essential works
Ilahi-nama (The Book of God)
الهینامه (Ilahi-nama)
A masnavi of some 6,500 couplets with a frame story: a caliph asks his six sons what they desire, and each asks for something marvellous (the daughter of the king of the fairies, mastery of magic, Jamshid's world-reflecting cup, the water of life, Solomon's ring, alchemy). The father shows them that, taken literally, these wishes are absurd, but that understood inwardly they can be fulfilled: the princess is the purified soul, the cup is the mystic united with God, the elixir is the divine light that transforms everything. Hundreds of stories, from three to four hundred lines, illustrate the same message as the *Mantiq al-tayr*: what man seeks is within him.
Authorship note
Authentic: Attar lists it among his works in the prefaces to the *Mukhtar-nama* and the *Khusraw-nama*. According to Shafi'i-Kadkani, followed by Landolt, it is the work Attar called *Khusraw-nama* in the preface to the *Mukhtar-nama*; the present title alludes to the 'divine treasure' (*ganj-e ilahi*) of its epilogue.
Editions and translations
Editions in your language first, without hiding the others. Each with its cover and its store.
English
Attar
The Ilāhī-nāma or Book of God of Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār
The Conscious LibraryThe Ilāhī-nāma or Book of God of Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār
Manchester University Press, 1976
Translation: John Andrew Boyle
ISBN 0719006635
Prólogo de Annemarie Schimmel (Persian Heritage Series 29).
Persa · فارسی
Attar
Ilahi-Name: Die Gespräche des Königs mit seinen sechs Söhnen
The Conscious LibraryIlahi-Name: Die Gespräche des Königs mit seinen sechs Söhnen
Maarif / F. A. Brockhaus (Bibliotheca Islamica 12), 1940
Translation: Hellmut Ritter (ed.)
Edición crítica, Estambul y Leipzig.
Français
Attar
Le Livre divin (Elahi-nameh)
The Conscious LibraryLe Livre divin (Elahi-nameh)
Albin Michel, 1961
Translation: Fuad Rouhani
Other works by Attar
- Mantiq al-tayr (The Conference of the Birds) · 1177
- Musibat-nama (The Book of Affliction)
- Asrar-nama (The Book of Secrets)
- Tadhkirat al-awliya (Memorial of God's Friends)
- Divan
- Mukhtar-nama (The Book of Selections)
- Khusraw-nama (Gol and Hormoz)
- Mi'raj-nama (Book of the Ascension)
- Jumjuma-nama (Book of the Skull)
- Jawahir-nama (Book of Jewels)
- Sharh al-qalb (Commentary on the Heart)
- Kashf al-asrar and Ma'rifat al-nafs
- Pand-nama (Book of Counsel)
- Bulbul-nama (Book of the Nightingale)
- Jawhar al-dhat (The Essence of Essence)
- Ushtur-nama (Book of the Camel)
- Haylaj-nama
- Mansur-nama
- Bisar-nama (Book of the Headless)
- Mazhar al-aja'ib (Manifestation of Wonders)
- Lisan al-ghayb (The Tongue of the Unseen)
- Waslat-nama (Book of Union)
- Khayyat-nama (Book of the Tailor)
- Kanz al-asrar (The Treasure of Secrets)
- Miftah al-futuh (The Key of Openings)
- Wasiyat-nama (Book of the Testament)
- Kanz al-haqa'iq (The Treasure of Truths)
- Other ascribed works (Si fasl, Bayan al-irshad, Nuzhat al-ahbab, Mazhar al-dhat)
Sources
- Reinert, Bernd. «ʿAṭṭār, Farīd-al-Dīn». Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. III, fasc. 1, pp. 20–25. Publicado el 15-12-1987.
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