Attar of Nishapur

Farīd ud-Dīn Attar of Nishapur was a twelfth-century Persian poet, mystic, and Sufi master whose visionary writings profoundly shaped Islamic spiritual literature. Born in Nishapur in present-day Iran, he worked as a pharmacist — "attar" meaning perfumer or druggist — before devoting himself entirely to poetry and mysticism. His masterwork, "The Conference of the Birds," is an allegorical epic in which thirty birds journey in search of their king, the Simorgh, symbolizing the soul's quest for divine union. Attar is believed to have died during the Mongol invasion of Nishapur around 1221, leaving behind a luminous legacy of Sufi verse.