The thoughts depicted in `Attar’s works reflects the whole evolution of the Sufi movement. A miniature painting made in the year 1472, is used to illustrate the six poems by Attar of Nishapur. It was built by Ali-Shir Nava’i in the 16th century and later on underwent a total renovation during Reza Shah the great in 1940.Īyaz kneeling before Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. The only certainty in this regard is `Attar’s own statement that he once met him.In any case it can be taken for granted that from childhood onward `Attar, encouraged by his father, was interested in the Sufis and their sayings and way of life, and regarded their saints as his spiritual guides. At the age of 78, Attar died a violent death in the massacre which the Mongols inflicted on Nishapur in April 1221. Today, his mausoleum is located in Nishapur. Of all the famous Sufi Shaykhs supposed to have been his teachers, only one – Majd ud-Din Baghdadi a disciple of Najmuddin Kubra- comes within the bounds of possibility. `Attar’s initiation into Sufi practices is subject to much speculation. Eventually, he abandoned his pharmacy store and traveled widely – to Baghdad, Basra, Kufa, Mecca, Medina, Damascus, Khwarizm, Turkistan, and India, meeting with Sufi Shaykhs – and returned promoting Sufi ideas. 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. The people he helped in the pharmacy used to confide their troubles in `Attar and this affected him deeply. `Attar was probably the son of a prosperous chemist, receiving an excellent education in various fields. However, all sources confirm that he was from Nishapur, a major city of medieval Khorasan (now located in the northeast of Iran), and according to `Awfi, he was a poet of the Seljuq period.Īccording to Reinert: It seems that he was not well known as a poet in his own lifetime, except at his home town, and his greatness as a mystic, a poet, and a master of narrative was not discovered until the 15th century. At the same time, the mystic Persian poet Rumi has mentioned: “Attar was the spirit, Sanai his eyes twain, And in time thereafter, Came we in their train” and mentions in another poem: “Attar has traversed the seven cities of Love, We are still at the turn of one street”.
He is mentioned by only two of his contemporaries, `Awfi and Tusi. Information about Attar’s life is rare and scarce. Mausoleum of Attar Neyshaburi in Nishapur, Iran