An Analysis of the Concept of the ‘Other’ in Attar’s The Conference of the Birds

Mantiq Al-Tayr (The Conference of the Birds) is among the seminal irfanic (mystic) works which can be analyzed based on Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism and the concept of the ‘other’. Attar seeks to establish the position of the birds as the ‘self’ and that of Simorgh or the divine nature as the ‘other’. The journey of the birds toward the Simorgh is a progress toward realizing the value of their existence, and after their spiritual progress, the birds gain a proper understanding of their identity and position. From an irfanic point of view, the world is nothing but divine nature; therefore, considering the binary distinction of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ is invalid in irfanic thought. According to such a viewpoint, there is no ‘self’, and if man holds such a notion, it is because of his belongings and dependencies in the material world, and what is considered as spiritual progress is the journey toward gaining a new sense of the ‘self’, and realizing that there is no self, and that whatever there is, is Him. Therefore, there is never a conversation between the ‘self’ and ‘other’, and the irfanic viewpoint is essentially non-polyphonic (monologic). What is recognized in irfan (mysticism) and what the aref (holder of true knowledge) seeks to attain through his spiritual progress is denial of the self and manifesting the divine. That is what is known as tawhid (oneness) in irfan.