Analysis and Comparison of Holism in ‘Attar’s Manṭeq Al-Ṭair and Modern Physics

Proposing a general model of the world has been considered by many physicists and philosophers since ancient Greece; since it seems tat this idea forms the basis of ‘Attar’s ideas in Manṭeq Al-Ṭair (the Conference of the Birds), this study analyzes and compares holism in ‘Attar's mystical ideas and modern physics.In holism, which was formed in the twentieth century, living beings are considered an “integrated whole” in which the properties of the components lay in its totality. “Such approaches are observed both in Chinese and ancient Iranian mysticism and also Ephesian, Platonic and Aristotelian thoughts.” (Golabi, 2017) Traces of holism can be observed in ancient Iranian or Khosravani Wisdom; he creation unity, which was interpreted as “existence unity” in Mola Sadra’s philosophy; the principle that has had a great influence on mystical thoughts. Although ‘Attar was impacted by the creation unity and humanism of the world in Khosravani Wisdom, unlike his predecessors, he achieved a new allegory, namely the scientific- philosophical allegory of the correspondence between the "particle of the world and the world of the particle". The abovementioned theory has a special status in the western wisdom and philosophy. (Zarrinkub, 1989)