Divine book (Ilahi-Nama). In 2 books. Attar Farid ad-Din

“The Divine Book” (“Ilahi -Nama”), first published in Russian, is an undoubted masterpiece, a genuine pearl in the treasury of world literature. Its author is a Persian mystic poet, storyteller and philosopher of the XII-XIII centuries Farid ad-Din, nicknamed the Attar (“Pharmacist”, “Perfumer”). He made healing incense and treated them with people, and the fragrance of his poems, as other poets said, penetrated all subsequent Persian poetry. His work had a powerful and prolonged influence on the development of literature in Iran and far beyond its borders. So, the famous Jalal ad -Din Rumi, the poet of the 13th century, called the Attara his inspirer, and himself - his "servant in the art of the word." The focus of the poet is God, peace and man in their relationship. With the reader, he does not speak the language of teachings, but through skillfully built stories.

One wise father had six sons. Young, noble, well -educated and educated, they were full of youthful hopes and dreams that are understandable to any person at all times: love, the ability to achieve their goals in a miraculous way, see the hidden, know and understand all the secrets of the universe, become a benefactor of mankind, learning to turn " Low ”substances in precious. 'Attar offers us his understanding of these desires: he speaks of their connection with the properties of the human soul. The sons are revealed to his father in their desires, and he in response begins to tell them numerous fascinating stories. The heroes of these stories are diverse: these are historical and literary characters, famous kings and nameless old women, merchants, beautiful women and no less beautiful boys, holy ascetics, warriors, prophets, Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians, Angels, Proposals, Heavenly Lights, Dogs, Cats , ants and inanimate objects. According to the author, the stories should be interesting both “simple”, inexperienced, reader, and “chosen”, which comprehends the internal meanings hidden behind the surface of words and phenomena. The father in the poem 'Attara leads sons - and with them readers - dear meanings. As this ascends, a person changes: he begins to understand that things that seemed simple to him are melt in himself. There is already a mystery in the very name of “Ilahi -Nama”: “Divine Book” - like “Divine comedy” Dante, “A book dedicated to the deity” or “The book of appeal to God!” - All these understandings are admitted by the Persian language.

Attara's stories, attachments, open a wide scope for interpretation. Read in the Sufi manner, they allow you to see in the entertaining stories an inexhaustible narrator a description of the spiritual path of mystic. The author, as it were, sets the reader - and perhaps, to himself - fateful questions, the answer to which is not so simple. Attar dabbed the plots for his stories from everyday life, from the stories of buyers and patients who came to his pharmacy shop, from stories about holy people whom he admired in childhood, from many books, oral traditions and fairy tales.

In the “Additions” section, the sources of the stories that were found were collected. This makes it possible to present the circle of reading the author and see how famous plots are refracted in his work. The scientific apparatus of this publication includes a thorough article and fundamental comments, designed to help the reader overcome the gap - or, speaking the language of the Attara, - “Acquire the Bades”, separating us from the amazing world of the culture of the Persian Middle Ages.