I like birds. No, I'm not turning into Bubba Gump. I thought I'd bring up another religious based book that I have read and found very interesting. "Dear hoopoe, welcome! You will be our guide;..." is the opening line to Farrid Ud-Din Attar's The Conference of the Birds. I have heard over and over how beautifully written scriptures tend to be and that they are worth reading just for literary elements. Personally, I have have never found that to be true of the Bible or of the Qur'an. They just don't impress me on any level. However, The Conference of the Birds I will state is a literary masterpiece. Even though it is not technically scripture it serves a similar purpose.
I may disagree with its religious meaning but the structure is quite interesting and it does manage to introduce a number of philosophical ideas and questions as well as making some rather insightful social commentaries. Like many allegories it makes use of animals, in this case birds. The "conference" takes place as the birds embark on a pilgrimage. In places the structure varies and the conversation gets a little choppy but overall it is well worth reading.
Having been translated from Persian and in some instances Persian and Arabic I cannot be sure of the degree to which editions/translations may vary. Personally, I have only read one translation:
Attar, Farid Ud-Din. The Conference of the Birds. Trans. Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis. New York: Penguin, 1984.
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