Study Guide
for Faridoddin Attar, Conference of the Birds
1. Briefly summarize the overall plot of The Conference of the Birds as it is described in the introduction. Notice that the introduction includes a fairly detailed summary (pp. 1525-26) of the part we are reading, the story of Sheikh Sam’an. If you would like to learn a little about Islam before beginning, this page on the personal site of a member of the WSSU faculty provides some interesting links to follow.
2. The opening section of the poem itself (the part in our text) describes the painful inward journey the birds must make. What are its steps?
3. Who was Sheikh Sam’an? Where and how did he live? (This refers to his status at the beginning of the story.)
4. Why does he set out for "Rome" (Constantinople)? Who goes with him?
5. Whom does he meet when he arrives? How is she described?
6. What happens to Sheikh Sam’an when he sees the girl? How long does this action take?
7. Can the students and friends who accompanied him from Mecca persuade Sheikh Sam'an to return to his usual (former) way of behaving?
8. Describe Sheikh Sam'an’s sufferings at this point.
9. What happens to Sheikh Sam'an’s faith when he falls in love?
10. What happens during the next month?
11. Why does Sheikh Sam'an make "Her street . . . his bed"?
12. What does Sheikh Sam'an tell the girl he wants to do if she will not give him her affection?
13. How does she respond?
14. What four things does she say he must do? How does he reply? What does he do when she insists he obey?
15. How does wine affect Sheikh Sam'an? What happens when he tries to touch the girl?
16. What happens to his faith?
17. When he has become a Christian, what does the girl demand next? When he begs, how does she say he may serve her?
18. What do Sheikh Sam'an’s friends do at this point? What does one of them ask Sheikh Sam'an before they leave?
19. When the friends meet Sheikh Sam'an’s wise companion back home in Mecca, what does he tell them? How do they defend their actions? What is his reply?
20. What do the friends do next? What vision does one of them see? What does he ask for? What does the Prophet tell him?
21. What is Sheikh Sam'an doing when they find him again? Notice that repentance is seen as a gift from God.
22. When Sheikh Sam'an returns to himself, what does the girl do? What leads to her change in character?
23. What happens when she tries to go to Sheikh Sam'an? What does she say when she prays?
24. How is her prayer answered? What happens next? Why does she die?
25. Thought questions:
a. What lesson does this story teach the birds? (Try to describe it, even if you don’t feel as if you are getting the whole meaning. You may find it helpful to refer to your answer to questions 1 and 2.)
b. What impression of Christians and Christianity does this work give? Does it seem fair and accurate to you? (Notice that Attar probably had very little, if any, first-hand knowledge of Christianity.) Do you see any similarities to the way Islam is often depicted by people in our culture who don’t really know much about it?
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