The Conference Of The Birds

Return to the extraordinary world of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children . . . A fragile peace. An apocryphal warning. Chaos waiting in the heart of the storm. With his dying words, H - Jacob's final connection to his grandfather Abe's secret life - entrusts Jacob with a mission: Deliver newly contacted peculiar Noor Pradesh to an operative known only as V. Noor is being hunted. She is the subject of an ancient prophecy, one that foretells a looming apocalypse. Save Noor, save the future of all peculiardom. With only a few bewildering clues to follow, time is running out. With enemies behind him and the unknown ahead, Jacob Portman's story continues as he takes a brave leap forward into The Conference of the Birds, the newest installment of the beloved, #1 bestselling Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series. .................................................................................................................. Praise for the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series: 'The popularity of the Miss Peregrine's book series cannot be overstated' Entertainment Weekly 'Creepy in the best way possible' The Guardian 'Readers searching for the next Harry Potter may want to visit Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children' CNN 'A thrilling, Tim Burton-esque tale with haunting photographs' USA Today

First written in the 12th century, Conference of the Birds is an allegory of extreme measures for extreme times -- the story of birds seeking a king is the story of all of us seeking God. Like the birds, we may be excited for the journey, until we realize that we must give up our fears and hollow desires, that our journey will be long and hard. Like the duck, we may not wish to leave the water. Like the nightingale, we may want to stay close to our roses. Direct and to the point, Masani's translation, made in the early part of the 19th century, is particularly apropos for our early 21st century times -- both are periods of intense spiritual seeking.

Conference of the Birds is John Heilpern's true story of an extraordinary journey. In December 1972, the director Peter Brook and an international troupe of actors (Helen Mirren and Yoshi Oida among them) left their Paris base to emerge again in the Sahara desert. It was the start of an 8,500-mile expedition through Africa without precedent in the history of theater. Brook was in search of a new beginning that has since been revealed in all his work--from Conference of the Birds and Carmen to The Mahabharata and beyond. At the heart of John Heilpern's brilliant account of the African experiment is a story that became a search for the miraculous.

The Conference of the Birds, written in the 12th century by the Persian poet and mystic Farid ud-Din Attar, tells how the birds of the world gather in order to search for a mythological king, the Simorgh. Each of the birds represents a different human type a coward, a lover and much of the poem consists of tales told by their leader in answer to their objections to the journey or their questions about it. Farah K. Behbehani has selected stories from this great work of Persian literature (in English verse translation) about thirteen of the birds and their journey, illustrating the Arabic name of each bird in Jali Diwani calligraphy, an ornamental cursive script developed by the Ottomans which is characterized by its profuse embellishment.A line from the Arabic version of the poem that captures the essence of each birds story is also illustrated calligraphically and explained by a graphic system that enables the reader to understand the flow of the text in each composition.This exquisite and beautifully designed book concludes with a glossary of the Arabic alphabet in Jali Diwani script and interpretations of the letters according to Sufi mystical values.

The Epic of Kings, Hero Tales of Ancient Persia Firdausi - The Epic of Kings, Hero Tales of Ancient Persia (The Shahnameh) is an epic poem by the Persian poet Firdausi, written between 966 and 1010 AD. Telling the past of the Persian empire, using a mix of the mythical and historical, it is regarded as a literary masterpiece. Not only important to the Persian culture, it is also important to modern day followers of the Zoroastrianism religion. It is said that the poem was Firdausi's efforts to preserve the memory of Persia's golden days, following the fall of the Sassanid empire. The poem contains, among others, mentions of the romance of Zal and Rudba, Alexander the Great, the wars with Afrsyb, and the romance of Bijan and Manijeh.

The Persian epic that inspired Eric Clapton's unforgettable love song "Layla" and that Lord Byron called "the Romeo and Juliet of the East," in a masterly new translation A Penguin Classic The iconic love story of the Middle East, by a twelfth-century Persian poet who has been compared to Shakespeare for his subtlety, inventiveness, and dramatic force, Layli and Majnun tells of star-crossed lovers whose union is tragically thwarted by their families and whose passion continues to ripple out across the centuries. Theirs is a love that lasts a lifetime, and in Nezami's immortal telling, erotic longing blends with spiritual self-denial in an allegory of Sufi aspiration, as the amenities of civilization give way to the elemental wilderness, desire is sublimated into a mystical renunciation of the physical world, and the soul confronts its essence. This is a tour de force of Persian literature, in a translation that captures the extraordinary power and virtuosity of the original.

Read the #1 New York Times best-selling series before it continues in A Map of Days. Bonus features • Q&A with author Ransom Riggs • Eight pages of color stills from the film • Sneak preview of Hollow City, the next novel in the series A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive. A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows. “A tense, moving, and wondrously strange first novel. The photographs and text work together brilliantly to create an unforgettable story.”—John Green, New York Times best-selling author of The Fault in Our Stars “With its X-Men: First Class-meets-time-travel story line, David Lynchian imagery, and rich, eerie detail, it’s no wonder Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children has been snapped up by Twentieth Century Fox. B+”—Entertainment Weekly “‘Peculiar’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. Riggs’ chilling, wondrous novel is already headed to the movies.”—People “You’ll love it if you want a good thriller for the summer. It’s a mystery, and you’ll race to solve it before Jacob figures it out for himself.”—Seventeen

One of NPR’s 50 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the Decade: A fifteenth-century palace mapmaker must hide his powers in the time of the Inquisition . . . Award-winning author G. Willow Wilson’s debut novel Alif the Unseen was an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year and established her as a vital American Muslim literary voice. Now she delivers The Bird King, an epic journey set during the reign of the last sultan in the Iberian peninsula at the height of the Spanish Inquisition. Fatima is a concubine in the royal court of Granada, the last emirate of Muslim Spain. Her dearest friend, Hassan, the palace mapmaker and the one man who doesn’t leer at her with desire, has a secret—he can draw maps of places he’s never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan’s surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan’s gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls? As the two traverse Spain with the help of a clever jinn to find safety, The Bird King asks us to consider what love is and the price of freedom at a time when the West and the Muslim world were not yet separate. “Wilson has a deft hand with myth and with magic, and the kind of smart, honest writing mind that knits together and bridges cultures and people.” —Neil Gaiman, author of Norse Mythology “A triumph . . . one of the best fantasy writers working today.” —BookPage “A treasure-house of a novel, thrilling, tender, funny, and achingly gorgeous. I loved it.” —Lev Grossman, author of the Magicians trilogy

An award-winning author and illustrator offers a beautiful and uplifting adaptation of the beloved Sufi poem Celebrated children’s book creator Peter Sis presents his first book for adults with The Conference of the Birds—a lyrical and richly illustrated story of love, faith, and the beauty of the human journey. Sis’s deeply felt version of the classic twelfth-century Persian epic poem tells the story of a flock of birds in search of the true king, Simorgh, who lives on the mountain of Kaf. Drawn from all species, the flock travels through the seven valleys: quest, love, understanding, detachment, unity, amazement, and death. The birds that endure reach the mountain to learn a profound lesson: that Simorgh the king is, in fact, each of them and all of them.

Together for the first time--the #1 "New York Times" bestseller "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" and its two sequels, "Hollow City " and "Library of Souls, " packaged in a beautifully designed slipcase with a collectible postcard. Consumable.ble.

A masterpiece of Persian literature illustrated by 207 Persian,Turkish, Afghan and Indo-Pakistani miniatures from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, from public and private collections from around the world.

"Why Translation Matters argues for the cultural importance of translation and for a more encompassing and nuanced appreciation of the translator's role. As the acclaimed translator Edith Grossman writes in her introduction, "My intention is to stimulate a new consideration of an area of literature that is too often ignored, misunderstood, or misrepresented." For Grossman, translation has a transcendent importance: "Translation not only plays its important traditional role as the means that allows us access to literature originally written in one of the countless languages we cannot read, but it also represents a concrete literary presence with the crucial capacity to ease and make more meaningful our relationships to those with whom we may not have had a connection before. Translation always helps us to know, to see from a different angle, to attribute new value to what once may have been unfamiliar. As nations and as individuals, we have a critical need for that kind of understanding and insight. The alternative is unthinkable"."--Jacket.

A retelling of the Sufi parable, "The Conference of the Birds", a poem written in the thirteenth century, in which the birds of the Earth face seven invisible monsters in order to save the world.

A reward of one grain of rice doubles day by day into millions of grains of rice when a selfish raja is outwitted by a clever village girl.

The Conference of the Birds is one of the great works of world literature. In Farid ud-Din Attar's masterpiece, the nature of the spiritual path is examined through the allegory of thirty brave birds that go in search of their king through the peaks of exultation and valleys of despair that represent the stages of the seeker as he travels toward enlightenment. Attar was the predecessor of the great Persian Sufi poet Jalalludin Rumi, who borrowed Attar's technique of weaving wisdom within entertaining and amusing tales.

Amir Khusrau, one of the greatest poets of medieval India, helped forge a distinctive synthesis of Muslim and Hindu cultures. Written in Persian and Hindavi, his poems and ghazals were appreciated across a cosmopolitan Persianate world that stretched from Turkey to Bengal. Having thrived for centuries, Khusrau’s poetry continues to be read and recited to this day. In the Bazaar of Love is the first comprehensive selection of Khusrau’s work, offering new translations of mystical and romantic poems and fresh renditions of old favourites. Covering a wide range of genres and forms, it evokes the magic of one of the best-loved poets of the Indian subcontinent.

Collects and interprets Rumi's poetry, which describe wisdom, passion, and spiritual enlightenment.

"Christians, Jews, and Muslims all pray. So do Hindus and Buddhists. Many others pray too.” So begins Everyone Prays, a bright and colorful concept book celebrating the diverse ways that people pray. In a vibrant yet accessible manner, young readers are transported on a visual tour across the globe. They will discover the Native American sun dance ceremony, visit the sacred sites in Jerusalem, behold the Shinto shrines in Japan, watch Maasai dances in Kenya, see pilgrimages to the river Ganges in India, and much, much more. With an appendix to help answer questions children might have, Everyone Prays offers young hearts and minds a chance to learn that although people from other places and cultures may seem different, we all share the diverse world of faith and prayer. And what a bright and beautiful world it is!