From Attar’s “Conference of the Birds” to Richard Bach’s “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”

جستارهای نوین ادبی

Article 3, Volume 43, Issue 3, August 2010, Pages 49-70   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jls.v43i3.9348

Authors

Fatemeh Coupa; Behjatosadat Hejazi; Salehe Ghazanfari Moghaddam^*

Abstract

Stories, legends and myths in among various nations have similar factors which can be the subject of different researches and analysis. The search of perfection and model of ideal man is one of these factors.
Truly Mantiq Al-tair by Attar-e-Neishaburi is the most beautiful symbolic works of the east in this field (search of perfection) which has been imitated by many of writers and poets in all around the world.
Richard Bach – one of the idealist writers of the west – has presented almost a similar model named “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”.
Certainly from the point of view of theme and the complexity of the story, it is not as great as Mantiq Al-tair by Attar.
Is the philosophy of thinking of this writer affected by the theosophy of Attar and his thinking? Or the similarities of these two literary-mystic works, even if Richard Bach doesn’t have seen Mantiq Al-tair by Attar, have arisen from the common innate and inherent ideals among humans and are completely natural and believable?
This writing is an effort to answer these questions. In addition it is a comparison between Mantiq Al-tair by Attar-e-Neishaburi and Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach.

key words: Mantiq Al-tair, Attar-e-Neishaburi, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach, perfect man