I’ve already included two postings about Attar’s ‘Conference of the Birds’ – one aiming you at the cutest cartoon film ever (please don’t miss it), and another about a very lovely image of hunting with cheetah from the manuscript that the British Library has just finished digitising.
Now, here’s an image from the BL Mantiq al_Tayr. Its shows a King in a grand new palace. He’s being told off by an “unimpressed ascetic”, who points out that his palace has an invisible fissure. The Angel of Death will slip through this, to collect the King’s soul, when the day of his death comes:
Click here to see the image below in more detail – you can zoom in to see, for example, what’s on the tray of goodies …. So what is on the tray? I can’t decide ….
Here’s the relevant section from Attar’s poem, reminding us all of the inevitability of death:
Everybody was coming from every land
to pay homage, bringing trays filled with largesse.
The king summoned the wise men and courtiers
to his presence, and seated them on a dais.
‘Never shall this palace of mine,’ said he,
‘be matched in beauty or in perfection.’
All declared that on the face of the Earth
none had seen its like, and none ever would.
An ascetic stood up, and said ‘Fortunate One,
there is one fissure here, and it is a grave fault.
Had your palace no flaw in the shape of that chink,
you could give Heaven’s castles away for it.’
Said the monarch, ‘No rift have I seen in it;
you’re making trouble out of ignorance.’
‘You who are so proud to be king’ said the sage,
‘there’s a crack there, wide open for ‘Azrā’īl…’
I thought you might be interested to see the Rapid Response I just got e-published in the British Medical Journal – about air pollution in Iran and it’s health effects. Its at : http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g40/rr/685423
If you like it, please do click your ‘like’.
This week’s posting is about an even bigger health threat – the Angel of Death. He … is it a he? … can creep in through the most invisible of fissures, as in the Mantiq al-Tayr manuscript that the British Library has finished digitising. Click here to see more.