Logic of the Birds

Logic of the Birds

Join us as we engage in enlightening conversations with eminent scholars and poets from around the world to explore these and other questions. Focusing on Sufi poetry, this podcast series will explore some of the great poets and poems in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Wolof, Hausa, Swahili, Panjabi, Malay, and more. Our conversations will examine how these traditions cultivated perspectives and popular literary traditions that wedded the sensual and intellectual, the aesthetic and the ethical, the affective and rational, the logical and the spiritual, the philosophical and mystical.

Episodes

Episode 12: Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse

September 30, 2024 • 92 mins
Imam Fakhruddin Owaisi and Adnan Adrian Wood Smith join us to discuss of the Poetry of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse (d. 1975). Probably the most popular and influential African poet of the 20th century in any language, Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse was born in 1900, Tayba in Senegal, a town founded by his father, the Sufi master and scholar Abdoulaye Niasse. The young Ibrahim Niasse was something of a ...
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Episode 11: Bedil

September 17, 2024 • 93 mins
Professor Hajnalka Kovacs and Ahmad Rashid Salim join us to discuss the poetry of Bedil Dihlavī (d. 1720), one of the greatest and most influential Persian-language poets of the Indian subcontinent. He wrote over 2,800 ghazals, four mathanwis (a genre of narrative verse in rhymed couplets), and other poetic texts, all of which circulated throughout the Indian Subcontinent, Central Asia, ...
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Episode 10: Misri, Bursavi, and Ottoman Sufi Poetry

September 17, 2024 • 70 mins
Professors Nurullah Koltaş and Vitoria Holbrook join us to discuss the poetry of Niyazi Misri (d. 1694) and Ismā’īl Ḥaqqī Bursawī (d. 1725), two of the greatest Sufi poets of Ottoman Turkish. Highly-esteemed scholars, authors, and Sufi masters of the Halveti order during their lives, their poetry is still sung today in Turkish tekyes, or Sufi lodges, forming the basis of many popular ilâ...
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Episode 9: Hafez

April 30, 2024 • 53 mins
Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr joins us to discuss the poetry of Shams al-dīn Muḥammad Shirāzī (1325-1390), better known by his pen-name, Hafez. Widely considered the greatest master of the Persian ghazal, his poetry was acclaimed even during his lifetime, winning him fame as far as Bengal. His Divān, or collection of poetry, is one of the most beloved, studied, and commented upon works o...
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Episode 8: Ibn al-'Arabī

April 20, 2024 • 72 mins
Professors Michael Sells and Hany Ibrahim explore the poetry of Muḥyī ad-Dīn Ibn al-‘Arabī (1165-1240), the Andalusian scholar, mystic, poet, and author known as the Shaykh al-Akbar, “The Greatest Master.” One of the most influential Islamic thinkers and spiritual figures of all time, Ibn al-‘Arabi is best known for his voluminous Futuḥāt al-Makkiya, The Meccan Openings, once called “the...
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Episode 7: Amir Khusraw

April 12, 2024 • 107 mins
Professors Prashant Keshavmurthy and Shankar Nair explore the brilliant and multilingual poetry of Amir Khusraw (651-725 /1253–1325), one of the most celebrated and influential South Asian poets, known as Tuti-i Hindi, “The Parrot of India”. A court poet and an devoted disciple of the great Sufi saint, Nizam al-din Awliya’ (next to whom he is buried in Delhi), Khusraw is known for his ma...
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Episode 6: 'Attar

March 11, 2024 • 62 mins
Professors Nicholas Boylston and Cyrus Zargar explore the striking  poetry of ‘Attar of Nishapur, an seminal Persian Sufi poet and master of the Persian Masnavi (epic in rhymed-couplets) genre. His Conference of the Birds is a masterpiece of Sufi literature, and it and ‘Attar’s other poetic works, including his ghazals, exerted a strong influence on later Sufi poets, especially Rumi. Lin...
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Episode 5: Sa'di

March 11, 2024 • 65 mins
Professors Fatemeh Keshavarz and Cyrus Zargar explore the poetry of Sa‘di, the traveling poet of 7th/13th-century Shiraz known for his fluid and natural style, wit, and wisdom. His Bustan and Gulistan are considered masterpieces of Persian composition and were widely-studied from the Balkans to Bengal, influencing later Persian as well as European authors. Links and Further Reading/Liste...
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Episode 4: Ibn al-Farid

March 11, 2024 • 95 mins
. Professors James Morris and Arjun Nair discuss the poetry of the “Sultan of Lovers,” ‘Umar ibn al-Farid, the 7th/13th-century Egyptian poet whose qasidas (odes) are widely considered to be among the best ever composed in the Arabic language. . Links and Further Reading/Listening: Ibn al-Farid – The Sufi Poet of Love & Oneness, Let’s Talk Religion . T. Emil Homerin, ʻUmar Ibn Al-Fār...
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Episode 3: Sana'i

March 11, 2024 • 62 mins
Professors Nicholas Boylston and Parisa Zahiremami discuss the poetry and legacy of Hakim Sana’i, the seminal Persian Sufi and court poet of the 11th-12th century. His magnum opus, Hadiqat al-Haqiqa (The Garden of Reality), had a tremendous influence on Persian poets and literature after him. Further Reading: Parisa Zahiremami, “Sanāʾi’s Hadiqat al-haqiqeh: Between Narrative and Non-narr...
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Episode 2: al-Hallaj

March 11, 2024 • 43 mins
Professors Carl Ernst and Cyrus Zargar discuss the poetry and singular legacy of al-Hallaj, the famous early Sufi poet and teacher who became legendary for his shocking statement, Ana al-Ḥaqq, “I am the Real,” and his dramatic execution by the authorities in Baghdad in 309/ 922. al-Hallaj left behind a body of beautiful Sufi poetry in Arabic that is still popular today and became a legen...
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Episode 1: Rumi

March 9, 2024 • 84 mins
Professors Fatemeh Keshavarz and James Morris explore the poetry of Rumi, a famous Islamic scholar and Sufi master whose profound Persian poetry was widely-revered and recited from the Balkans to Western China, and recently became very popular in the United States as well. He is best known for his masterpieces, the Masnavi-i Ma‘navi (The Spiritual Couplets), a six-volume poetic work of a...
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