Farid al-Din ʿAttār and Persian Sufi Didacticism

In his most recent monograph on Farid al-Din ʿAttār, The Poetics of Spiritual Instruction: Farid al-Din ʿAttar and Persian Sufi Didactics, Austin O’Malley offers a fresh perspective on the literary corpus of the celebrated Iranian poet, Farid al-Din ʿAttār. He situates ʿAttār simultaneously as a poet and preacher within his own distinctive historical and social milieu by skillfully integrating the study of Islamic history, religious rhetoric, and historical sociology with traditional literary analysis. Through a series of insightful and innovative interpretations, O’Malley further demonstrates how ʿAttār employed frame narratives, poetic exposition, and original metaphors to reflect upon his relationship with his audience, anticipate their responses to his works, guide their reception, and exercise his pedagogical authority through poetry. This review concludes by highlighting the principal scholarly contributions and innovations of O’Malley’s important monograph.