Ṣūfī Symbols of “Birds” in Sanā’ī’s Poetry Qaṣīdat Tasbīḥ aṭ-ṭuyūr

The article analyses a poem by Sanāʾī (d. after 1126), a ṣūfī poet, who was also one of the forerunners of the Ġaznavid tradition of court poetry. The poem under investigation is his Tasbīḥ aṭ-ṭuyūr (‘The Prayer of Birds’) which contains thirty-one bird names. The article examines the connection of this poem with different concepts, like those of Zoroastrianism, Ismāʿīlism, and its influence on Farīd ad-Dīn ʿAṭṭār’s Manṭiq aṭ-ṭayr.