The conference of the birds

منطق الطیر

Also translated as “Symposium…” ,” Song of the Birds “, and even as ” the logic of Flight “, the Conference of the Birds is one of the most famous allegorical texts in Persian literature, written in the 12th century by Farid ud-Din Attâr whose name means” perfumer ” in Farsi language.

One day, the birds gather together and fell utterly sorry for being the only people without a true king. The hoopoe présents herself as their guide to lead them in search of the Simorgh, a mythical bird of unspeakable beauty of sublime radiance. “At the moment Simorgh reveals his face, he brightens the whole universe.”

From his research on the aesthetics of Persian miniatures and  Sufi symbolism, David Balade created a series of some twenty illustrations of this tale, using gouaches, pastels and ink on paper.