The first Sufi biographical encyclopedia. Tadhkirat al-Awliya, Attar’s prose masterpiece, is a biographical work compiling the lives, miracles, and pithy sayings of early luminaries such as Ja’far al-Sadiq, Mansur al-Hallaj, Junayd al-Baghdadi, and Bayazid Bistami.
Hagiographies as Moral Exemplars. The work’s purpose is not to convey historical facts but rather to present the moral posture (asceticism, generosity, piety) of these great saints to the reader as a model. The Sufis’ rebellions against tyrannical sultans, their rejection of worldly offers, and the states of ecstasy they entered through love for God are immortalized by Attar’s literary pen.