The 12th century Persian poet, Attar, places the Hoopoe at the centre of his masterpiece The Conference of the Birds. In this allegorical tale, the birds of the world gather together and, led by the Hoopoe, decide to embark on a journey to seek their king. Attar’s Hoopoe is grand and confident, in line with the Sufi tradition which casts the bird as a spiritual guide and metaphor for the perfect man. Its golden crest is a crown bestowed on him as a reward for the correspondence he had carried back and forth between Bilqis and Solomon. Its double row of orange feathers tipped with black is the gown of the learned seeker. ‘I am in tune with the Great Almighty,’ Attar’s Hoopoe says to the gathered birds, ‘schooled in the ways of great mysteries.’ The birds confer and make excuses not to embark on the journey. It is too dangerous, and they are held back by their weaknesses and avarice, their pride and ambitions. Then there is false humility and misguided longings: the parrot would rather sit tight in a corner of its cage and the peacock is content with thoughts of Heaven. The Hoopoe urges them to set out, ‘Cast off the shame of narcissism . . . Surrender your ego and step into the Path, cross that threshold dancing.’
Salma, Moni and Iman in Bird Summons are also weighed down by their egos, though it may not seem apparent to them at first and there is enough justification for them to feel complacent in their positions. I wanted to explore the extent to which a journey could change them. The Hoopoe in the novel comes with stories. Stories by the Sufi mystic poet Rumi and the Sanskrit animal fables of Kalila and Dimna. Having now reached the Scottish Highlands, the Hoopoe is also well versed in the fables of selkies and shape-shifters that originate from the folk tales of Aberdeenshire and the surrounding areas. He is familiar with The Pilgrim’s Progress and the fantasy worlds of George MacDonald. For the women in Bird Summons, the Hoopoe is a spiritual teacher who imparts ancient wisdom and guidance. But his powers are limited. The women must make their own choices. Away from the city – with its restrictions, formality and rituals, both religious and secular – the spiritual freedom that the women encounter is vast and beyond control.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to my brilliant and gallant editor Elisabeth Schmitz. And to the team at Grove—Kaitlin Astrella, Amy Hundley, Katie Raissian, and Deb Seager. It is a blessing to have such supportive publishers.
My gratitude to my wonderful editor at W&N, Jennifer Kerslake, for the emails that made me happy as well as the times I was challenged.
Thanks to Arzu Tahsin, Matthew Cowdery and everyone at Weidenfeld & Nicolson who has made this book possible.
Continued thanks to Stephanie Cabot, my agent for over twenty years.
Thank you to Vimbai Shire and Ellen Goodson Coughtrey for invaluable feedback on the first draft.
And to Todd McEwen and Lucy Ellmann for believing in this novel, for their help and understanding.
I am grateful to William Facey and to Angus Sladen for permission to quote, in Chapter 4 and elsewhere, from Pilgrimage to Mecca by Lady Evelyn Cobbold. And to Anthony Cobbold for help with information about reaching her grave.
For the Hoopoe’s stories, I am mainly grateful to the following sources:
– Aberdeenshire Folk Tales by Grace Banks & Sheena Blackhall
– Rumi’s Tales of Mystic Meaning by Reynold A. Nicholson
– The Un-discovered Islands: An Archipelago of Myths and Mysteries, Phantoms and Fakes by Malachy Tallack
– Kalila wa Dimna: Fables of Friendship and Betrayal by Ramsay Wood with an Introduction by Doris Lessing
– I very much appreciated Sholeh Wolpé’s modern and accessible translation of Attar’s The Conference of the Birds and the detailed notes in Peter Avery’s translation.
Thank you, Nadir, for walking by my side to Lady Evelyn’s grave.
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