The Speech of the Birds (Islamic Texts Society) Paperback – June 1, 1998

The translation is excellent, informative, full of notes that expand one's knowledge. You don't have to be a Professor to appreciate it, just an informed lover of Persian Poetry. I had already another translation (Dick Davis) and would highly recommend to buy both, one (Davis) for the beautiful rendering of the sound (music intrinsic into the poem), the other (Avery) for its accuracy.

these english translations of attar's masterpiece 'Manteq aṭ-Ṭayr'are really good. I actually prefer this version of Peter Avery's over the more well known rhyming version by Dick Davis.Recommended, especially for all spiritual seekers interested in the spiritual tradition of Islamic Sufism.

I received my copy of Speech of the Birds and it looked beautiful. The binding was crisp and there was ample space for annotations. As I started reading, however, I discovered that my book was missing pages 163-223, line 1816-2482. I hope that was not an important part of the book... This was not from damage to my copy of the book, but it simply jumped 60 pages without warning, skipping over all of the intervening events. I am sure that Mr. Avery has given us a wonderful translation, but if the publisher does not give me a complete book, I cannot give a good review.