John Walbridge

John Walbridge is a Near Eastern languages and cultures professor at Indiana University Bloomington.

How to Climb the Seven-Story Mountain

Classics by Marcus Aurelius and Farīd al-Dīn ¢Aţţār, a thousand years apart, illustrate the spiritual journey.

“Marcus Aurelius and Farīd al-Dīn ¢Aţţār did not have much in common. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (121–180 CE) was a dour and stoical Stoic. Much of his time as emperor was spent campaigning against the barbarians on the northern frontiers of the empire during a reign enlivened by an internal revolt in Syria, a flood in Rome, a famine, and a plague. Farīd al-Dīn ¢Aţţār was a pharmacist and perfumer in Nishapur in northeastern Iran, a mystical poet of verve and wit, who lived from the mid-twelfth century to about 1220. The only things they really had in common were unfortunate encounters with barbarians from the north—¢Aţţār is thought to have been killed when the Mongols sacked Nishapur—and an intense concern with the meaning of life and how it should be led, which they each enshrined in brilliant books still well worth reading.” —John Walbridge

Read the Article Instead: “How to Climb the Seven-Story Mountain”