The intersection of astronomy, literature, visual art, Iranian music, and “2001: A Space Odyssey” may seem almost unimaginable. But step inside Professor Sassan Tabatabai’s classroom, and it all makes perfect sense.
In The Conference of the Birds, a 12th century poem written by the Persian Sufi mystic Farid ud-Din Attar, all the birds of the world—ducks, peacock, finches, and many more—embark on an allegorical journey to discover their unknown king. They set out to reach a physical destination, crossing seven fabled valleys and diminishing in numbers, but the end of the poem reveals that it was rather an internal journey to learn about themselves, to find the divine within their souls.
Nearly a millennium later, students in Sassan Tabatabai’s “Extended Multimedia Encounters with Core Texts,” or CC 320, took their own journey of self-discovery, crafting a narrated video compilation of the birds’ journey. The class—or flock, rather—lent their poetry reading voices for narration, made paper shadow puppets of the bird characters and recorded a back projection of them onto a scrim provided by the Astronomy department, and even repurposed found footage from nature documentaries and iconic films (including, yes, 2001: A Space Odyssey).
Tabatabai, who serves as Master Lecturer in World Languages & Literatures and Core Curriculum and as the Coordinator of the Persian Language Program, said he chose The Conference of the Birds because it reflects on Sufism, a mystical Islamic practice, through the voices of the flock; in CC 320 with audio, video, puppetry, and some ancient wisdom, these voices come to life. There’s even original music, reflective of the poem’s cultural context, played by Bahar Badieitabar on the oud and Afarin Nazair on the qanun.
The semester-long project earned students core HUB competencies as they picked up new skills and synthesized ancient text like they never had before — including Digital & Multimedia Expression and Teamwork & Collaboration.
“Sufi poetry is full of proverbs and rich images, so I had to learn how to draw from the literal proverbs mentioned while keeping in mind the deeper meaning of the poem and still conveying that in my shadow puppet,” said Sarah Lopez (Pardee’23). “I had to think a lot on how to visually relay the meaning and content of the text.”
Lopez was responsible for telling the story of the poem’s Hawk. She crafted the shadow puppet of the Hawk and the background of the Hawk’s scene, as well as the scene of the first valley (the Valley of the Quest), and voiced the lines from the poem for those scenes.
“We needed to rely on the text and our own understanding of Sufism to create these scenes,” Lopez said.
Each of her classmates focused on one of nine other birds central to Attar’s epic, as well as an additional element of the poem such as a valley or transition scene. The class’ atmosphere was casual and collaborative, allowing students to bounce ideas off one another and hear varying interpretations of the text. At the end of the term, students shared the final product online: a 45-minute film available for the community. (Visual art and written blurbs from CC 220, a two-credit version of the class taught in the fall 2019 semester, are also available on a class website.)
The CC 320 course, developed to help students fulfill their Digital/Multimedia Expression requirements within the BU Hub, is part of the Core Curriculum, a special Arts & Sciences program that exposes students to texts that have stood the test of time and helps them consider their implications in and connections to today’s world. CC 320, takes a multimedia, interdisciplinary approach to a new classic text each semester — including Hamlet, Conference of the Birds, Genesis, Hecuba, and Plato’s Republic.
“For the mystic, music is the language of the soul. The most fascinating aspect of the course for me has been the way music has helped expand our understanding of this 12th century mystical Persian poem,” said Professor Sassan Tabatabai, who has taught CC 320 and CC 220.
The course brings together students from a variety of majors and backgrounds to delve into one book. Some are part of the Core Curriculum; some are pursuing a minor in Persian. One thing they all share, though, is an affinity for the text they’ve been digesting all semester. Students read just one work each semester, allowing them to “spend time with the text and really understand it…. instead of reading it for 2 weeks of one semester and recalling it later on for a final,” said Lopez.
For spring 2022, Tabatabai chose the Epic of Gilgamesh, collaborating with the Geddes Language Center; concurrently, Professor Brian Walsh led students through Shakespeare’s Hamlet in his section.
No matter what material CC 320 centers on in a given semester, Tabatabai says his favorite thing about the unique course is the chance to reimagine a classic text in a completely different way. He hopes that students walk away each semester with a renewed, more intimate relationship with the given text.
“Since we engage with a single work all semester and reimagine it in a multimodal format, the hope is that the students develop a more proprietary relationship with the work,” Tabatabai said: “A more intimate relationship with the work.”
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Siena Giljum recently graduated from the College of Communication (’22) with a double major in journalism and film & television and a Spanish minor in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is from Southern California and hopes to one day write for The Atlantic. She loves podcasts and avocados, in no particular order.