'Beauty and Heart' (Per. Hosn O Del) or Directions for Lovers (Per. Dastour Ol Oshaq) is a versified Persian allegory by Fattahi Neyshabouri (Death: 825 A.H. /1446 A.D). This allegory has attracted many oriental scholars and has been translated into several languages. Also, it has been imitated eight times in Persian and ten times in Turkish. Mystical and loving themes, great number of symbols and variation in themes have made the allegory an interesting book for further study. The poet tries to employ body organs and lyric metaphors to encode his ideas in the narrative style. The overriding theme of Beauty and Heart is the clash between reason and love as a recurrent topic of Persian Suffism. The poet portrays the victory of love in this clash along with the lover's sufferings. This paper provides a critical summary report of the story and a biographical account of Fattahi so that more light is shed on this mystical allegory and, in so doing; more avenues of research are opened up.
