Here is a beautiful and illuminating new interpretation of 49 poems written by Mevlana Jalaludin Rumi, the great Moslem poet, for his friend and spiritual mentor, Shems of Tabriz. From their first encounter in 1244, Shems immediately encouraged Rumi to embody a wild, robust spirituality and embrace life's rawness. The Divan (Persian for a collection of poems) celebrates both Rumi's love of God and the profound, life-altering relationship between the two men. Includes a fascinating introduction to Rumi's life, times, and influence.
Sufism inspired writings of Persian poet and mystic Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi; these writings express the longing of the soul for union with the divine.
Jal膩l ad-D墨n Muhammad R奴m墨 - also known as Jal膩l ad-D墨n Muhammad Balkh墨, Mevl芒n芒/Mawl膩n膩 (賲賵賱丕賳丕, "our master"), Mevlev卯/Mawlaw墨 (賲賵賱賵蹖, "my master") and more popularly simply as Rumi - was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian and Sufi mystic who lived in Konya, a city of Ottoman Empire (Today's Turkey). His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages, and he has been described as the most popular poet and the best-selling poet in the United States.
His poetry has influenced Persian literature, but also Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Azerbaijani, Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu, as well as the literature of some other Turkic, Iranian, and Indo-Aryan languages including Chagatai, Pashto, and Bengali.
Due to quarrels between different dynasties in Khor膩峁D乶, opposition to the Khwarizmid Shahs who were considered devious by his father, Bah膩 ud-D墨n W膩lad or fear of the impending Mongol cataclysm, his father decided to migrate westwards, eventually settling in the Anatolian city Konya, where he lived most of his life, composed one of the crowning glories of Persian literature, and profoundly affected the culture of the area.
When his father died, Rumi, aged 25, inherited his position as the head of an Islamic school. One of Baha' ud-Din's students, Sayyed Burhan ud-Din Muhaqqiq Termazi, continued to train Rumi in the Shariah as well as the Tariqa, especially that of Rumi's father. For nine years, Rumi practised Sufism as a disciple of Burhan ud-Din until the latter died in 1240 or 1241. Rumi's public life then began: he became an Islamic Jurist, issuing fatwas and giving sermons in the mosques of Konya. He also served as a Molvi (Islamic teacher) and taught his adherents in the madrassa. During this period, Rumi also travelled to Damascus and is said to have spent four years there.
It was his meeting with the dervish Shams-e Tabrizi on 15 November 1244 that completely changed his life. From an accomplished teacher and jurist, Rumi was transformed into an ascetic.
On the night of 5 December 1248, as Rumi and Shams were talking, Shams was called to the back door. He went out, never to be seen again. Rumi's love for, and his bereavement at the death of, Shams found their expression in an outpouring of lyric poems, Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi. He himself went out searching for Shams and journeyed again to Damascus.
Rumi found another companion in Sala岣� ud-Din-e Zarkub, a goldsmith. After Salah ud-Din's death, Rumi's scribe and favourite student, Hussam-e Chalabi, assumed the role of Rumi's companion. Hussam implored Rumi to write more. Rumi spent the next 12 years of his life in Anatolia dictating the six volumes of this masterwork, the Masnavi, to Hussam.
In December 1273, Rumi fell ill and died on the 17th of December in Konya.
Gozide-ye Ghazaliyat-e Shams = Selected Poems from the Divan-e Shams-e Tabriz, Rumi (Mowlana Jalal-al-Din Mohammad of Balkh)
D墨v膩n-e Kab墨r ("the great divan") contains poems in several different styles of Eastern-Islamic poetry (e.g. odes, eulogies, quatrains, etc.).
It contains 44,282 lines (according to Foruzanfar's edition, which is based on the oldest manuscripts available): 3,229 odes, or ghazals (total lines = 34,662); 44 tarji-bands (total lines = 1698); and 1,983 quatrains (total lines = 7932).
Although most of the poems are in New Persian, there are also some in Arabic, and a small number of mixed Persian/Greek and Persian/Turkish poems. D墨v膩n-e 艩ams-e Tabr墨z墨 is named in honour of Rumi's spiritual teacher and friend Shams Tabrizi.
I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? **