Rumi
مولانا
Jalal al-Din, called Mowlana in Iran, the mystic poet of Konya and one of the most read poets in any language.
- Known for
- The Masnavi and the Divan of Shams
- Forms
- Masnavi, Ghazal, Rubai
- Places
- Balkhبلخ
- Collection
- The Greats
Born in 1207 in the eastern Persian world, Jalal al-Din moved west with his family as the Mongols advanced, and settled in Konya, in the land then called Rum: hence Rumi. He was a respected religious teacher when, in 1244, he met the wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz, and the friendship made him a poet.
His Divan of Shams holds thousands of ghazals in his friend's name. The Masnavi, some 25,000 couplets, opens with the song of the reed that longs for its reed bed. The Mevlevi order, known for its whirling ceremony, grew from his circle.
Booksکتاب‌ها
The principal works of Rumi.
The Masnavi
مثنوی معنویRumi’s great spiritual poem in six books and some twenty-five thousand couplets, dictated in Konya to his disciple Hosam al-Din Chalabi. It opens with the song of the reed and moves from story to story, fable, joke and commentary on the Qur’an, all turning on the soul’s longing to return to its source. The sixth book was left unfinished.
Read 3 poemsThe Divan of Shams
دیوان شمسRumi’s lyric poetry: over three thousand ghazals and some two thousand quatrains, many signed with the name of Shams of Tabriz, the wandering dervish whose friendship transformed him. The poems are ecstatic and musical, often composed, by tradition, in the turning of the sama‘.
Read 2 poemsDiscourses (Fihi Ma Fihi)
فیه ما فیهRumi’s talks to his companions and visitors, written down by his circle and gathered after his death. The title means ‘In it is what is in it’. Informal and direct, the discourses explain in plain prose many of the ideas of the poems.
Poems by Rumiشعرها
In the original Persian, beside an English translation.
از جمادی مردم و نامی شدم
وز نما مردم به حیوان برزدم
I died as a mineral and became a plant;
I died as a plant and rose to the animal;
From Mineral to Angel
ماه رمضان آمد ای یار قمر سیما
بربند سر سفره بگشای ره بالا
The month of Ramadan has come, O friend with the face of the moon:
tie up the table-cloth and open the way that leads above.
Ramadan Has Come
پیل اندر خانهٔ تاریک بود
عرضه را آورده بودندش هنود
An elephant was in a dark house;
some Hindus had brought it there to put on show.
The Elephant in the Dark
بشنو این نی چون شکایت می‌کند
از جدایی‌ها حکایت می‌کند
Listen to this reed, how it complains,
telling the tale of separations:
The Song of the Reed
تنها به سیران می‌روی یا پیش مستان می‌روی
یا سوی جانان می‌روی باری خرامان می‌روی
Do you go wandering alone, or to the drunken ones?
Or do you go to the Beloved? Either way, you go with a graceful step.
Where Are You Going?
Rumi in Iranian history
Iranian historySeljuks, Mongols and Ilkhanidsسلجوقیان، مغولان و ایلخانان
Turkic and then Mongol conquerors took Iran in turn. The Seljuks built mosques and colleges; the Mongols brought catastrophe, then, as the Ilkhanids, became patrons of history-writing and art.
