Jalal Al-Din Rumi

Rumi, Jalal Al-Din 

Born Sept. 30, 1207, in Balkh, Afghanistan; died Dec. 17, 1273, in Konya, Turkey. Sufi poet writing in Persian.

Rumi was the son of a theologian and scholar. From 1212 he lived in Nishapur, Baghdad, Damascus, and Aleppo. In Aleppo he studied at the madrasa and received a good education. In 1220, Rumi’s family moved to Konya. There, he later founded the Sufi Mevlevi community, which played an important role in the social and political life of that time and in succeeding centuries. It was also in Konya that he wrote his lyrical divan and a number of Sufi philosophic treatises.

As a pupil of Shamsuddin Muhammad of Tabriz, a Sufi, Rumi signed many of his own early ghazals with his teacher’s name. The epic poem Mathnawi-i Manawi, written late in Rumi’s life and containing interpretations of the basic tenets of Sufism, brought him his greatest fame. Rumi illustrated these tenets with parables from Eastern folklore, thus making the poem more accessible to readers. Rumi’s work significantly influenced the literatures of the East.

WORKS

The Mathnawi, Edited From the Oldest Manuscripts Available With Critical Notes, Translation, and Commentary by Reynold A. Nicholson. Leiden-London, 1925–37.
Divan-eKabir. Tehran, A.H. 1351 (A.D. 1972).

REFERENCES

Fish, R. Dzhalaliddin Rumi. Moscow, 1972.
Furuzanfar, Badiu-z-Zaman. Resaleyi dar tahqiq-e ahval va zendeganiye Maulana Jalal al-Din Mohammad mashur be Maulavi. Tehran, A.H. 1333 (A.D. 1954).

R. KHADI-ZADE