Rumi

TO THE REVISED EDITION Maulana Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi (1207-1273 A.D.) was a mystical thirteenth century Persian Sufi poet, jurist and theologian. He believed passionately in the use of music, poetry and dancing as a path for reaching the Ultimate Reality. For Rumi, music helped devotees to focus their whole being on the Divine. It was from these ideas that the practice of Whirling Dervishes developed into a ritual. Rumi’s importance is considered to transcend national and ethnic borders. The Persian world, which are extended from Turkey to India, looks upon Rumi as one of the greatest spiritual poets in history. He has had a significant influence on the Persian and Turkish literature since the thirteenth century A.D. Over the last about one hundred years, Rumi’s poetry has spread from the Islamic world and into the Western World. The lyrical beauty of his outpourings of love for the Divine have caught up the imagination of the West which have helped to make him one of the most popular and best-selling poets in America and some other countries in the West. This is so because Rumi’s poetry embraces all cultures, nationalities and mythologies. People of all denominations read the poetry of Rumi without feeling as though he is imposing any orthodox beliefs upon them.