Valentine’s Day is Coming: Do You Know Rumi?

If you’re studying Islam, this week might be a good time to study Rumi, the Sufi mystic and poet. That’s because Valentine’s Day is coming and much of Rumi’s popular poetry is about love. Rumi lived in the 13th century and wrote a “massive collection of verse called the mathnawi, an Arabic term referring to a rhymed verse couplet.” Coleman Barks translated much of Rumi’s work into a book called The Essential Rumi. Today, Rumi is the best selling poet in the United States and Amazon sells over a 100 of his books. Here are some good resources for studying Rumi.

• BBC: Why is Rumi the Best-Selling Author in the US
• A short biography of Rumi and a review of Sufism here on this professor’s assignment page.
• Read some of Rumi’s poetry on Krista Tippett’s page
• Read read some of his  poems of love here
• Read some of his poems of passion here.

In 2007, Krista Tippett talked about Rumi’s legacy with Fatemeh Keshavarz, professor of Persian & Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis.