description: Rumi, who wrote and preached in Persia during the thirteenth century, was inspired by a wandering mystic, or dervish, named Shams al-Din. Rumi's vast body of poetry includes a lengthy poem of religious mysticism, the Mathnavi, and more than three thousand lyrics and odes, many of which came to him while he was in a state of trance. A.J. Arberry, who selected four hundred of the lyrics for translation and annotated them, calls Rumi "one of the world's greatest poets. In profundity of thought, inventiveness of image, and triumphant mastery of language, he stands out as the supreme genius of Islamic mysticism.""An excellent introduction to Rumi, the greatest mystical poet of Islam. . . . Rumi's scope, like that of all great poets, is universal—reaching from sensuous luxuriance to the driest irony."—Sherman Goldman, East-West JournalA.J. Arberry (1905-73) was professor of Arabic at Cambridge University.
language: English
title: Mystical Poems of Rumi
titlecomplete: Mystical Poems of Rumi
genres: Spirituality, Classics, Religion, Iran, Mysticism, Islam, Nonfiction, Literature, Poetry
ratings_count: 341
publisher: Kazi Pubns Inc