Rumi: Poet, mystic, lover

Mevlana Jalaluddin was born in 1207 in what is now North-East Iran, but his family fled the advancing Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan, who by 1220 had devasted Balkh and Samarqand, the cities of Rumi’s childhood. His family settled in Konya, in Anatolia, where Rumi remained for most of his life.

In his late thirties he began a profound transformation as a result of meeting a spiritual master called Shamsuddin of Tabriz. He abandoned his life as a scholar and began the composition of a body of sublime lyric poems, totalling 35,000 lines, and later his mystical masterpiece, the Masnavi.

His unique insight into the human condition makes him one of the greatest spiritual masters of all time. Much of his work has been translated into modern languages and his influence today on modern thought and culture is profound. 

Extracts from Rumi's writing

...One, One, One
The Soul of the World
You are a whole universe
The Guest House

Talks and Articles

Rumi Festival 2013: Rumi and the Beshara School 
...at the still point; Talk by Peter Young
Open Heart Surgery; the operation of love in Rumi's Masnavi, by Alan Williams
The Masnavi and Rumi, recording of a talk by Alan Williams, Chisholme House, 2007

Video: Rumi Festival 2013

Books
Rumi: Poet and mytic; RA Nicolson transl.

Light upon Light: Inspirations from Rumi; put together by Andrew Harvey
The Masnavi: Spiritual Verse; Alan Williams transl.
The Forty Rules of Love, by Elif Shafak (2010)
Well researched and engaging, the famous meeting of Rumi and Shams of Tabriz is here re-told within the context of a contemporary novel