Short description
Jellaludin Rumi was a religious teacher in Anatolia until, at the age of 37, he fell under the spell of the wandering Dervish Shams Tabriz, and began to compose poems about his search for the lost Divine Beloved. This text presents Rumi's writings and teachings, in verse, letters, and prose.
Long description
Jelalludin Rumi (1207-1273) led the quiet life of an Islamic teacher in the central Anatolia (modern Turkey) until the age of thirty-seven, when he met a wandering dervish named Shams Tabriz--through whom he encountered the Divine Presence in a way that utterly transformed him. The result of this epiphany was the greatest body of mystical poetry the world has ever seen, and the establishment of a spiritual movement that would eventually stretch from Africa to China, enduring to our own day. This collection of versions of Rumi by Andrew Harvey contains some of the master's most luminous verse, along with selections from his lesser-read prose works, with the aim of presenting a balanced view of his teaching that includes both the high-flying love of God and the rigorous path of discipline essential for those who seek it.