The Mesnevi

About this book

The Masnavi of Jalal al-Din Rumi, which Jami called 'the Qur'an in the Persian tongue', is a vast poem of stories, parables and teaching about the soul's journey to God. It begins with the famous lament of the reed flute, torn from its reed bed and longing to return, an image of the soul separated from its source. This volume contains the first of its six books, with the tales of the king and the slave girl, the grocer and the parrot, the lion and the hare, and many more.

Context and significance

Rumi (1207–1273), born in Balkh and settled in Konya, inspired the Mevlevi order of 'whirling dervishes', founded by his followers. This translation, published in 1881 by the British orientalist Sir James Redhouse, is accompanied by anecdotes of Rumi's life from Aflaki's 'Acts of the Adepts'. Compare Nicholson's The Mystics of Islam and The Persian Mystics: Jami.

About the author

Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207–1273) was born in the region of Balkh, in today's Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and as a boy fled the Mongol invasions with his family, who settled in Konya in Anatolia. He became a respected teacher of religious law, until in 1244 he met a wandering dervish, Shams of Tabriz, and the friendship transformed him into a poet.

His Persian lyric poems and his long Masnavi, a sea of stories and teachings sometimes called the Quran in Persian, are among the most loved works of Sufi literature, and his followers founded the Mevlevi order of whirling dervishes. Today he is one of the most widely read poets in the world, in Arabic, English and many other languages.