Discourses of Rumi
A.J. Arberry
The Whirling Dervishes have intrigued many a traveller to the East with their amazing display of controlled, mathematically precise movements at varying speeds carried out in an atmosphere of complete serenity. But few know that they are associated with the name of Jalal al Din Rumi (1207-73). the greatest mystical poet of Islam, who is said to have founded the Order, nor that their circling opened the way to states of mind where the nature of the world lay revealed. Rumi was brought up in the Sufi tradition, that inner core of Islam which claims. to interpret the secrets of the Koran, and at the height of these all-night periods of dancing he would expound his teaching by impromptu verses and conversations, which were recorded by his followers. Passed down in MS for 700 years and only recently published for the first time in Persia, these Discourses here appear in their first English translation. Ranging widely over many topics that concern us intimately today, they provide a unique key to the wisdom of Islam, and the many delightful stories and parables they contain make for pleasant as well as profoundly instructive reading.
A.J. Arberry
The Whirling Dervishes have intrigued many a traveller to the East with their amazing display of controlled, mathematically precise movements at varying speeds carried out in an atmosphere of complete serenity. But few know that they are associated with the name of Jalal al Din Rumi (1207-73). the greatest mystical poet of Islam, who is said to have founded the Order, nor that their circling opened the way to states of mind where the nature of the world lay revealed. Rumi was brought up in the Sufi tradition, that inner core of Islam which claims. to interpret the secrets of the Koran, and at the height of these all-night periods of dancing he would expound his teaching by impromptu verses and conversations, which were recorded by his followers. Passed down in MS for 700 years and only recently published for the first time in Persia, these Discourses here appear in their first English translation. Ranging widely over many topics that concern us intimately today, they provide a unique key to the wisdom of Islam, and the many delightful stories and parables they contain make for pleasant as well as profoundly instructive reading.
A.J. Arberry
The Whirling Dervishes have intrigued many a traveller to the East with their amazing display of controlled, mathematically precise movements at varying speeds carried out in an atmosphere of complete serenity. But few know that they are associated with the name of Jalal al Din Rumi (1207-73). the greatest mystical poet of Islam, who is said to have founded the Order, nor that their circling opened the way to states of mind where the nature of the world lay revealed. Rumi was brought up in the Sufi tradition, that inner core of Islam which claims. to interpret the secrets of the Koran, and at the height of these all-night periods of dancing he would expound his teaching by impromptu verses and conversations, which were recorded by his followers. Passed down in MS for 700 years and only recently published for the first time in Persia, these Discourses here appear in their first English translation. Ranging widely over many topics that concern us intimately today, they provide a unique key to the wisdom of Islam, and the many delightful stories and parables they contain make for pleasant as well as profoundly instructive reading.
