What shall
I say in praising this lofty personality? He is not a
prophet, but he has a book!
This is how Jami, the famous Persian
poet, praised Muhammad Jalaluddin Rumi, the mystic Islamic
poet whose impact on Sufism is difficult to overstate.
Teacher, preacher, poet, humanist, pious Muslim and mystic
visionary, Rumi came to be a powerful spiritual influence
not only in the Persian-speaking world, including Afghanistan
and Central Asia, but also amongst the Turks, and in South
Asia.
Rumi’s sobriquet — he
is called “Mawlawi” by the Persians, “Mevlana”
by the Turks and “Mawlana” in the Indo-Pakistan
subcontinent — derives from the Arabic for “our
lord”. Born in 1207 in Balkh, Afghanistan, he settled
in Iconium, now Konya, Turkey. Sage and poet, his tomb
in Konya is a place of pilgrimage for the pious and questing.
Because of the Byzantine past of this Anatolian region,
it retained the name Rum (“Rome”) amongst
the Turks; and it was from this that Jalaluddin came to
be known as ar-Rumi, “the man from Rum”.
Rumi is the epithet which he employed
as his takhallus, or pen-name, in his lyrical poems. His
literary output is, as R.A. Nicholson put it in Rumi:
Poet and Mystic, “stupenduous in magnitude as it
is sublime in content”. His massive Diwan-i-Shams-i
Tabriz comprises about 30,000 verses; his Mathnawi has
more than 26,000 couplets in six volumes. A dazzled Jami
wrote of this monumental work:
Mathnawi-ye Ma’nawi-ye Mawlawi
Hast Quran dar zabaan-i Pahlavi
(The spiritual couplets of the Mawlana Are the Quran in
the Persian tongue)
Besides these, he left a collection
of prose treatises, Fihi ma fihi, and the Makatib, a number
of letters.
Before he died in 1273, Rumi predicted
that his work would cross all boundaries. For seven centuries,
his poetry has been sung in the Islamic world. Now Rumi
has become the best-selling poet in the United States.
Rumi’s fame in North America
has prompted a spate of books, articles and translations
of his poems and sermons. Some 200 books, videos and CDs
are available at Amazon.com; an Internet search of his
name results in more than 800,000 citations.
This proliferation in English of
works about Rumi and his Mevlevi Order (called “Whirling
Dervishes” in the West) presents interested readers
with a bewildering array of materials — many popular,
some devotional and a few scholarly. Unfortunately several
recent ‘pop’ translations dilute, even distort,
Rumi’s message.
In the growing body of publications
on Rumi, two Sang-e-Meel, Lahore, books stand out. To
commemorate this mystic poet’s approaching 800th
birth anniversary, Rumi devotee M. Ikram Chaghatai has
collated 61 superb articles/excerpts from the best of
modern Rumi scholarship — the most encyclopaedic,
erudite, and well-researched works in English —
into these two excellent, affordable volumes.
Veritable compendiums, Mawlana Rumi:
Bridge of East and West and its sequel Rumi: In the light
of Eastern and Western Scholarship should prove helpful
companions to scholars and serious students of Rumi, as
well as to lovers of his immortal poetry.
The foremost guide in the study
of Rumi in recent years, Annemarie Schimmel, famed for
works such as The Triumphal Sun, Mystical Dimensions of
Islam, As through Veil, and I am Wind, You are Fire, is
well represented in these volumes with seven informative
and interesting excerpts.
Rumi is Sir Muhammad Iqbal’s
great master whom he calls Pir-i-Rumi (the master from
Anatolia); he names himself as Mureed-i-Hindi (the Indian
disciple). Rumi’s impact on Iqbal is discussed in
articles by scholars such as Khalifa Abdul Hakim, Afzal
Iqbal, Dr. Javid Iqbal, Dr. Erkan Turkmen, and Riffat
Jehan Dawar Burki.
Four excellent chapters from Rumi:
Past and Present, East and West, an exciting new benchmark
in the field of Rumi studies by Emory University professor
Franklin D. Lewis, undoubtedly constitute the highlight
of this compilation. The brilliant articles entitled “A
history of Rumi scholarship”,” Transpositions,
renditions, versions and inspirations”, “Rumi
in the Muslim world” and “Rumi moves into
western consciousness”, are “storehouses of
priceless information and critical insights”.
Franklin D. Lewis pays particular
attention to the phenomenon of Rumi in the West, and offers
new perspectives on the unprecedented interest in this
mystic. His erudite account of Rumi-mania, the modern
world’s romance with Rumi, is full of astonishing
information.
We are told that Coleman Barks,
the translator whose book The Essential Rumi sold over
half a million copies, cannot even read Persian. He views
Rumi “as a bridge between faiths rather than as
the specifically Islamic poet that Muslim scholars see”.
Iranian-born clothing designer,
artist and photographer Shahram Shiva speaks Persian but
his literal renderings of Rumi lyrics on cable TV in New
York “show errors of understanding, some of which
produce embarrassing howlers”. He has now “developed
a Four-Step Method to Whirling which is perfect for cash-rich,
time-poor Americans”.
Also on the Rumi bandwagon is Deepak
Chopra, one time endrocrinologist and now holistic-health
guru to the stars. Described in a recent Washington Post
article as “popular culture’s most irritating
Zen doctor”, he has moved Rumi into the glamorous
world of high fashion. He persuaded showbiz celebrities
to record a popular Rumi CD, “A gift of love”.
Designer Donna Karan, describing
herself “as enamoured of light”, introduced
her new fall fashions, inspired by none other than the
love poems of Rumi.
“Models draped in her black,
charcoal and platinum creations flounced down the runway
accompanied by a soundtrack with readings from Deepak’s
versions of Rumi by such discerning mystics and literary
connoisseurs as Madonna and Demi Moore.”
So what do serious Rumi scholars
make of Rumi T-shirts and Rumi mugs — all the hallmarks
of typical pop-culture celebrity?
William C. Chittick, author of The
Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, says:
“Rumi’s popularity has its roots in the scholarly
translations of R.A. Nicholson and A.J. Arberry.
“But the ‘Rumi boom’
itself is based on the talents of a number of American
poets, who recognized a mine of gold when they saw it.
They took ore provided by the scholars and reworked it
into contemporary English poetry, often without any knowledge
of the Persian language, or the intellectual and spiritual
tradition that Rumi represents. In my profession as a
scholar of Islamic Studies, I am often asked about the
quality of these translations. I reply that most of them
are inaccurate and inept.”
Mawlana Rumi: Bridge of East and
West ISBN 969-35-1585-4 492pp. Rs750 Rumi: In the Light
of Eastern and Western Scholarship ISBN 969-35-1586-2
433pp. Rs750 Edited and annotated by M. Ikram Chaghatai
Sang-e-Meel Publications, 25 Shahrah-i-Pakistan, Lahore.
Tel: 042-7220100. Email: [email protected] Reviewed
by Farida M. Said
