Rumi
The Sufi poet whose meeting with Shams of Tabriz turned a jurist into a poet of ecstatic, searching love.
“Beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.”
Core ideas
- Love is the force that dissolves the separate self
- The wound is the place where the light enters
- Beyond right and wrong there is a field — meet there
Historical context
Persia under Mongol shock: Rumi's family fled Balkh ahead of the armies, settling in Konya, where a wandering dervish rearranged his life.
Key works
Masnavi · Divan-e Shams
Questions they speak to
Minds in conversation
- Shams of TabrizTabriz → Konya
- Al-GhazaliTus, Persia
- Attar of NishapurNishapur
Sources
- Encyclopædia Iranica — Rumi